A SPEED survey is to be carried out on a busy residential street in Killaloe following concerns raised by a local councillor.
At the July meeting of the Killaloe Municipal District committee, Councillor Tony O’Brien asked that ramps be included when planned road resurfacing works are carried out at lower Ardnataggle.
“This is a highly residential area,” the Fianna Fáil member told the meeting. “There are two rowing clubs in the area, which attract traffic and there are a number of residents who are quite elderly. We had the same problem around Clarisford Park. What happens is that Johnny or Mary have to be rowing at 9am. It’s 30 seconds to nine, and all they can see is that they need to get down there.”
Councillor O’Brien, who is Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council, said it is not just rowers who are using the route. “There is speeding happening day and night and we need to give a bit of help to residents,” he said.
“The road is to be upgraded and resurfaced and I’m afraid that could be a sign for people to go even faster. At the very least, we need signage to indicate this is a residential area. It would be very important that we are interacting with Gardai on this. Let’s monitor this.”
Support for the motion came from Councillor Joe Cooney. “This is a good motion, but signage, I think, is a waste of time,” he said. “It would be important to put a speed ramp there. The fact is that people don’t look at signs anymore. We have put in signs in different places, but people seem to drive straight on.”
Killaloe Municipal District Cathaoirleach Councillor Alan O’Callaghan was also supportive of the motion.
“I would like to know what the engineers think of speed surveys,” he said. “Maybe the issue is that the road isn’t fit to be 80 kmph. If we had a survey, I guarantee that only one-in-twenty is breaking limit is what a survey would say.
“In Kilkishen, we had a speed survey and it only showed a small number breaking the speed limit. A lot of people were travelling at the maximum speed of 50kmph, which is probably too fast.”
Responding to Councillor O’Callaghan, Executive Engineer Declan Flanagan said that the speed survey in Kilkishen had been effective in measuring the problem and putting solutions in place.
A written reply to Councillor O’Brien’s motion on lower Ardnataggle, from Senior Executive Engineer (SEE), Derek Troy, said: “The speed limit on this section of road is currently 80km/h, and Killaloe Municipal District intends to undertake 400m of restoration improvement works at this location in the coming months.
“Killaloe Municipal District will commit to undertaking a speed limit survey at this location to establish if speeding is occurring. In addition, consultation will be undertaken with An Garda Síochána. In order to implement any traffic calming measures, the local authority is required to comply with Section 38 of the Road Traffic Act, 1994, which includes a public consultation process. Traffic calming measures are only applied to roads within 50km/h or 60km/h speed limits.”