Abbey Street one-way idea
THE Council is considering making Abbey Street one-way and allowing cars to come back up JFK Parade and turn left onto Bridge Street in a bid to ease the traffic congestion in that part of the town.
Sinn Féin Councillor Chris MacManus asked Senior Council Engineer Briain Flynn if it would be possible to allow cars drive straight across from Abbey Street to Castle Street.
“People of the Lower East Ward have to take a very circuitous route to get to town,” he told the meeting.
Flynn replied that they had in fact already removed signs banning traffic from cutting across to Castle Street from Abbey Street, but the Gardaí and themselves “agree that it’s not working.”
He said that if one car is waiting to cut across traffic to Castle Street, “traffic backs up on Abbey Street” within seconds.
Flynn said the Council was looking at an alternative - to make Abbey Street one way and Pic allow traffic exit from JFK onto Bridge Street and then turn right onto Castle Street. In order to plan for this, the Council will be taking some traffic measurements this year and will “explore that alternative in 2019”.
The only streets to have footpaths replaced in 2019 will be Abbey Street, Holborn Street and Ard na Veigh.
“Abbey Street footpaths are woeful. We have one of our finest feature on Abbey Street and hundreds of tourists who visit. We’re looking to make it more pleasurable to walk on,” said Flynn.
Councillors were considering the draft Multi-Annual Restoration Improvement Programme which will see almost¤2.5million spent on roads from Strandhill to North Sligo between 2019-2021.
Every Councillor had a query regarding a piece of road but Mayor Cllr Rosaleen O’Grady said it was “custom and practice” that they accept what the Roads Department had suggested.