Galway Bay fm newsroom – Galway County Council cannot afford plans to downgrade roads across the county following the opening of the Gort to Tuam motorway.
That was the opinion of councillors at this week’s meeting of the local authority, which was dominated by the controversial issue.
It’s expected that sections of the N18, N63 and N66 will be downgraded to regional status with the opening of the M17/M18 motorway in early 2018.
The reclassification will see ownership transferred to the County Council and will mean a significant drop in maintenance funding from Transport Infrastructure Ireland.
However, further sections of the N17 and N18 will remain as national routes following an appeal against a TII plan to downgrade all roads to regional status.
Councillor Michael Moegie Maher says the local authority simply cannot afford to take on even more regional roads.
Councillor Joe Byrne argues that the roads to be designated as regional should be fully upgraded before being handed over.
Director of Services Liam Gavin says securing funding to offset the planned downgrades is proving challenging: