RELOCATING THE PÚCA statue to Corrovorrin Junction may be needed to heighten awareness of its new design, an Ennis councillor has quipped.
While acknowledging work at Corrovorrin Junction as an “excellent recent upgrade”, Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) appealed for further improvements relating to road signage adjacent to the junction, road markings, bollards and increased visual emphasis at the centre of the mini-roundabout.
Executive engineer in the Ennis Municipal District, Michael O’Grady committed to a review of the current layout “to ascertain if further works are required to improve the current use”.
Speaking at the May meeting of the Ennis MD, Cllr Flynn said the feedback to the works from 99 percent of people using the junction was “very positive”. “Some people don’t like having to slow down, these people are used to shooting in the Tulla Rd and they don’t like slowing down for people coming out of Kevin Barry Avenue,” he said.
Flynn flagged that road markings at the truck drive over area would inform motorists that it was not an area for parking, “it is disturbing to see people parking on the footpath inside of that making it difficult for people coming from the St Senan’s Rd”.
Corrovorrin residents have gained “a new lease of life” since the works, “they don’t know themselves,” Cllr Pat Daly (FF) remarked. “There is traffic coming from the motorway and they don’t know there is a roundabout,” this he warned has left the residents “in fear”, he added, “one woman said she nearly got killed coming out”.
Efforts to “fine-tune what has been a positive outcome” are to be welcomed, Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF) commented.
Visual impact at present is minimal, Cllr Mary Howard (FG) said while referring to the long-wait for residents to get a resolution. “I’m conscious of it going out the Tulla Rd because of my job here but not everyone is, I’m not sure if it will take putting Púca in the middle of it to draw attention to it, I have to crawl out because I’m afraid of the traffic”. She recalled that her first motion to Ennis Town Council was on the topic of Corrovorin Junction.
Senior executive engineer in the Ennis MD, Eamon O’Dea outlined that proposals for a pedestrian crossing on either side of the junction “will slow” the traffic. A specific red colouring section was not added “because of the weather conditions when we finished the project,” he revealed. “There are a few bits and pieces to be completed. The improvements required will be undertaken”.
