Gate will close in September
SAINT Laurence Gate will be closed to traffic by September, it has been revealed.
At the July meeting of Drogheda Municipal District officials said they are working on the finer details of the plan, including road markings and signage, at present and hope to carry out these works over the summer with everything completed and the Gate officially closed by the time the schools resume in September.
The issue was raised at the meeting by Mayor of Drogheda, Councillor Pio Smith who asked if there was a specific date yet for when the gate would be closed.
Borough Engineer Pat Finn said the council were working with the implementation team to finalise the details of the closure. He said they hoped to do this work over the summer so that it would be closed by the time school resumes.
Senior Executive Engineer Martina Sheeran said: ‘We’re progressing the finer details of the road markings and signage.’
She said they are also looking at the directional changes for the roads around the area.
‘We’d like to use the opportunity of the summer holidays to implement the changes subject to everything being straightforward,’ she added.
A traffic plan to facilitate the closure of St Laurence Gate first went on public display at the end of 2016 - similar plans had been muted in the past but failure to agree on a suitable plan and concerns about the impact on local businesses meant previous proposals had only led to the gate becoming one way to traffic.
The new plan, which was finally agreed by councillors in May, will see the historic barbican finally protected from the huge array of traffic which has passed under it for hundreds of years.
It was the large volumes of Heavy Goods Vehicles in particular passing through the Gate which led to the public campaign to close the gate to traffic once and for all. A number of strikes and vehicles becoming lodged until the ancient monument led to an outcry from the local community and the wheels being set in motion to create a viable plan to close the gate to traffic.