Nearly €700 k to be ploughed into main road from south Laois to Portlaoise

A big slice of public money is set to be invested in the overhaul of a road linking Portlaoise to towns and villages in the south of the county with Mountrath in line for overdue road resurfacing.

Some €680,000 has been secured for resurfacing improvements to the R445 road between Borris-In-Ossory and Mountrath under the Former National Roads category of the 2022 Regional & Local Roads funding, announced by Ministers Eamon Ryan and Hildegarde Naughton.

Mountrath town centre is getting €250,000 for structural inlay while Moneymore (between Borris-in-Ossory and Ballaghmore) is getting overlay worth €250,000. A further €180,000 is to be spent on the roundabouts at Borris-in-Ossory which lead to the M7 motorway at Townparks.

An Cathaoirleach of Laois County Council and local Fine Gael Councillor Conor Bergin welcomed the news.

"This is great news for anyone who travels this road between Ballaghmore, Borris-In-Ossory, Mountrath and Portlaoise on a daily basis that significant improvements will be carried out to a number of sections of the road which are most in need of repair.

"I have been raising this issue with Laois County Council and I proposed a notice of motion at our Municipal Meeting last November asking for the Council to apply to the Department of Transport for funding under the Former National Roads category of the Local & Regional Roads allocation to address a number of the worst sections of this road.

"I have been working closely on this issue with Council engineers and I also raised the issue with a number of Fine Gael Ministers, including our local TD Charlie Flanagan who greatly supported this project.

 "The R445 road was previously the old N7 road between Dublin and Limerick, arguably one of the busiest roads in the country prior to the opening of the M7 motorway in 2010. Once the motorway was completed this road was downgraded to a regional road. However, in recent years we have seen a steady increase in traffic once again and the road is as busy as it was maybe 10 or 15 years ago before the motorway opened.

"I am delighted to confirm that works will be carried out to improve these three sections of the R445 road in the Western Area, which will greatly enhance road safety for motorists and locals.

He added that a separate section of the road at Ballytarsna which is also badly in need of repair was unfortunately not included in this year’s allocation. He said he would continue to work closely with Laois County Council to try and get this section addressed as well.

Laois is getting nearly €13.5 million out of €597 million allocated under the 2022 regional and local roads programme announced by the Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan TD on February 15.