Complaints to Council on Kirwan junction ‘would take 17 hours to sift through’

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – City Hall has been inundated with written complaints about the Kirwan Junction since the new traffic lights were turned on in July.

And the public backlash against the new layout was so big, Galway City Council has estimated that it would take one of its employees 17 hours to sift through the correspondence!

The sheer volume of complaints was revealed following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the Galway City Tribune.

In the wake of public outcry on social media and elsewhere in relation to the new layout of the signalised junction, which replaced a roundabout, this newspaper asked the Transport section of the Council for copies of all written complaints pertaining to the Kirwan Junction it had received in the five months since it became operational on July 19.

The upgrade of Kirwan roundabout to a new traffic signal controlled junction (N6 Bóthar na dTreabh junction with N84 Headford Road) went live in mid July, and has resulted in lengthy tailbacks.

There have also been a series of complaints from pedestrians and cyclists using the junction relating to delays and road safety.

Meanwhile, the company which designed the controversial junction was also behind two independent safety audits conducted when Galway City Council pursued the option of removing the roundabout.
Halcrow Barry was appointed by the City Council to develop road design upgrade options for the Kirwan roundabout and JB Barry & Partners Consulting Engineers then carried out the road safety audit on those upgrade options. Both are arms of the same company.
The two companies were also involved in creating the detailed design of the preferred option for the signalised junction and the safety audit carried out at that stage.

A City Council spokesperson said that all road safety audits on the scheme had been carried out in accordance with the relevant Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) standards and guidelines.

This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read extensive coverage on the Kirwan junction, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.