Redesign of Ballindooley junction set to finally begin

Plans to redesign and make safe the dangerous junction at Ballindooley Cross will take a step forward in the coming year, after years of delays due to a lack of money.

Galway City Council has included the notorious junction in its three-year capital investment programme 2016 to 2018.

Director of Services for Transport, Joe O’Neill said that the N84 junction improvement works at Ballindooley Cross are at a “preliminary design” stage and would be advanced further in 2016.

Mr O’Neill said that he hoped the project would be ready to go through the Part 8 planning permission stages by the Summer of 2016, and then it would be put out to tender.

He was responding to queries from Galway City Councillor Mike Cubbard (Ind), who had requested an update on the status of the project.

Cllr Cubbard said it was expected work could start on the project in late 2016 or early 2017.

Mr O’Neill said the final cost of the project hasn’t been determined and it will be paid for through national funding.

The improvement works on this junction are long overdue. In 2011, the Council secured some funding for design work on the project which will involve modifications and alterations at Ballindooley Cross and on a 200 metre to 270 metre section of the N84 Galway/Headford Road on the approaches to the junction.

The local authority then sought funding from the National Roads Authority to carry out the work in 2012 but national monies dried up.

In 2013, concerns were raised about the impact the improvement works would have on a local heritage site.

The Ballindooley Cross Community, Cultural and Heritage Project was anxious that the pre-famine cottage, which is owned, and sits on lands owned by the City Council, be restored.

The group asked that the cottage and surrounding lands be preserved and developed as a cultural and heritage amenity for all the community to enjoy.  The improvement works would require bisecting the site around the 1950’s cottage, which could threaten the integrity of the site.