TRAFFIC NIGHTMARES
health and safety point of view and it’s unavoidable,’ he said. ‘You can’t put a major roundabout on a busy national road and not have disruption for two weeks. After these works are finished there will be small disruptions.’
Campile road users have been experiencing lengthy traffic delays ever since work started on the roundabout in February, especially at peak times. As the exit point onto the N25 was narrowed and the filter lane cut off, some people availed of diversions through Creacon.
Mr Hore said the current, escalated phase of the traffic management arrangements commenced on Tuesday last at the Oakland’s Roundabout construction site. Right-turning movements from New Ross onto the regional road were prohibited. This traffic was instructed to use the Kent’s Cross Roundabout.
‘This stage is now completed with only minor delays,’ he said.
‘The traffic arrangements are over three stages,’ he added. ‘Traffic lights were introduced at the N25/R733 junction. The lights worked on two phases: green for all traffic on the national road and red on the regional road; and red for all traffic on the national road and green for the regional road.’
During normal working hours the lights were controlled by manned traffic management controller. Outside of normal working hours, traffic was controlled by timer controlled traffic lights (i.e. automatic setting).
The national road was reduced to one lane last Tuesday for eight days. ‘These traffic restrictions will finish by Good Friday. This is the most problematic phase with unavoidable delays. This is because the other lane must be physically dug out as part of the roundabout construction works.
‘Traffic lights will be used but this time the lights will be in three phases: 1 Green on National Road coming from New Ross with other two legs on red; 2 Green on national road coming from Wexford with other two legs on red; 3 Green on Regional Road with other two legs red. As you can appreciate this means that when one approach is green, the other two must be red as only one lane is available. During normal working hours the lights will be controlled by manned traffic management controllers.
‘The manned traffic control will continue outside normal working hours up to 11 p.m.; traffic will then be controlled by timer controlled traffic lights (i.e. automatic setting). Two way traffic will again be available resulting in much improved traffic flows with minimal delays.’
Mr Hore said with schools closed this week the traffic build up should be lessened.
The council is hoping that all works will be completed on the roundabout, which wil cost around €1.4m to construct, by May.
‘The roundabout will bring about major improvements for road users on that sretch of road and for the future,’ he said.