Tractor laybys requested on N80 Portlaoise to Mountmellick road
'Nowhere to pull in' reports farmer and Fine Gael Cllr Paddy Buggy
Laois County Council is asking Transport Infrastructure Ireland to install laybys on the busy N80 road between Portlaoise and Mountmellick, so tractors don't hold up traffic.
Cllr Paddy Buggy, a farmer and member of Portlaoise Municipal District, is making the request.
He tabled a motion to the February meeting of the district, asking the council to ask the TII for "the installation of areas for slow moving vehicles to pull in along the N80 between Portlaoise and Mountmellick".
"Tractors are slow moving vehicles and have nowhere to pull in to allow the traffic to pass them by," Cllr Buggy said.
"It requires correspondance to the TII and I'll arrange that," the Director of Services Simon Walton said.
It is not the first time that such a request has been made.
Cllr Paddy Bracken from Mountmellick Municipal District has called for hard shoulders to be installed on the road which traverses a bog. Laois County Council said in the past that it would be very costly.
The issue has also been raised at a Joint Policing Meeting. Read more here.
The N80 stretch of road has been the scene of at least four serious crashes in the past three years.