A DANGEROUS stretch of road in West Clare will be upgraded, members of the local municipal district have been told.

Following a number of serious accidents and representations by public representatives, a junction known as Cranny Cross, has been identified as in need of safety improvement works. The matter was raised by Councillor PJ Kelly at the most recent meeting of the West Clare Municipal District, when he called on Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Clare County Council to address the issues at the junction of the N68 and L2138. “This is a high-risk area,” he said, “and there’s an average of one accident a year there. One accident has been fatal and another has left a person invalided for life. There is a solution, a local farmer is prepared to cooperate to get this work done.”

Councillor Kelly welcomed the reply from Senior Executive Engineer John Gannon who said TII’s Road safety inspection programme (HD17) had identified that the junction for road safety Improvement works.

“The Road Design office in conjunction with the TII have commenced the evaluation phase and will report back to the MD later this year once the initial design and approval phases have concluded,” the response said.

Responding, Councillor Kelly said: “I’m glad that we’ve taken a small step forward. Councillor Lynch has raised this previously. A landowner is willing to cooperate in this and we need to move things forward.”

The motion was seconded by Councillor Lynch who said Councillor Kelly had been proactive in coming up with solutions. “We need action now,” he agreed.