‘I raise the issue every time looking for an update’ – Cllr. Cathal Rasmussen

Last Monday, 11th January, Cobh and it’s Great Islanders were once again cut off from the mainland as the only road out and off the island was blocked on the 800 year old Belvelly Bridge as an outbound truck dropped part of it’s heavy load onto the inbound lane of the bridge, in turn bringing traffic on both sides to a complete standstill for over an hour. In 2020 the route was closed off a number of times for various incidents for up to several hours.

Residents and local politicians have lobbied for decades to no avail to have an alternative route to the R624 off the island put in place. On Monday some images on social media cleary pictured an ambulance on an emergencay call to Cobh, stuck, with it’s blue lights flashing, behind an inbound truck on the bridge. Not being able to get through, the ambulance had no alternative but to reverse and make the journey to the Cross River ferry service on the Monkstown side.

Cobh residents were not amused and took to social media to vent their outrage at the situation and Cobh’s Cllr. Cathal Rasmussen was quick off the mark with the below update.

‘Just to give a quick update on the R624 Cobh road upgrade

‘While progress appears to be very slow I can assure you all that at our quarterly roads meeting I raise the issue every time looking for an update.

‘Cork county council applied some time ago to have the road upgraded from a regional road to a national road .All the paperwork is with the department and discussions have taken place to try and get this done . We are awaiting a decision on this and this is a vital step in the whole project.

‘At the December meeting we were informed that the brief for the consultants appointment is currently being finalised.

‘Once appointed the consulting engineer will progress the project from concept through the statutory process including preliminary design. Grant funding options are being considered and developed. These are all the steps that have to happen in the process and while it will still take time to progress the whole project the new road has the full support of Cork county council.

‘I will update as soon as any more information becomes available. This is a slow process but they are the rules which govern major infrastructure but all I can do is to assure you that significant work has started on the project to date.’

Cork East TD Sean Sherlock’s most recent effort to highlight this issue was only in September of last year when he asked the Minister for Transport the status of the Fota Road in Cobh, County Cork; and if funding will be allocated to upgrade same.

You can read the Minister’s reply here: https://cobhedition.com/?p=35654