A local councillor is warning that there will be fatalities on one Cuffesgrange road unless action is taken.
Cllr Joe Lyons raised concerns about the speed limit on a section of the N76, which passes through the village, at Wednesday’s meeting of Callan-Thomastown Municipal District.
The meeting heard, however, that the particular stretch falls under the remit of Transport Infrastructure Ireland, who will be discussing the issue with the council in January.
However, Cllr Lyons is urging the TII to intervene sooner rather than later;
“They’re responsible for the N76, so we’ve a request gone into them now to look into this and see can they look after it, because the local area office doesn’t deal with that at all. So it’s a TII issue there and we’re hoping they’ll be favourable to it, because all the locals there are very concerned about this dangerous situation. There’s going to be something fatal there if there’s not something done in the near future.”
The Fine Gael representative says he’s heard multiple grievances about the issue; “There have been numerous complaints, and it’s very similar to the Callan bypass, with speeding there too. So we’re requesting a reduction in the speed limit and extra signage, just to warn people. There’s already been a few accidents there recently and now’s the time to plan for the coming year, so hopefully we can reduce the speed and help the whole situation out there.”
At their joint meeting in January, Cllr Lyons says the local authority will be urging the TII to take a different approach in their treatment of rural areas like Cuffesgrange; “They kind of look at it as the main road from Dublin to Cork and they try and get the traffic flowing as easily as possible from one point to another, but when it comes to the likes of bypasses and villages they’ll have to look at it in a very different way. Flashing lights, signs and reduced speed limits- they’ll all have to be engaged there.”
