Call to restore Mohill-Drumlish road to regional status

The growing number of vehicles travelling on the road between Mohill and Drumlish, has led to a motion urging the Council to reinstate the road to regional status.

Cathaoirleach of Carrick-on-Shannon Municipal District, Cllr Sean McGowan said he understood the road, which runs past the entrance to the Lough Rynn Castle Estate, was once a regional road.

“This was before my time on the Council but the volume of traffic shows that it needs more investment and reclassification as a regional road,” he said.

Cllr McGowan also asked the senior engineer for roads to include this road “on the list of roads to be included for the winter maintenance plan.

“This is an extremely busy road, and I have received several complaints over the past month about the treacherous condition of the road during the heavy frost.”

“There are over 2,300km of roads in the county and only a certain portion of this road network can be included,” he noted.

His comments were backed by Cllr Thomas Mulligan who said that the recent cold spell had left this stretch of road “absolutely treacherous”.

He asked if a traffic survey has been carried out on this road in recent years and said that this is clearly “a very highly used road”.

“There are also some very sharp right hand turns on it which compounds problems for motorists in frosty weather.”

He said that while he backed the call for a change to status, those using the road could not wait for an upgrade to regional status.

“In the short term we have to look at this section of road in relation to gritting in cold weather,” he insisted.

Cllr Paddy Farrell and Cllr Des Guckian also added their support although Cllr Guckian acknowledged this “may be a bit late for this year”.

“This road is joining two towns and should qualify as a regional road,” he pointed out.

A written response from the Council noted that the current Winter Maintenance Plan already covers over 500km of roads in the county and the system is already “at maximum capacity”.

“We do not have the resources and cannot expand (the gritting routes) any further,” noted the written response.

It was noted that grit is made available at locations across the county for local residents to spread on hills and roads which are not routinely gritted.

Cllr McGowan said that he will “continue to keep pursuing the upgrade of this road to regional status”.

Cllr Mulligan agreed and also asked that the Council get clarity on the extent of gritting carried out by Longford County Council on their section of this roadway.

“I think the treatment is intermittent but clarifying this would be helpful, however (Leitrim County Council) still has to do something to address concerns for motorists in bad weather at this end,” he said.