By Dara Bradley

The changeover of six of the city’s roundabouts to traffic lights is facing fresh controversy after it emerged that the scheme will cost far more than was originally announced.

The original price-tag for the scheme, known as the Bóthar na dTreabh (N6) Multi-Modal Corridor Improvement Scheme, was just over €6 million but already 75 per cent of that has been spent, and only half of the work is completed.

The National Roads Authority (NRA), when announcing the project to remove the Briarhill, Tuam Road, Ballybane Road, Menlo Park Hotel, Galway Shopping Centre and Corrib Park (known as Lynch, Morris, Font, Kirwan, Bodkin, Browne) roundabouts estimated the project would cost in the region of €6 million.

Galway City Council, tasked with delivering the project on the NRA’s behalf, has confirmed that €4.6 million has already been spent removing the Briarhill, Tuam Road and Ballybane Road roundabouts.

However, it has also confirmed that there is still some money yet to be paid to contractors Coffey’s Construction in relation to the final payment instalment for converting the latter two roundabouts to signalised junctions. A Council spokesperson would not be drawn on how much is still owing to Coffeys for works already completed.

If the NRA and the Council is to reach the target of converting six roundabouts for €6 million then it will have to remove the remaining three (Menlo Park Hotel, Galway Shopping Centre and Corrib Park) for just €1.4 million.

City Councillor Pádraig Conneely said it now looks impossible that the overall project could be delivered for the originally pledged €6 million, and he claimed the overrun could reach €20 million.

A Council spokesperson described the €20 million suggestion as ‘ridiculous’ and said any figure is ‘purely speculative’.

Cllr Conneely drew parallels between the N6 Multi-Modal Corridor and the City Council’s Seamus Quirke Road revamp, which has cost more than twice the original budget of around €8 million.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel