The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
FG CLLR THORNTON DEFENDS DALE ROAD CLOSURE QUERY
FINE Gael councillor Aoife Thornton has defended her suggestion that one of the county’s most dangerous roads may have to be closed to protect the public pending its reconstruction.
Cllr Thornton asked Council management last week to assess the notorious Dale Road on the main Tralee to Ballybunion route – between Abbeydorney and Ballyduff – to see if it now needs to be closed given the obvious hazard the dangerously undulating road poses to traffic.
Her comments came little more than a week after a woman, carrying two child passengers in her car, narrowly escaped serious injury in a crash on the treacherous road with many blaming the surface for the accident.
Cllr Thornton was moved to defend her query this week after Sinn Féin’s Cllr Toireasa Ferris said that locals would ‘suffer’ as a result of any closure.
A statement from Cllr Ferris last week said she ‘hit out’ at the suggestion, which was raised at last week’s meeting.
“The residents on Dale Road and those who use it everyday should not have to suffer because of the inaction of central government to tackle the awful condition of the road over many years,” Cllr Ferris said.
“The road is a vital artery for many people in North Kerry who have to travel to Tralee and its environs on a daily basis. There can be no suggestion that this road may be considered for closure in the near future. It needs investment and a long term solution to fix the chronic conditions once and for all,” Ferris said.
Cllr Thornton defended her query. Rather than call on the council to close the road she asked council management to assess it on health and safety grounds to see if it needs to be closed.
“I asked for the assessment to be carried out and am pursuing Council management to ensure it is completed to see whether or not the road needs to be closed, in order to protect lives,” Cllr Thornton told The Kerryman.
She said her query was only ever ‘subject to local access’.
“As it is more and more motorists are now going to Ballybunion via Listowel from Tralee, including at least one coach operator I recently spoke with on the matter. That’s an extra ten miles, just to avoid the Dale Road.”
Up to five signs warning motorists to reduce speed to 45kms an hour were erected on the road this week.
Cllrs had called for the signs last week as an interim measure pending funding for a full scheme that would see the dangerous road reconstructed safely - as had been planned over a decade ago.