Junctions on new Delvin Road are ‘lethal’ says Cllr

Cllr Emily Wallace wants the municipal district office to liaise with contractors on improving the exit lanes on the newly finished stretch between Cloghan and Billistown, on the N52 Mullingar to Delvin road.

"There's a lot of traffic coming across from the Crookedwood junction over to Turin, the same with Fennor, and those two junctions are absolutely lethal right now," Cllr Wallace told a district meeting last week.

She explained that for residents turning off the N52 at those junctions, there was no hard shoulder or turning island to allow motorists to slow down to take the turn.

"At the minute when you drive out that road, you can travel at 100km, and when you go to turn for Fennor or Crookedwood, which is the main link for Multyfarnham and on that side of the county, there is no hard shoulder, you have nowhere to brake," she began, adding that everyone knows of families affected by tragedies on that road.

"And when you come to the Fennor junction, the Crookedwood sign is actually the far side of where you are taking the turn. There is no island to turn from the left-hand side coming from Delvin.

"You have cars coming right up behind you and don't forget, it is a new road so people are not aware of where the turns are yet," she continued.

Standard

A written response from the district office stated however, that all junctions along the recently opened realignment have been "designed strictly in accordance with TII national standards".

"It is unsatisfactory that TII (Transport Infrastructure Ireland) would come out with an response like this," argued Cllr Wallace. "These junctions are not safe as they currently stand.

"This road was built to stop fatalities and to stop accidents happening, but as it currently stands, this won't be achieved," Cllr Wallace stated.

"Heavy goods vehicles are travelling this road at 100km an hour, and you have residents turning down off this new road who are afraid turning the corner that a car will come up behind them and won't see them turning because there's no hard shoulder to pull into and slow down."

Fully audited

The director of services, Martin Murray, said however that the new N52 design "fully complies with all health and safety standards".

"It has been fully safety-audited. Every aspect of that road has been checked by engineers, the TII, and it fully complies with the health and safety standards and geometric layout of the scheme," he said.

Unhappy with the response, Cllr Wallace asked for a letter to be sent to TII to re-examine the road, but Mr Murray said, "The process has been done, the audits have been carried out, the paperwork exists, it is fully compliant."

Cllr Wallace further argued that these junctions simply couldn't be compliant with health and safety standards, to which Mr Murray said: "All I can say is the professional people that are responsible for this have assured us that it fully complies with all stage 3 audits."

A "livid" Cllr Wallace said she still did not accept his answer.

"It's not good enough, and as a council to allow that [TII] statement when an issue is brought up, especially road safety ... The road itself is a brilliant job but these two junctions are lethal for residents with cars travelling at that speed."