Almost €30million is to be spent on improving roads and bridges on local and regional routes in the county.
Joe McHugh announced the funding will run alongside the €34million allocated for national road projects in the county.
“Investment of almost €30million on Donegal’s local and regional roads is hugely significant for the county for safety, travel time, comfort, tourism and jobs,” McHugh said.
“When you combine this with the €34million that I announced late last year for works on the national routes this is a clear commitment from this Government to improving infrastructure.
“That’s about €64million being pumped into Donegal to make roads better. To cut journey times. To improve safety. And to make sure we have quality routes that our workers, tourists and visitors will want to travel.”
Minister McHugh also highlighted a number of projects benefitting from significant Government support with funding being allocated to Donegal County Council.
“The Cockhill Bridge project, opened by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last September, will get another €250,000 – that’s on the back of the €3million that was already paid out to design and build the 28m bridge and turn it into a gateway to Inishowen and the Wild Atlantic Way,” the Minister said.
“And there’s also €900,000 for Tyrconnell Bridge in Donegal Town and €500,000 on the Laghey-Pettigo Road, an important piece of improvement and safety work for all the traffic that uses that road as a route out of the south of the county towards Dublin.
“On top of that, there’s €300,000 for two strategic projects – the Swilly Road and Letterkenny Southern Ring and the Fintra bridge and road realignment.
“There’s also €250,000 for nine bridge improvement projects across the county and there are a series of safety works going to take place at junctions up and down the county.
“Support from Government for works on the roads in Donegal in recent years has been unparalleled,” he added.
“The diggers are on the ground and construction teams are working hard up and down the county to try and improve our journeys, like on the N56 around Mountcharles and the Gweebarra bends and works on the Blue Banks near Letterkenny.
“It means better quality, safer roads. It means jobs for construction teams and contractors and all the benefits they bring to local communities. It means better and safer journeys and reduced journey times.”
Tags: