Concerns remain over controversial Church St junction
THE junction at Church Street/Bridge Street and LinenHall Street is sufficient for traffic flow and for current levels of HGV’s using the area, according to a report given to councillors at last week’s Dundalk Municipal Committee Meeting.
Councillors received an interim report commissioned by Louth County Council on the issues which have been raised at previous meetings in relation to traffic flow and in particular heavy goods and buses turning left from Linenhall St onto Church Street
Cllr. Sean Kelly, who has led calls for the junction to be reviewed, asked if the report had been completed.
Director Of Services, Frank Pentony circulated a report to member which included a review of the ‘geometric design’ of the junction.
It highlighted how the ‘Clanbrassil Street and St. Nicholas Quarter’ public realm scheme is designed on the principles of the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets (DMURS) with the aim of enhancing the area for pedestrians.
‘It essentially involves transferring road space to pedestrians, including widening footpaths, which will have some inherent impact on road capacity,’ according to the report.
‘It can take time for the new road layouts and traffic management arrangements to bed in, and for regular HGV drivers making deliveries to adapt to the tighter turning manoeuvres.’
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr. Sean Kelly said concerns remained about the junction.
‘Here traffic must veer across the central line in order to complete the turn and this therefore causes traffic to come to a complete halt on both sides which leads to significant delay and frustration on the part of motorists, local businesses and residents alike.’
He added: ‘ The report states that ‘ HGVs turning south must cross the centre line into the opposing traffic lane to use the full extent of the carriageway to complete the manoeuvre. This movement of larger vehicles is accepted by Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets.’
The report further states: ‘ Providing a layout which would contain large HGVs within the nearside traffic lane would require significantly more road space increasing traffic speeds and reducing the space available to the civic plaza which diminishes the objective of the scheme.’
Cllr Kelly commented ‘so what this report is effectively saying, let’s keep vehicles veering into the opposing lane causing serious safety concerns and let’s keep the traffic delays in both directions so that we save a few feet of footpath on the plaza. Where exactly is the common sense in that?’.
The report which was only released to Councillors at the meeting is up for discussion at next months meeting and the Council have undertaken to look at the issue again when the full project is completed.