Rathfarnham & Templeogue Pothole Repairs 2024

The issue of road damage and potholes in the Rathfarnham and Templeogue areas is acute after an extremely wet winter. I raised this issue at the local area meeting on Tuesday 9th April. There are a number of reasons why the roads are in a particularly poor state and these reasons are outlined below.

A repair schedule for is now in place and is also outlined below.

Context

Potholes are primarily caused by water ingress between the layers of the road structure and causing the binder to break down. During periods of cold water the freeze thaw action of the water accelerates this structure damage. The addition of salt residue from our winter maintenance operations further weakens bitumen and also increases road failure. For this reason a small crack in the road surface that allows water enter can result in the formation of a large pothole within the space of a number of weeks. As roads get older the presence of small cracks becomes prevalent and that is why potholes are generally found in surfaces older than 10-12 years. A lot of the road surfaces in the County are around this age. Potholes are an annual issue in our roads and the spring time is when the issue is at its worst. Due to the start of this year being exceptionally wet and coupled with the age of our road surfaces we are seeing more potholes then normal particularly on roads with larger vehicles and faster speeds.

What the Council are doing

In February, the Council agreed a Road Works programme for the County, which identifies 155 maintenance jobs to be done across the County of which 61 locations are for larger road surfacing works. In addition to this, there are lot more locations where we will repair potholes that are not included in this list. These road works have a total spend of €8.9m which includes an increase of 750k from 2023 as requested by Cllrs during the budget setting process. The team are progressing with these works. In general the first few months of the year are focussed on design, tender and contractor appointment. A lot of this has now been completed and road repair works are now starting in earnest around the County at these already agreed locations.

What more are we going to do

At the Council meeting the CE agreed to allocate some additional funds to address the increased number of potholes we are seeing. The council are already aware of several such locations and these are listed below. They hope to see repairs at these locations commencing in the next six to eight weeks. They do not consider this an exhaustive list and intend to add locations to this.

Tymon North Estate

Butterfield Avenue, at SC

Fairways, Rathfarnham

Rathfarnham Road (R114)

Butterfield Avenue (R114) 

Ballycullen Drive and Avenue junction

Dodder Dale 

Whitehall Road West