Traffic lights may be trialed at notorious Castlebar junction
Cllr Ger Deere said there was a serious problem at the junction.
New reports and possibly some traffic light trials may be carried out at the busy Gallows Hill in Castlebar where four roads intersect, namely Chapel St, Rathbawn, New Line and Tucker St.
In a presentation to councilors at last week's meeting of Castlebar Municipal District, John Kearns, from Mayo Co Council's Roads Design Office, said most people were familiar with the junction and the quite significant traffic delays that occur there. The junction has a mixture of one and two-way traffic from the various link roads and the council is looking at what can be done to reduce traffic and maybe relieve the congestion.
“At the minute we are observing on the ground that for a safe route to the national school there, people are already adopting a practice of dropping off kids remotely, avoiding the area as much as they can. We could maybe also promote more active travel. Widening of the Newline Street with cycle tracks is already complete and the addition of courtesy crossings in the vicinity of the junction, and also the junction realignment onto Turlough Road.
"We had a preferred route planned for relieving traffic along the Pound Road and Link Road before, with an entrance to Rathbawn Avenue, but this did not happen.”
The senior executive engineer said a proposal to install traffic lights at the junction could be looked at, but the whole area would need to be examined to see what would work to reduce traffic in general, as the success of lights depends on existing traffic levels.
“You would still have delays if there is the same volume of traffic so it would only provide limited success then. So any action to remedy the problem in the area needs to be looked at in the context of the area as a whole; you can’t just look at the junction in isolation. “ Expressing dissatisfaction with the lack of progress, Cllr Ger Deere reminded members: “We were on about Gallows Hill when I was on the Town Council 15 years ago and now you are saying we need to look at an overall plan to sort this out. This just shows we clearly have a serious problem here.”
