East-West link appraisal process begins

A preliminary appraisal process to determine the feasibility of developing the long-proposed €150M East-West Link has begun.
Cavan County Council, acting as lead authority with Monaghan and Louth County Councils, has appointed a team of consultant engineers to examine the project, which seeks upgrade the route linking Dundalk to Sligo. However, the process is understood to be at an “early stage”, with the findings of any report arising not expected to be made available until later next year.
The proposed East-West link involves a major upgrade and realignment of the road network on the regional routes between Dundalk and Cavan, and on national routes from Cavan to Sligo. The Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport, in the period between 2007-2014, provided over €2m to progress the regional road element of the project to preliminary design.
A further allocation was made available to Cavan County Council in 2018 to allow an updated project appraisal for such a scheme to be prepared.

Engineers appointed

A spokesperson for the Council informed The Anglo-Celt last week that Dublin-based Roughan & O'Donovan Consulting Engineers has been engaged to conduct the preliminary appraisal of the Cavan to Dundalk section of the East-West Link.
They added however “the appraisal process is currently at an early stage”.
While the planning, design and implementation of individual national road projects within its capital budget is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is a statutory function of local authorities.
As a result, works on such roads are a matter for the relevant local authority to be funded from its own resources supplemented by State road grants.