TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE IRELAND’s (TII) delay in replacing road markings in Cratloe has been labelled as unacceptable by elected representatives.
Officials in the road design office of Clare County Council have submitted a request to TII on foot of a proposal from Cllr PJ Ryan (IND) “to replace all road markings at Portdrine flyover”.
Speaking at a meeting of the Shannon Municipal District, Cllr Ryan noted that councillors such as himself and Cllr Pat O’Gorman (FF) “have been asking for this for quite some time” and that it was regularly discussed at meetings of Cratloe Community Council.
He added, “It seems to have fallen on deaf ears. A lot of people are concerned about the markings there. The traffic is approaching from different directions, there no stop line and they continue onto dual carriageway”.
As observed by Cllr O’Gorman, there are “two or three junctions coming into one area”. He recalled “a very serious crash” that occurred last year, “two cars were written off, there was no serious injuries, they were shaking but a week or two later they were good again”. He added, “All we’re looking for is a few white lines, a couple of hundreds of euro will do the job”.
Noting the health and safety concerns plus the possibility of injuries, Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND) questioned what was delaying TII. “Both PJ and Pakie have raised this several times but nothing is happening, it is not acceptable”.
Senior executive engineer in the Shannon MD, Tom Mellett commented, “TII have a very active contractor relating to maintenance, I can’t explain why the issue has been left outstanding but I can vouch that they are very active on maintenance and health and safety”.
“They are active but slow,” Cllr Ryan replied. He referenced drainage work done adjacent to White farm, “it was requested two years ago but it was only done in recent times”.
