‘Badly needed’: Latest step to improve safety on dangerous road in Kilkenny

A newly developed Emergency Traffic Plan to mitigate delays on the N25 in the event of serious incidents was presented to the Piltown Municipal District at their monthly meeting this week.

Following a move to reduce a particularly treacherous stretch from a speed limit of 100km/h to 80km/h, the new plan will allow emergency services to quickly divert traffic and clear any accidents.

The order to activate the procedures will be given from a control room in Ballybricken and will be followed by the N25 being closed at the Luffany and Glenmore roundabouts.

Traffic will then be diverted from Luffany back up the N25 bypass and onto the M9, and R448 for learner drivers. From there motorists will take the R704 followed by the R723 before re-entering the N25 at Glenmore roundabout and vice versa the opposite direction.

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Cllr Ger Frisby (FF) said that the plan was “badly needed” and that “please God we won’t see too many more accidents,” while Cllr Tomás Breathnach (Lab) added that it was “good to have” and he hoped “we’ll never have to use it”.

When asked by Cllr Fidelis Doherty (FG) about what local residents who wanted to help out in the event of an emergency should do, Area Engineer John Tennyson replied that the main junctions would be manned by emergency services and council staff and that “no member of the public should intervene in any traffic management”.

Calls for action to address the road’s safety issues have been building and resulted in a meeting in Slieverue in June attended by around 500 people although funding for significant structural improvements is still being sought despite the recent changes.

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