Road Conditions around County Galway

coup1917 · 27-01-2009 5:13pm #1

Anyone else notice the condition of road surfaces around the county starting to really deteriorate in the last couple of months...?
For instance the N17 practically all the way through Tuam is in terrible condition..........
A lot of the minor roads are also starting to get ripped up...
How bad do they have to get before the council will resurface them.....? Or maybe they're waiting for the bypass in Tuam's case.....:cool::mad:

Mars Bar · 27-01-2009 5:44pm

There was a piece in the Tuam Herald about the Co. Council claiming that cars getting damaged in potholes were not their problem! Surely that's them saying that the potholes are also not their problem...how ridiculous is that? Here is the link:

http://www.tuamherald.ie/pages/page2.pdf

megamac · 28-01-2009 5:24pm

Its a joke i live in athenry and with all the trucks using the backroads the amount of holes (these are bigger than an average pot hole) are ridiculous!!!
Especially the road towards raheny woods hotel. Its next to impossible to drive carefully as you are constantly moving from one side of the raod to the other.
Havent seen the damage in tuam but if its like her i understand why your annoyed.

Myxomatosis · 03-02-2009 8:13pm

Not actually a road in Galway county but the road from Portumna to Birr is terrible in places. Had to do some severe swerving to save the car from damage. More trenches than potholes.

landykid60 · 16-02-2009 11:37pm

coup1917 wrote: »

Anyone else notice the condition of road surfaces around the county starting to really deteriorate in the last couple of months...?
For instance the N17 practically all the way through Tuam is in terrible condition..........
A lot of the minor roads are also starting to get ripped up...
How bad do they have to get before the council will resurface them.....? Or maybe they're waiting for the bypass in Tuam's case.....:cool::mad:

hey you shold call down to kerry and see oure roads??

mchammer · 13-05-2009 9:13am

Can't believe there isn't more on this!! the roads are a disgrace! destroyed an alloy last night on the Cregmore Road - the feckin car is pullin to the left now too so I'm left with a bill for the following....

€125 new bridgestone tyre
€100 unbuckle the alloy
€15 re-align the car

plus there is probably underlying damage to suspension!!! should the council not pay for this?

Tinder · 13-05-2009 10:20am

Funny you should mention the roads, I was driving through Tuam last week and was behind a boy racer in a really low car and it took him ages to get through because the car kept hitting the ground.

elyod · 13-05-2009 1:43pm

mchammer wrote: »

Can't believe there isn't more on this!! the roads are a disgrace! destroyed an alloy last night on the Cregmore Road - the feckin car is pullin to the left now too so I'm left with a bill for the following....

€125 new bridgestone tyre
€100 unbuckle the alloy
€15 re-align the car

plus there is probably underlying damage to suspension!!! should the council not pay for this?

You can send in a claim to them. They will send out out a big claim form to fill out. A lot of people see the amount of paper work to be filled out and don't bother following up on the claim.

If you do fill out the from, wait for a reply etc they will end up just saying they are not liable and that will be that.

DD67 · 13-05-2009 2:43pm

I had the same thing happen before christmas, pothole dented the alloy blew out the tyre, cost 50 euro to get alloy sorted and 80 euro for a new tyre, put a claim in and it got sorted within two weeks, just sent a letter explaining the incident and location of the incident, a picture of the offending pothole and a picture of the damaged wheel rim and receipts for the new tyre and wheel rim repair. I didnt have to fill out any forms and i got a full refund.

mchammer · 13-05-2009 3:12pm

DD67 wrote: »

I had the same thing happen before christmas, pothole dented the alloy blew out the tyre, cost 50 euro to get alloy sorted and 80 euro for a new tyre, put a claim in and it got sorted within two weeks, just sent a letter explaining the incident and location of the incident, a picture of the offending pothole and a picture of the damaged wheel rim and receipts for the new tyre and wheel rim repair. I didnt have to fill out any forms and i got a full refund.

Thats great - Who did you send it into? The council is it. Could you PM me the details? Cheers!:)

dec25532 · 14-05-2009 12:39am

Can seen a cottage industry starting up here. But, seriously, the state of the county roads are shocking. And, yes, the road through Tuam is deplorable and nothing, it seems, will be done with it. It the traffic lights in Tuam are a disgrace, then the surface of the roads are equally worse.

serfboard · 14-05-2009 11:58am

There is an exceptional case to be made for the roads around Athenry - there are massive earth-moving trucks driving on them at the moment due to the N/M6 construction. Apparently, when more of the road gets built the trucks will drive on the (new) road and then they will fix up the side-roads.

As for Tuam, well, towns that are about to be bypassed (or there are plans to bypass, or they might be bypassed sometime this century :rolleyes:) usually have next to nothing done with the roads until the bypass is complete.

I can see more of this stuff going on now, considering that the council are laying off staff and presumably don't have budgets to tender out for road repairs. Any budget they do have will be stretched very thin.

After all, the size of the county is massive. If you go from Clifden to Dublin, by the time you reach Ballinasloe you're halfway there, and you still haven't left County Galway.

Mars Bar · 14-05-2009 11:00pm

When you travel the Ennis road in Gort as you are passing the Lady Gregory, the roads in Tuam seem as smooth as a babys bee-hind!

Tinder · 15-05-2009 11:20am

The thing that I don't understand about our roads is that if we used the same surface and standards that they use in the North and in the UK surely our roads would be as good as theirs. I regularly travel up the North with our motorcycle club and the surface up there is brilliant and much safer than here.

It is something nobody is able to answer, do we use low grade Tar in the Republic, do we not supervise the work properly?

Also why can't we co-ordinate our digging up of the roads, eg is the ESB are doing a dig can they or the CC not check if anyone else wants to dig in the area and do it all at once rather than repeatedly digging up the same sections of road.

Oh and one other thing while I am at it as a revenue gaining exercise can we not charge companies to dig up our roads and fine them for every day they overrun and assess how they completed the work and, if the finish is not up to standard they have to re-do the surface. Not only will speed up the rate of work and help traffic flow.

I have witnessed the truck called the patcher which throws out a bucketful of stones and sprays it using a shower like device with tar and goes on its merry way only to leave stones stuck to the tyres of all the cars following and the pothole exactly the same way it was before the truck arrived. What a waste of time....

mchammer · 15-05-2009 11:48am

Tinder wrote: »

The thing that I don't understand about our roads is that if we used the same surface and standards that they use in the North and in the UK surely our roads would be as good as theirs. I regularly travel up the North with our motorcycle club and the surface up there is brilliant and much safer than here.

It is something nobody is able to answer, do we use low grade Tar in the Republic, do we not supervise the work properly?

The fact of the matter is that 90% of the Public Road Network of County Galway (~7000km in length) and other counties has evolved from track roads/dirt tracks over the past 150/200 years! The roads have never been properly constructed using a layering of materials required in modern road construction!!

The result of that is what we are witnessing here - the roads are not upto the traffic they are getting! The Council can't afford to fix them properly and the patchwork continues unabated!! It's nothing to do with the tar - it's down to money, and the council don't have any!!!

Tinder · 15-05-2009 1:30pm

The fact of the matter is that 90% of the Public Road Network of County Galway (~7000km in length) and other counties has evolved from track roads/dirt tracks over the past 150/200 years!

If that is the case all the roads in the UK were only built in the last 40 years to accommodate the modern car? I don't think so.

I think it is down to badly building the road in the first place and letting every Tom Dick and Harry who can rent a cango digging it up and filling with the cheapest bit of oul sand they can find and throwing a bucketful of tar on top and heading for the hills.

It is as easy and cost effective to build the road properly at the start and maintain it well as it is to build it on the cheap at the start and spend a fortune paying council workers to repair it for the next 30 years.

mchammer · 15-05-2009 1:53pm

At least in the north they resurface the roads properly instead of throwing down a few mms of tar & chip every few years and and hoping that'll do....

dec25532 · 15-05-2009 1:54pm

Has anyone driven to Dunmore from the Tuam side lately, the road is gradually being eroded. Seemingly some clowns put on about a half an inch of a surface which is now coming off in lumps. It is in a terrible state.

Tinder · 15-05-2009 4:11pm

In Milltown on your way to Claremorrris I was in the garage I commented on how bad the road was outside and they said that when they were surfacing the road before the Pope arrived they ran out of chips for the road and rather than go and get more they just tarred the entire road with no chips.

Not sure if this is true but it feels like it when you are driving through.

fergalfrog · 15-05-2009 6:08pm

mars bar wrote: »

When you travel the Ennis road in Gort as you are passing the Lady Gregory, the roads in Tuam seem as smooth as a babys bee-hind!

I know that bit. There is a 1km stretch on the way out of Dunmore (on the Tuam road) that is as bad.

fergalfrog · 15-05-2009 6:11pm

dec25532 wrote: »

Has anyone driven to Dunmore from the Tuam side lately, the road is gradually being eroded. Seemingly some clowns put on about a half an inch of a surface which is now coming off in lumps. It is in a terrible state.

I agree - I go that road a lot - I think I know the day it got a lot worse. A few months back it rained and then there was a hard freeze. My theory is as water went down, the ice expanded and it cracked the road. This may be over simplistic but it got very bad almost overnight.

dec25532 · 15-05-2009 10:30pm

A dirty big pothole has now manifested itself on the main Galway to Tuam road. It's around the Mystical Rose nursing home on the left hand side going towards Tuam. Came across it this evening and nearly hit it. Hope it will be repaired immediately because it will cause damage and get a lot worse.

mchammer · 18-05-2009 8:27am

mchammer wrote: »

Can't believe there isn't more on this!! the roads are a disgrace! destroyed an alloy last night on the Cregmore Road - the feckin car is pullin to the left now too so I'm left with a bill for the following....

€125 new bridgestone tyre
€100 unbuckle the alloy
€15 re-align the car

plus there is probably underlying damage to suspension!!! should the council not pay for this?

Just an update to my previous rant - prices came down a bit

€115 new bridgestone tyre
€50 unbuckle the alloy - Leahy Engineering (good job)

All sounds good but unbeknown to me the pothole had damaged a seal in the steering rack which was leaking out power steering fluid for a few days until all the fluid had drained out and the hydraulics mashed themselves up!!! had to get the car recovered from the side of the road yesterday!!! 5 days after the incident - probably need a new steering rack

The moral of the story is....If you hit a big pothole check the power steering fluid for a few days after to make sure all is well....

Mars Bar · 18-05-2009 10:09am

fergalfrog wrote: »

I know that bit. There is a 1km stretch on the way out of Dunmore (on the Tuam road) that is as bad.

I know that road well and I HATE it...

jenzo · 19-05-2009 12:24pm

I had to replace two tyres this year...hit potholes coming from Craughwell to athenry and from mountbellew to ballyforan!
In regards to Tuam, they are waiting for the go-ahead for the Big Dig! Something to do with replacing pipes along the roads, this is the reason why the roads are not getting done. I'd say we've been around 10 yrs waiting at this stage!
I travel all over the country with my job but live in Tuam. My car has devalued more just driving around here! I can safely say it is the worst town for bad roads I have driven through. Galway Rd, Tullinadaly hill, Ballygaddy Rd towards Ballinrobe...atrocious! Get the politicians at the door and give them grief I say!!

KevR · 20-05-2009 11:34am

I emailed the County Council last week about a pothole on the N6 which was a couple of kms east of Kilreekill on the eastbound lane. They filled it with tar very quickly to be fair but with the bad weather and sheer amount of traffic the pothole is starting to reappear already.

There's another one forming on the eastbound lane of the N6 half way between Ballinasloe and Athlone but that would be a matter for Roscommon County Council..

Large potholes are especially dangerous on higher speed roads such as the N6. But at least the Athlone-Ballinasloe motorway should be opening soon so at least that's another 20km of brand new road which thousands of cars will be able to use instead of the shoddy old N road.

Gort town
Tuam town
Ballinasloe town
Roads surrounding Athenry town

Are all in such a bad state.

At least (for Athenry) the contractors of the Galway-Ballinasloe motorway have committed to resurfacing the roads that their construction vehicles have damaged. They're supposed to start resurfacing as soon as they can use the motorway mainline for their construction traffic instead of local roads - this should be soon and hopefully they will stick to their word.

Gort will be bypassed by a new motorway hopefully by some stage next year and hopefully the County Council will consider resurfacing the bad roads in the town as soon as the bypass opens.

As far as I know, a lot of roads in Tuam will have to be dug up over the next year or two because new water pipes are being installed. The County Council said they won't do any resurfacing in the town before this.

In the meantime, we will have to keep informing the County Council of any big potholes and hopefully they'll be able to keep them filled in reasonably well.

Sponge Bob · 21-05-2009 8:55am

KevR wrote: »

As far as I know, a lot of roads in Tuam will have to be dug up over the next year or two because new water pipes are being installed. The County Council said they won't do any resurfacing in the town before this.

Gort is supposed to be dug up again ( I think) so the same thing applies.

Barna , ironically, IS being dug up but the surface is actually grand now even though half of it is due another coat of tarmac

KevR · 21-05-2009 9:50am

NEW ROAD REPAIR TEAMS FOR ATHENRY AND LOUGHREA

Wed 20th May 2009

Two new road repair teams are being assigned to Athenry and Loughrea according to the National Roads Authority.
The decision was taken following a visit to the East Galway area last Friday by a senior engineer with the NRA.
Galway-based Senator, Ciarán Cannon is welcoming the new dedicated repair crews which he believes are vital because of the damage being caused to local roads due to the construction of the N6 motorway.
The teams will remain in place until the new road is completed.

http://www.galwaynews.ie/7555-new-road-repair-teams-athenry-and-loughrea

Lucciano · 05-06-2009 2:23pm

mchammer wrote: »

Can't believe there isn't more on this!! the roads are a disgrace! destroyed an alloy last night on the Cregmore Road - the feckin car is pullin to the left now too so I'm left with a bill for the following....

€125 new bridgestone tyre
€100 unbuckle the alloy
€15 re-align the car

plus there is probably underlying damage to suspension!!! should the council not pay for this?

The council are responsible/liable for the damages. Contact them and send them the bill.

ScumLord · 05-06-2009 4:00pm

mchammer wrote: »

The fact of the matter is that 90% of the Public Road Network of County Galway (~7000km in length) and other counties has evolved from track roads/dirt tracks over the past 150/200 years! The roads have never been properly constructed using a layering of materials required in modern road construction!!

You could go back even further, I'd say some roads around Ireland could be up to 1000 years.

dec25532 wrote: »

Has anyone driven to Dunmore from the Tuam side lately, the road is gradually being eroded. Seemingly some clowns put on about a half an inch of a surface which is now coming off in lumps. It is in a terrible state.

That road was done recently too, they managed to make it worse than it was which is very common on that road and all around Dunmore the roads are very bad. I have a friend in the industry that says they're just cutting corners and are more than happy for the road to degrade as they'll get to do it again within a year or two. The amount of money they waste not doing roads properly and doing trivial work that's not necessary is criminal in my mind.

KevR · 08-06-2009 11:43am

Just fired off an email to the County Council and the NRA about a couple of huge potholes on the R348 near Athenry.

I couldn't find an email address for N6 Constrcution Ltd (the people who are building the motorway) so I asked the County Council and the NRA to forward my email onto the construction company.

FreedomJoe · 10-06-2009 12:58pm

The Dunmore to Tuam Road is pathetic. It does seem that it almost appeared over night!

Whaty cracks me up is that Dunmore itself had a terribel road for years through it, but once you got the other side you were ok, now Dunmore has a great road through it, and once you get to the otherside the road is ****e!

Im seriously now considering to refuse to pay my road tax until the Government/Councils maintain the roads correctly for which I pay my road tax for!

JackyJoe · 13-06-2009 7:20am

Workmate had a problem an the Athenry road as well a few
weeks ago, hit a pot hole, blew tyre, split the alloy and damage
to steering. Got home took pics of damage, got lift out to the
scene of the crime and what did she see, only a council crew in a lorry after shoveling tar and hips into the pothole???
can you believe it. The council say it is the NRA, they say it is
The N6 construction companies problem, and so it goes.

So why were the council filling in the pothole????

kahlua · 29-06-2009 6:20pm

Last Friday went through a pothole on the Ballymoneen Road, two tyres blown, two wheels bent and cracked. Had to get the car towed to the garage, replaced tyres and hammered and welded wheels back into place... collected the car today €900 in damage :mad:!

I've shot off a mail to roads@galwaycoco.ie about the pothole but just wondering how do i go about claiming the money back?

dec25532 · 29-06-2009 9:31pm

A picture of the pothole, a receipt from the garage along with the date and time the blow out happened and all this should be forwarded to the finance section of Galway County Council. Did this a couple of years back when I wrecked two tyres on the side of a road pulling in to let a lorry pass. I didn't get the full amount but received 80% of it. A call to your local councillor telling him/her what happened will do no harm. Someone like Sean Kyne or Seamus Walsh perhaps. Explain what you are doing and they will make representations on your behalf. Can't promise it will work but it is worth a try. What happened to you was a disgrace.

mchammer · 30-06-2009 8:27am

kahlua wrote: »

Last Friday went through a pothole on the Ballymoneen Road, two tyres blown, two wheels bent and cracked. Had to get the car towed to the garage, replaced tyres and hammered and welded wheels back into place... collected the car today €900 in damage :mad:!

I've shot off a mail to roads@galwaycoco.ie about the pothole but just wondering how do i go about claiming the money back?

Is the Ballymoneen Road not in the City Council Area? should be roads@galwaycity.ie

kahlua · 30-06-2009 7:50pm

Yeah mchammer... sigh.. the response i got to the mail was a pretty curt contact galway city council.

Will def persue this... severely pissed me off.

Deep Easterly · 07-07-2009 2:09am

All roads leading into Tuam are in a horrific state. Galway Road, Birmingham Road and Dublin Rd are just a joke, but none are a bad as the road coming into Dunmore from the Tuam side. The road is falling to bits and motorists are well advised to slow down to less than 10 mph if they want to keep their jammer's in tact.

Interesting that the Galway County Council have recently declared that they can't afford to do anything with the state of the roads. Maybe it is time for people to declare that the can't afford to pay for their road tax as well, as obviously it is dead money which isn't being spent on road care, but only on increased council workers salaries. :mad:

coup1917 · 07-07-2009 7:06am

My car tax is up since last month.......
I ain't renewing it any time soon, they say it could be up to 2 years before all pipe laying on roads around Tuam is completed and therefore re-surfacing won't be starting before then........
I guess I'll be getting a good few months tax signed off cause I'm not paying to drive on this rubbish, while the east of the country probably wouldn't know what a pothole was.....

Lucciano · 08-07-2009 12:40pm

mars bar wrote: »

There was a piece in the Tuam Herald about the Co. Council claiming that cars getting damaged in potholes were not their problem! Surely that's them saying that the potholes are also not their problem...how ridiculous is that? Here is the link:

http://www.tuamherald.ie/pages/page2.pdf

If you damage your car truck on a public road the council are indeed responsible. Send them a bill for the damage, if they ignore that take them to court.

kevmalone · 10-09-2009 7:50pm

I hit a pothole last may, im putting in a claim to get the money back for the damage caused too my car. The counsil want to know exactly where the pothole is, could anyone tell me where the garda barracks are on the athenry side of kiltullagh on R348, or could anyone point it out on a map. thank you

dec25532 · 10-09-2009 8:03pm

What has the Garda Station in Kiltullagh got to do with it? Why not provide the County Council with a photo of the pothole, the townland where it is located, the damage it caused and the dimensions of the pothole if that is possible. That should be enough. If you want to ring Kiltullagh Garda Station it is 091-848006 and Garda Paul Crowe is the man to speak to. Sound lad.

KevR · 11-09-2009 12:06pm

Maybe the pothole was near the Garda station and if someone can point to the Garda station on the map then he can point to the pothole on the map?

ScumLord · 15-09-2009 12:41pm

Just a warning on the Tuam-Dunmore road, there after "fixing it" again and it's deadly dangerous at the moment. I assume their not actually finished their road works but what they've done so far is fill in some of the ripped up road with some sort of tar/chips crap which of course is ripping up and creating a road covered in chippings which feels more like your driving on ice than tarmac.

Be careful on it I could feel the car moving around under me today.

Road Conditions around County Galway

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