16,000 cars pass through each day
CAPACITY and safety problems at Beary’s Cross, where numerous minor road traffic collisions have occurred, have led to plans to move the junction and introduce a roundabout.
Following numerous minor road traffic collisions at the junction, Limerick County Council has been reviewing the situation but it is expected to take several years before new traffic measures could be installed, due to the NRA’s change of policy in allocating funding to large schemes.
Robert Gallagher, senior executive engineer at Limerick County Council, told a meeting of Castleconnell Electoral Area that capacity problems at Beary’s Cross were particularly bad at rush hour coming from the Caherconlish to Boher direction, with long queues building up and vehicles using the hard shoulder.
“There are issues of a safety at the junction also, with a number of accidents of the less serious kind having occurred, such as cars tipping each other.
“These incidents are often not recorded and the consequence of this is that they are not on the garda or NRA database so the frequency can be known.
“I understand there has been one fatal injury there in recent years”.
Mr Gallagher said that approximately 16,000 cars pass through the junction each day but that there were not enough safety and capacity issues to put the matter on the NRA radar.
“One option was traffic lights, which wasn’t really feasible, and the second is a roundabout.
“We’re looking at developing a new junction to replace the existing one, where housing is too close to the road to introduce a roundabout.
“The junction would be moved toward the Boher direction and the existing Caherconlish road would be closed”.
The scheme would cost an estimated €1 million, funding that is unlikely to be made available in the near future.
“We’re aware that the NRA’s funding has changed direction and that large schemes have stopped, but it has been put on the radar of the authority – if we thought a simpler solution was out there we would have found it, but can’t see one.
“Lucy Curtis, at the NRA, is on the same thinking as us. but it won’t be constructed this year – when funding is available this scheme will be considered”.
Cllr Eddie Wade said that he was afraid people’s hopes would be raised that the traffic issue at Bearys Cross would be resolved, when in reality, the project is “years down the road”
