Junctions may have to be closed on Mayo bypass for safety reasons

It is hoped that an appraisal will be carried out next year on a dangerous road in East Mayo.

Paul Hyland, from Mayo Co Council’s National Roads Office, informed councillors at last week’s Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District meeting that the council is hoping to source funding in 2024 to appraise the 5km bypass on the N5 at Swinford, to look at various interventions that would improve safety along the bypass.

“We hope that this can happen in the next six months,” Mr Hyland said.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Adrian Forkan said “something has to be done” because the 5km stretch has 13 junctions.

“I know it’s not going to be a quick fix or an easy fix, but something has to be done. There was an accident at the Ballyglass turn-in only last week. The Culmore and Corrib Oil junctions are two serious ones. If you’re coming out of Corrib Oil and are going towards Castlebar, you have two lines of traffic to cross. It’s absolutely lethal there.”

Mr Hyland informed Cllr Forkan that Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) is advocating to get funding from the Department for Transport because they recognise it is a serious accident location that needs a variety of interventions.

Cllr John Caulfield said he was delighted to hear that progress was being made on safety measures for the Swinford bypass.

“We all know people have lost their lives on it,” Cllr Caulfield said.

Fine Gael Cllr Neil Cruise said he remembers it being proposed in preliminary discussions with TII that they close the Dump Road in Swinford and that a number of junctions are grouped and two overpasses built along the N5.

“Where is that process at now with TII? Has it moved forward or has there been any progress made? Because I was firmly of the viewpoint that a lot of these junctions should be taken out and replaced with two overpasses,” Cllr Cruise said.

Sinn Féin Cllr Gerry Murray said he hopes that the same urgency is applied to the N5 bypass as was applied to the N17 Lisduff junction in Claremorris.

“We want it to be a state-of-the-art package, not a yellow-pack one,” Cllr Murray said.

Mr Dolan said the bypass was built in the early 1990s and there were different specifications at the time. He said that the council needs short-term solutions and warned councillors that some junctions may have to be closed for good.