Kilkenny councillor raises concerns over 'lethal' road junction
Cllr Deirdre Cullen raised concerns at the September meeting of Callan Thomastown Municipal District
A 'lethal' junction at the entrance to an expanding healthcare facility in Thomastown is to be considered for a safety scheme.
Cllr Deirdre Cullen raised concerns at the September meeting of Callan Thomastown Municipal District.
She said that traffic coming out of St Columba’s Hospital, or the Scouts Den, was emerging onto a junction with a 'blind spot,' especially for traffic coming out of the town.
"Traffic is nearly on top of you when you're coming out," she said.
She went on to say the council had not been ignoring the issue up to now, but it was hard to know what to do to improve the junction. However, now a new hospital is being built on the site, traffic is expected to increase. The new hospital will have double the amount of residents as well as extra staff. Maybe traffic coming from town could be slowed down, she suggested.
Action needs to be taken now, Cllr Cullen stressed, because it will be too late when the new hospital is open.
"It's an accident waiting to happen," she warned.
Area Engineer, Declan Murphy, said he would talk to the council’s road design engineers and if work is not funded under a Low Cost Safety Scheme they could consider using the council’s discretionary fund.
Read more in this week's Kilkenny People