Dundalk's Bridge Street to close for four months

Local residents have to be given more notification of the upcoming closure of Bridge Street, Councillor Sean Kelly told the July meeting of Dundalk Municipal District.

The road will close to facilitate the St Nicholas Quarter regeneration works from its junction with Patrick Street to its junction with Castletown Road

The works will close from 8am Monday 12th August 2024 to 5pm on Friday 6th December 2024. Local & Emergency access will be maintained at all times.

“It’s all well and good putting it out of the Facebook page and local papers but can we actually notify residents on the ground?” asked Councillor Kelly.

“There’s a lot of these people who are elderly and may not buy the local papers or may not have internet access and they all need to be aware especially of roads like Phillip Street and Patrick Street that will be overwhelmed by the amount of traffic turning on when the public groundworks start.”

In response Senior Engineer Paddy Connolly said: “The section responsible is complying with the legislation for road closures which requires you to put the ads in the paper and notify the stakeholders.

“Again it’d be a matter of resources. I don’t think we would ever be in a position, with the amount of road closures we have, to be leafleting every single road closure, it’s just not practical.”

Replying, Councillor Kelly said: “We’ve got a main thoroughfare in Dundalk that’s going to be closed for five months, probably longer, I don’t think think it’s unreasonable that we aim to do more than is necessary under legislation given the impact it’s going to have on businesses and people in that area.

“We shouldn’t just be aiming to tick the box, because there’s actually lives going to be impacted by this. We need to get the word out to all those people in that area.”