Shortfall of €3.75m in funding for Garrycastle Bridge

The long-awaited overhaul of Garrycastle Bridge has suffered a setback after a Westmeath County Council funding request for the project yielded €3.75m less than the local authority had sought. With the design for the new bridge in place, the council requested €4.15m in funding under the specific improvement grants scheme for its construction in 2011. However, when the NRA announced its regional and local road grant allocations for this year, a sum of €400,000 was included for the Garrycastle Bridge project. Between 2000 and 2010, a total of €2.6m was provided to Garrycastle Bridge under the specific improvement grants scheme. Despite this, it's still unclear when the realignment work will take place. The project suffered a setback last year when plans for the new bridge had to be re-submitted because the height outlined in the original design was too low. Iarnród Éireann pointed out that the bridge had to be raised by .662 meters so that trains could clear the new bridge safely. In total, €8.9m in funding was allocated by the NRA to Westmeath County Council for local and regional road works in 2011. In Roscommon, a sum of €12.1m was provided in regional and local road grant allocations for 2011.