A Carlow councillor is warning that an influx of trucks on local roads is causing significant damage.
Cllr Andrea Dalton raised the issue at a recent meeting of Carlow Municipal District, saying it’s a particular concern on parts of the N80.
She says she’s received many complaints from residents in the area, who believe Google Maps is misdirecting HGV drivers.
And the Fianna Fáil councillor has been telling KCLR that the trucks are damaging road verges, noting “There’s a lot of HGVs coming off the N80 up into Staplestown, across by Bennekerry, across by Bennekerry school to access the Hacketstown Road and they’re very big trucks and they’re travelling at speed and their verges have been damaged by the weight of these trucks but I’ve been told anecdotally that Google is sending people that way”.
The Fianna Fáil representative says she’s heard many complaints about the issue, telling KCLR “It was something that was raised when I was canvassing in May, back for the elections in May ’19, and the town engineer at the time said they would do an audit on the roads, so I just called on the council again to maybe just to have a look at that road and see because some of these country roads aren’t built for such big large trucks and they can cause quite a lot of damage to the road as well as noise pollution and they’re dangerous as well so maybe just to look into the problem and see if there’s any solutions that can be found”.