Calls for upgrade works at hazardous south Longford road junctions

The calls were made by Fianna Fáíl councillors Pat O’Toole and Mick Cahill concerning the R392 and the L52122 at Forgney as well as the Carrickboy to Carrickedmond crossroads.

Cllr O’Toole lobbied for county council intervention on the former with his party colleague adopting a similar course of action on the latter.

“We had a serious accident there about two months ago and there has been a lot of near misses,” said Cllr O’Toole.

“As you approach this junction from Forgney Church it is particularly dangerous with a hill, making it very hard to see from where the junction is.

“There is a house there with high hedging in front of it which is a problem as well.”

Engineer Brian McNeela, who visited the junction personally in recent weeks, said efforts to improve sight line visibility for motorists would be examined both in the short and long term.

“We will add this junction to the list of low cost safety schemes and in the short term I will arrange for additional signage to be installed,” he said.

Cllr Cahill, meanwhile, spoke out on the need for high impact signs to be installed on the N55 coming down the hill from Carrickboy towards Carrickedmond crossroads.

The long serving councillor said such a measure was needed in order to prohibit motorists from overtaking on the section of road.

“This junction is quite a serious junction on the N55. From Carricboy to Ballymahon, people might not realise there is a junction at the bottom of the hill,” he said.

“What I would be asking is we try to highlight better the danger of overtaking on that hill.

“There should be no overtaking as we have had serious incidents there.

“Really what would be effective is for that road to be widened and that might require an upgrade of the road.”

Council officials are expected to write to Transport Infrastructure Ireland executives over the coming days in an attempt to secure financial support to carry out improvements at the junction.