‘Crazy’ Tractamotors junction must be addressed

DESIGN Ten-year plans to be revisited

Cavan County Council is being urged to find an urgent solution to improve traffic flow at the Tractamotors junction in Cavan Town before a serious accident occurs.

The issue was debated at last week's meeting of the Cavan-Belturbet Municipal District Authority and both councillors and the executive were in agreement that it was the most problematic junction in the county town and a solution must be found to address road safety concerns there.

The issue was raised by Cllr John Paul Feeley (FF) who heaped pressure on the local authority to act. "We have talked about it and there has been numerous suggestions and proposals. The usual answer has been 'we will bring it to road design'. It is now an urgent matter of keeping the pressure on the executive to come up with a solution," he said.

His colleague Patricia Walsh backed him, saying she too had raised it some time back and was told the Road Design department was looking at it. She remarked that, if traffic calming measures are not installed there, there is going to be a "serious accident". Cllr Walsh pointed out that there already had been a few accidents.

"There was talk about a roundabout and it was anticipated that more of the traffic would use the new bypass road, and motorists did use the new road for a while, but now the amount of traffic coming into the junction again has grown," said Cllr Walsh.

Fine Gael's Madeleine Argue said she couldn't understand why more motorists coming from the Ballinagh side of town did not go out the bypass to the Dublin Road to use the roundabout there.

Referring to the historical nature of the debate, Cllr Argue remarked: "Maybe Cllr Feeley might be lucky with his motion and get something done. This has been going on since I came onto the council," she said.

The chairman of the meeting, Brendan Fay (Ind), supported the motion and pointed out that it was "crazy" the junction is still like this after all these years.

Cllr Peter McVitty (FG) agreed. "That junction is a nightmare. Would it be possible to look for funding to put a bypass in place [by Tractamotors on to the Dublin Road]. I know it would be big money, but at the same time, this is a dangerous junction."

Director of Services, Brendan Jennings, revealed there was a design carried out back in 2009/2010/2011 that involved a roundabout.

He agreed it is the most problematic junction in the town and accepted it must be on the agenda in terms of traffic improvements in the town.

Mr Jennings said it was his experience from watching traffic in Cavan Town over 10 years, that motorists continue go the way they always went.

"There are more short-term cheaper solutions like traffic lights and pedestrians crossings. Traffic lights are controversial and people do not like them. There is no easy answer," said Mr Jennings, agreeing a long-terms solution is required.

Senior Executive Engineer, Paul Mulligan, assured elected members that the issue is still very much on the agenda and he had spoken to road design recently about it. He too agreed that it is the most problematic junction in the town at present.

"Now it is all about coming up with the right solution that works and getting the funding for it," said Mr Mulligan, who added that the options in the 2010/2011 designs are still there.

If there had been an easy solution at that junction, Mr Mulligan said it would have been put in place before now.