Anger that lower speed limits are not in plan for accident blackspot on busy Limerick road
COUNCIL engineers have been asked to revisit the plan to improve road safety at Coolanoran, three miles east of Newcastle West on the N21.
Councillors, who examined the proposed plan at a meeting of the Adare Rathkeale Municipal District, were particularly aggrieved that it did not include a reduction in speed limits.
“I would love to see something resembling Croagh here,” Cllr Adam Teskey said.
“What is in Croagh should be in Coolanoran.” There was a “lot going on in a small area”, he pointed out, with a number of houses, a side road and the Applegreen petrol station all within a few hundred metres.
“Would it not be possible to secure land across the road and make this a wider scheme?,” he asked. He also pointed out that there was a “huge site” behind the petrol station that could be opened up for parking.
Cllr Stephen Keary said he could not support any scheme without a speed limit reduction, pointing out that householders experienced articulated lorries parking near their entrances and putting them at risk going in and out of their homes.
The council needed to negotiate for land in order to accommodate parking for these lorries, he argued.
“We have tried to accommodate everyone,” council engineer Fionán Kelliher said, explaining that the scheme was intended to address sightlines. “The issue is in relation to sight lines coming out of the petrol station.”
If somebody parks on the hard shoulder at the moment, it interferes with those sightlines, he explained. All entrances and exits would remain the same, he said, but the proposed plan includes build-outs along the hard shoulder with bollards, which would “put manners” on people parking there.
It also includes a footpath and cycle lane. On the issue of the speed limits, Mr Kelliher said that would be “a whole different scheme that will knock this scheme on the head.”
Senior executive engineer, Gerard O’Connor said speed limits were a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and the TII had been tightening up limits to improve the free-flow of traffic.
“The scheme needs to go ahead as a matter of urgency,” he said. Otherwise, the funding would lapse.