A BRIDGE that has been closed for about 15 years should be given a new lease of life, according to Cllr Daniel Sexton.
The Independent Ireland councillor tabled a motion at the monthly meeting of the West Cork Municipal District calling on Cork County Council to pursue all options to repair and reopen the Drohidachlair Bridge which connects Cather Conway and Letter in Clonakilty.
He said the bridge over the Argideen River was damaged during a flood in 2009 and the route has been closed ever since.
‘This road was frequently used by parents dropping off and collecting their children from Knockskeagh National School and was a well-used local traffic loop. It wasn’t just cars that used it,’ he said, ‘but lorries, plant machinery, and farm vehicles too.
Cllr Sexton cited one example of a landowner who now has to travel an extra 5km per journey to access his land.
‘If another bridge collapses in the future, are we simply going to walk away and close that too?’ he asked. ‘If this bridge were in another county, I believe it would have been repaired by now.’
Cllr Sexton called on the Council’s engineering department to follow-up on a meeting that was held with the minister for transport to see if the route can be reopened.
Senior executive engineer John Ahern told Cllr Sexton that a study has been carried out and that the cost of repairing the bridge was shown to be ‘substantial.’
In a written reply to the councillor, the engineer said: ‘No direct source of funding exists for the repair of this bridge on a stand-alone basis.
‘The cost of repair would consume the bulk of the funding that the local authority receives for the entire County on an annual basis, and it was previously concluded that this Bridge does not rank on a high enough priority to justify the repair cost involved.’
