Travellers who are preventing the opening of Nenagh's new £7.2 million bypass are demanding council accommodation.
Work on the N52 bypass has been completed for a number of weeks, but the 4.5 km roadway remains closed because Travellers are living on the edge of the carriageway.
The Traveller family, which is parked illegally at the edge of the bypass, has requested that the North Tipperary County Council should provide it with halting site accommodation.
A spokesperson for the family said: "The family are seeking accommodation in Nenagh from the council."
It could take a number of weeks to organise accommodation because the council has not accounted for the Traveller family under its Traveller Accommodation Plan.
A spokesperson for the council's housing section said: "We are aware of the accommodation preferences of the family and we are pursing them currently."
Meanwhile, the council is refusing to take possession of the new road from the contractors, Clare Civil Engineering, the company responsible for building the road.
The council will not open the road until it is handed over to it "in vacant possession" - free from Travellers.
The director of the council's roads service, Mr Karl Cashen, said the issue was "between the contractor and the inhabitants at the site at the moment".
He added that the council was willing to take charge of the bypass ahead of schedule as soon as illegally parked caravans were removed from the road.
The N52 bypass was finished ahead of schedule. An 18-month contract was signed between the council and Clare Civil Engineering in September 2000.
The handover date for the road is not scheduled until early next year.
No date has yet been set for the opening of the road.