Work on dual carriageway junctions to begin before year end

Phase two of the upgrade of the dual carriageway, which involves installing traffic signals at three of the junctions, will begin at the end of October or the beginning of November and will take five to six months to complete. The issue was raised at Monday's meeting of the Athlone Area Committee of Westmeath County Council, when Cllr Mark Cooney and Cllr Gabrielle McFadden asked for an update on the upgrade of the road. The council said in relation to phase one of the project, the mainline pavement was completed last week and all junctions are now operating as normal. The completion of the safety barrier and pavement works to the median are ongoing and will continue for another four weeks. This will involve closures of sections of the fast lane and also closures of sections of the hard shoulder over the next month. Director of Services Barry Kehoe said the tenders for phase two of the project had been received and the council hoped the contractor will commence this work at the end of October or beginning of November. He said all three of the junctions where traffic signals are being installed are on the east side of town and said there had been less disruption to traffic when junctions were closed on the east side, compared to closures on the west side of town. He added that there would be disruption when the Garrycastle junction was being worked on as the works here included the construction of a footbridge. Cllr Gabrielle McFadden said she was concerned about traffic being an issue around Christmas and said she hoped it could be kept to minimum around the weekends in the run up to Christmas. Cllr Frankie Keena said he welcomed phase two of the project and said it was vitally important that people had access to the off ramps. Cllr Kevin 'Boxer' Moran said he wanted to give credit to area engineer Alan Kelly as he was very active on the ground and said he couldn't wait for phase two to happen as it was the final piece in the jigsaw. Mayor Alan Shaw said he wanted to compliment the team for being in a position to have phase one of the work finished by October 21 and said a lot of effort had gone in to ensuring most of the work was finished before the schools reopened. He said he was concerned that the use of traffic signals at some junctions would be disruptive in terms of causing delays. Mr Kehoe said he understood Cllr Shaw's concerns but said they do work and will allow the council to deal with vulnerable road users. Cllr Cooney said he welcomed the response and hoped phase two would go as smoothly as phase one. He asked the council to make the contractor aware of the volume of traffic on Garrycastle Bridge in the mornings.