A TWEAKING of the Stop-Go system in operation during major road works on Killarney’s Port Road early this morning significantly eased the traffic congestion that had left so many motorists frustrated and angry early yesterday.
As revealed on KillarneyToday.com, there was serious traffic backlog on Wednesday as people attempted to make their way to work and parents were trying to drop their children to school.
The €1 million project to upgrade the road will take between eight to 10 weeks to complete and the work is ongoing from 8.00am to 7.00pm each day.
KillarmeyToday.com was inundated with calls early yesterday and we brought the matter to the attention of public representatives who arranged for council engineers to visit the site.
As a compromise to facilitate children bring dropped off at school, between 8.00am and 9.00am, priority was today given to traffic entering Port Road from the Ballydowney Roundabout which incorporated those travelling via Fossa, Beaufort and Hans Liebherr Road and the bypass.
Many motorists who had experienced the gridlock the previous day used alternative routes with many travelling through Main Street and High Street towards the Cleeney Roundabout on to the Tralee, Killorglin and Milltown roads or via Aghadoe.
An effort will be made for the duration of the works to prioritise school-bound traffic and consultations have taken place with the three secondary and two primary schools in the vicinity of New Road or New Street.
€1 million has been approved by Transport Infrastructure Ireland for the improvement works on Port Road and Mission Road with additional safety improvement works in the vicinity of the playground at Knockreer and at the New Road-Port Road junction.
The plans were subjected to a public consultation process, the commencement of the work was advertised for the benefit of the public and a decision was taken to complete the works before the very busy summer season commences.
The contract for the pavement overlay on Port Road and Mission Road has been awarded to the Lagan Group, a nationwide civil engineering company.
Work is currently focused on the excavation and construction of a new carriageway on the River Deenagh side of the road and that will continue until Friday afternoon. The eastern carriageway work will commence next week and, after that, attention will turn to the section of road closest to St Mary’s Cathedral. Safety improvement works at the busy New Road junction will be tackled when the schools are closed for the Easter break.
The plan is to be finished the entire project by May 5, at the latest, and there are also plans to resurface the roundabout in Ballydowney which might be suitable to be carried out by night to minimise disruption.
In the meantime, Killarney Municipal District Council has asked the public to avoid Port Road as much as possible and stressed that priority will be given to traffic travelling between the Ballydowney Roundabout and the New Road junction, particularly before and after school times.
Traffic travelling from the Muckross and southern direction are asked to divert through the town centre and to use Main Street and High Street instead of using Mission Road.
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