Cllrs toughen stance on hard shoulders

“It tells us about how the standards have changed. Changing them back is what we want,” said Fianna Fáil’s John Paul Feeley, responding to a letter of reply received from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) after elected members railed at hard shoulders being done away with on new road developments, writes Seamus Enright.

Back in February the debate raged over plans for the new proposed Virginia N3 Bypass, with councillors calling for breakdown lanes to be provided on all newly realigned national routes.

Expected to go to planning before the end of the year, the bypass is a key commitment for the region under the Government’s Ireland 2040 plan. Virginia is the last remaining town on the N3 connecting Dublin to the Border with Northern Ireland not yet bypassed, but councillors have been spooked by the design of recently opened roads such as the N55 Realignment Scheme.

Another brought to the attention of the April monthly meeting of Cavan County Council is the realignment of the N16, a national primary road that begins in Sligo and connects to Blacklion.

Both, Cllr Feeley said, lack hard shoulders, and he asked that the council write back to TII explaining the position more clearly if possible.

Fine Gael’s Winston Bennett agreed. He said, if a tractor were to breakdown in between Ballinagh and Granard, “God help!”, and wondered if scrapping hard shoulders is part of a wider “cost saving” exercise.

“Cost saving. That’s the only explanation,” added Cathaoirleach and Cllr Bennett’s party colleague, T.P. O’Reilly, who agreed that hard shoulders are an “essential” part of road design in the interests of safety.