Achill squeeze to last the summer

Neill O'Neill

AN access road to Achill which has been reduced to one lane will not reopen before at least September it was revealed yesterday (Monday). Councillor Paul McNamara raised the issue at the monthly meeting of the West Mayo Municipal District expressing frustration that the main road across the Owenduff Bridge on the R319 between Mulrany and Achill has been reduced to one lane since April.

This basically restricts all traffic in and out of Achill from free passage, and Cllr McNamara questioned how it was taking so long to address the issue, adding that throughout the busy summer period the lane closure would cause serious traffic problems on the main road to Achill.

While accepting the response from Head of the Municipal District, Padraig Walsh, that the lane closure was enforced on safety grounds as there as structural issues with the bridge, Cllr McNamara expressed frustration that there was no advertising of the lane closure and no update or communication from Mayo County Council in relation to either the problem or schedule of works.

“If I’m going home this evening and that bridge is gone, work will start on replacing it tomorrow,” he said, “it won’t be left sitting for five months. The people who built it had horses and chisels and it didn’t take them five months to construct. We’d actually be better off on this if it fell away. If this was along the N59 to Newport or Westport we would see quicker action on it.”

Padraig Walsh explained that there is a deep wing wall on the bridge and a big drop, with signs of recent movement and crack patterns that are moving. There is also cracking on the arch barrel that requires work.

“The advice was that it would be better to not have heavy goods traffic near the lane where these issues are so we had to close the bridge to one lane to minimise the risk to the travelling public,” he said, adding, that contractors are due on site in early July and if this schedule is adhered to, the work would be finished in September.