The Abbey Road car park in Navan will close temporarily this week, from tomorrow, Monday 16th to Thursday 19 th, for resurfacing works as part of the Navan 2030 Project, a meeting of the local Municipal Council has been told. Senior executive engineer Andy Faulkner was speaking during a presentation on the proposed road works schedule for 2026. The Navan MD has 335kms of public roads made up of national, regional and local roads.
Outdoor staff work at keeping the streets clean but also liaise with community groups like Tidy Towns and Men’s Shed in delivering the programme of works in the town. The allocation of funding from the Government is not known at this stage and council staff are working
on 2025 figures for the moment.
Regarding restoration and improvements staff are running with the allocation of €14.3 million across the county. There will also be a “notable” additional €5.7m which came from an increase in the rates, he said. That rose from €3m last year spread across the entire six municipal districts. On restoration/maintenance the council has €3.3m. A total of €327,000 comes from the council’s own resources.
The engineer said that other funding resources can be tapped into. Traffic calming measures throughout the county will attract spending of €600,000 (€100,000 per municipal district). One hundred thousand euros will be put towards drainage works. Work will also be done in making footpaths safer in residential areas. €150,000 will be spent at Boyne Road. Four estates in Navan will get traffic calming measures and measures will also be implemented at Swan Lane, Old Athlumney, Robinstown and Ratholdron Road.
One thousand public lights in Navan will be upgraded with LED lighting. The R147 road works are continuing with an allocation of almost €4.7m. The Trim Road will attract funding of €1m. Director of Services Martin Murray said the council made some very positive budgetary decisions and this was reflected in the road works programme. The increase in rates was helping fund that programme. “We believe it is a very positive programme. As the capital of the county Navan is getting significant funding for active travel”, he said.
Independent Cllr Alan Lawes said that while it was frustrating for some people to have to cope with the volume of road works going on in the town over the last few years, it was a good sign that the council was able to spend so much money on road works. He asked the general public to have patience while these were going on. “We’re improving the town to attract people into it and improving the town for people to live in as well”. Referring to traffic calming at Boyne View he said that there was supposed to be one chicane at the top of the hill but he felt there should be an additional one on the hill to avoid the emergence of a “speed track”.
Fine Gael Cllr Yemi Adenuga said it was great to see so much money being put into the roads programme. She agreed with Cllr Lawes that sometimes people could become impatient with all the road works in progress but the outcome was a positive one for everyone.
Her FG colleague Cllr John Duffy said the programme was very comprehensive and there was a lot of money available for that work. “All I will say is, there’s a lot of money, there’s a lot o good work, people will appreciate the effort that is going in. There is a lot of work to do”.
Independent Cllr Francis Deane congratulated the engineer on his report and added “It looks good for Navan in the coming year”. Aontu Cllr Emer Toibin welcomed the programme. She asked if funds had been allocated for treatment of Simonstown Lane. Cathaoirleach Cllr Padraig Fitzsimons welcomed the spending on lighting in the town. Areas of the town would be safer with improved lighting, he said.
