No easy answer, cllrs told on K’shandra road

Local councillors were told there is “no easy answer” to solving their pleas for the council to intervene and upgrade the Killeshandra to Crossdoney Road.

Fianna Fáil’s Áine Smith wants Cavan County Council to look at the route and devise a programme of works to support the high level of heavy goods vehicles and other vehicles that travel through the area on a daily basis.

She highlighted the planned expansion of Lakeland Dairies in Killeshandra as one reason why the upgrade is needed, and her motion, tabled at a recent meeting of Cavan-Belturbet Municipal District, was supported by her party colleague John Paul Feeley.

He had tabled a similar motion the year before and, at that time, a number of factors were at play including “landowner issues” not to mention competing projects within the roadworks programme for the year.

Still, Cllr Feeley suggested that the council needed to find some way of securing funding for the project.

There was support for the motion from Independent Brendan Fay and Cllrs Patricia Walsh (FF) and Madeleine Argue (FG).

‘Dangerous’

Cllr Peter McVitty (FG) said the problem with the section of road had been flagged as long as he was a member of the local council, and described the road in its current condition as “dangerous”.

Senior Executive Engineer Paul Mulligan accepted there were issues, and that the road had been on the “agenda for years”.

Part of the hold up in the past was trying to deal with landowners, but he informed the meeting that, to really sort out the problems, a full realignment is needed.

This would required millions, not the thousands available to the council under its roadsworks programme.

He commended the work done to date by council operatives on the section that falls within the boundary of the Ballyjamesduff Municipal District, but said that to fix the rest would require “significant money” and that, unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be the appetite to fund anything other than national road projects.

Regardless, it would “not be an easy road to realign” given the topography of the area, with lakes on one side and bogland on the other.

The “first stop” Mr Mulligan said though was be to hire a consultant who would conduct a feasibility study for the council.

“We all have to start off at square one,” said Mr Mulligan. “It’s not at all easy.

There’s no easy answer to this.”

Traffic congestion

At the same meeting Cllr Feeley requested an update on traffic calming measures planned for Killeshandra town.

Raised previously, he said there was a particularly “fast flow” of traffic past the local health centre that needs addressing.

The motion was supported by Cllr Smith, and also by Cllrs Fay, Walsh, Argue and McVitty.

Mr Mulligan responded said that an examination did highlight an “issue with speed” in the local area, particularly through the town. The matter had been referred to the council’s road design section and he was awaiting their feedback.

“It’s not always about speed cushions,” Mr Mulligan warned.