End of the road for ‘dangerous’ Galway City roundabout

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – The main contract work on the new €4.8 million signalised junction to be provided at the Kirwan Roundabout near the Menlo Park Hotel is expected to start next August and be completed by year end, according to the City Council.

Advance works on the project – including a major diversion of a water mains and land excavation – are now in full swing and are expected to be completed by April. The contract ‘proper’ is expected to be awarded by next March.

Senior Engineer with Galway City Council, Uinsinn Finn, told the Galway City Tribune, that the over-riding priority with the overall project was for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists using the junction and adjoining roadways.

“For a long time now, we’ve had very real and serious concerns about the safety and wellbeing of cyclists and pedestrians using this junction – it just wasn’t safe for them.

“We’ve also had strong evidence from the Gardaí that this junction presented major safety concerns for both pedestrians and cyclists.

“An example of this that was outlined to us by Gardaí was the pedestrian crossing on Bóthar na dTreabh where motorists exiting from the roundabout, were in cases, not stopping when the lights were red to allow pedestrians to cross safely,” said Mr Finn.

The ‘advance works phase one’ part of the Kirwan Junction update is costing in the region of €1million and is being carried out by Madden and Sons contractors – that work began in December and is scheduled to be completed by April.
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