Tipp councillors discuss looming speed limit changes among other roads updates

It was revealed at the recent Tipperary County Council meeting in Nenagh that, following a lengthy review process, the new default limits are set to come into effect on 7 February.

The Department of Transport carried out a Review of Speed Limits nationally and this has resulted in changes to the default speed limits for roads in Ireland. These changes were signed into law in April 2024.

The changes to the legislation will reduce the default speed limits on some road categories including: 60km/hr on Rural Local Roads (currently 80km/hr) ; 80km/hr on National Secondary Roads (currently 100km/hr); 30km/hr in Urban Areas (currently predominantly 50km/hr).

It is proposed by the National Group that implementation of the speed limits will be done over three phases as follows: Phase 1 - Rural Local Roads*; Phase 2 - National Secondary Roads and Urban Areas; Phase 3 - Other Special Circumstances, such as schools. *The default speed limit will commence nationally on 7 February 2025, whereby all Rural Local Roads will have a 60km/hr speed limit unless Special Speed Limit Byelaws have been adopted by local authorities. The stretches of Local Roads within urban areas will not be considered as part of Phase One.

Directorate projects

As well as the significant speed change to local roads, Tipperary council members were provided an update on a number of local roads projects.

In the Nenagh municipal district the N65 Carrigahorig to Balleiragh Bridge scheme, which nvolves raising the road level to mitigate flooding of a section of this road, remains in preliminary stages. A ground investigation has been completed and the scheme has been formally categorised as a Minor Improvement Scheme. The Council has received approval from TII to appoint a consultant to continue with the preliminary design. A tender competition for design phases 1 and 2 has been completed.
Preliminary design will commence when TII funding becomes available. No funding allocation has been provided by TII in 2024.

The second Nenagh MD project, the N65 Carrigahorig Pavement Improvement Scheme, which involves road pavement improvement works, addressing a number of road safety issues, the renewal and widening of footpaths in the village among other elements also remains in preliminary stages. RPS consultants have been appointed and the Preliminary design has been completed. Part 8 planning procedures commenced in June 2024 and approval received in October 2024. Advance works on a drainage pond are to commence in Q1 2025 subject to availability of funding.

In the Thurles MD lobbying is ongoing to have the N62 Thurles Outer Bypass included in the next National Development Plan.
The N62 Slievnamon Road project on the other hand is in phase 2 and it is anticipated that construction will commence in late 2025 subject to the availability of funding. This scheme involves the rehabilitation of approximately 447m of pavement on the N62 road through Thurles. The scheme involves changes to the road layout, road rehabilitation, replacement and widening of existing footpaths, provision of essential pedestrian infrastructure such as crossing areas, build outs, surface water drainage improvements, undergrounding of overhead power lines and public realm improvements. The preliminary design and Part 8 planning process have been completed.

Consultants for the detail design were appointed in April 2024 and the detail design has commenced.