Roundabout needed on 'recipe for disaster' Laois road

A new roundabout is needed on a “recipe for disaster” two lane road in Laois where four lanes have been created.

That’s according to Fine Gael Cllr PJ Kelly, who raised the issue of Killenure Cross at a recent meeting.  

Cllr Kelly recalled a recent accident at the junction where a young driver who was startled to see a car beside her ended up crashing into a garden. 

He asked “that Laois County Council consult with the Department of Transport to investigate the possibility of positioning a roundabout at the junction known as Killenure Cross – several times during the day four lanes of traffic could be side by side at the junction resulting in accidents taking place especially as the speed limit is 100 km on this stretch of road.”

In a written response, Senior Executive Engineer, Road Design Office, James Dowling stated that “Laois County Council Road Design Dept. will carry out a traffic survey and turning movement county to assess the need for future improvements at the intersection of the R420 and R445.”

Cllr Kelly said the road is wide enough to land a plane on and he described the option of a roundabout as a “no brainer”. He told a meeting of Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District about the last accident on the road.  

“The latest one was where a car was coming from Ballybrittas village and coming out the long pass and turning left. There were two young ladies in a car and all of a sudden, to them, a car appeared on their left hand side and they got a huge fright,” he explained.  

“They got startled and they ended up in a ladies garden on the far side of the road,” said Cllr Kelly.  

“That hedge going into the garden, I suppose there is 20 gaps in it over the years where they have been replanting gaps in the hedge. There is actually a couple of trees in the garden and they are going to take them out cause the trees might be dangerous to a car coming in they’re that strong,” he said.  

Cllr Kelly explained that although the road has only two lanes, at the Killenure Cross point a filter lane exists for traffic from Monasterevin turning towards Portarlington and a hard shoulder has become a filter for traffic from Portarlington driving towards Monasterevin. 

“When you are coming from Portarlington turning towards Dublin / Monasterevin they don’t stop at the stop sign or the mark that’s on the road. They think they can turn out onto the road as if it was a motorway so they keep the same speed all along which means they are doing the same speed as traffic passing them on the right,” he explained. 

“If you have traffic from Monasterevin turning towards Portarlington, that’s a third lane and then you have a lane that goes on toward Portlaoise / Ballybrittas, that’s the fourth lane… That’s what I mean by four lanes of traffic,” said Cllr Kelly. 

He explained that he had recently visited the area to see the traffic situation for himself. 

“We observed this. There was four lanes of traffic side by side on that stretch of road at the same time and we were only there for about 15 minutes,” he said.  

“It is a recipe for disaster. The lady that wanted to show me this was trying to cross the road with a child and we were like, Jesus, don’t cross now. It was that mad of a set up,” continued Cllr Kelly.  

“It is plenty wide enough to put in a roundabout. There’s roundabouts at the New Inn Cross, there’s another one at the Gandon Inn,” he pointed out.  

“The safety aspects there are there to be seen…this is a no brainer for there,” he said. 

He said all of the traffic from the Portarlington side going to Dublin passes through the junction. 

“The householders across the road are almost fed up,” he remarked. He said there had been numerous accidents at the location. 

“There was a lorry turning for Monastervin, a car was turning to Ballybrittas and there was four cars and a lorry involved in an accident. Luckily there was no one badly hurt.  There was three cars wrote off in it,” he said. 

“You could land an airplane on the width of this road but still it is just prone to a lot of accidents,” he said. 

Laois local road 'not done in 30 years'

Independent Cllr Ben Brennan seconded the motion. 

Sinn Fein Cllr Aidan Mullins said he too fully agreed with the motion. 

“It is a big wide open road and it is a straight stretch. I would love to see a speed survey carried out there. It’s a nightmare,” he remarked.  

“Something needs to be done there. I fully support this motion,” he added.