Traffic flow, lights and bus strike combine for Galway’s perfect storm

New road markings, malfunctioning traffic lights and the bus strike combined to create a ‘perfect storm’ on the roads this week – with what has been described as the worst traffic Galway has ever seen.

Motorists spent up to two-and-a-half hours stuck in traffic on Monday morning on the approach from the M6 motorway to the Briarhill junction – because an ‘upgrade’ of the lights over the weekend instead caused a systems failure.

On Tuesday, the problem had moved to the Monivea Road, while by Wednesday morning, both approach roads were affected.

Galway West TD Noel Grealish said traffic this week was “an absolute disaster, probably the worst Galway has ever seen, and we already have a bad reputation”.

Meanwhile, the Chief Superintendent of the Galway Garda Division has said he does not have the resources to have officers on point duty to direct traffic.

The fault with the lights, coupled with the elimination of one of the right turn lanes from the Monivea Road onto the dual carriageway towards the Tuam Road junction and the strike by Bus Éireann workers, “turned the motorway into the M50”, as one road user put it.

Galway City Council ordered the installation of a new component in the Briarhill lights on Saturday night to allow them to be controlled from the traffic centre at City Hall – this was part of an effort to alleviate problems caused by lane marking changes at the end of February, which themselves were designed to help flow into and out of Parkmore Industrial Estate.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.