This article is from page 30 of the 2007-11-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 30 JPG
MAKE the new Northern Distribu- tor Road big enough to solve grid- lock in east Clare – that was the message to the Clare and Limerick County Council’s from an elected representative for the area. Councillor Cathal Crowe said that he wants the two local authorities to give “strong consideration” to the width of carriageway for the proposed Northern Distributor Road. In June of this year the elected members of Clare County Council gave the green light to Limerick County Council to proceed to the planning stages for a section of the Northern Distributor Road from Coonagh roundabout to
Knocklisheen, Meelick.
“When this road sees the lights of day it is vital that it tackles traffic congestion in south east Clare and suburban Limerick in a meaningful way, the councillor said.
“A lot of forward thinking is re- quired if this road 1s to be effective.”
The councillor pointed to the road system built 15 years comprising of the Clonmacken Ring Road and Condell Road on the north side of Limerick City.
“These roads were built with the aim to alleviate traffic congestion in the city hinterland. The present re- ality is that this road system is one of the most congested routes in the mid-west and in order to escape the
city and suburban traffic, motor- ists are forced to take a detour on the south east Clare ‘rat-run’ from O’Briensbridge to Meelick. I feel that a wide carraigeway, or better still, a carraigway routed several miles north of suburban Limerick would best deal with the current traf- fic problems.”
John Fitzgerald has been appointed by the Government to head a task- force to deal with matters of social exclusion in the Moyross area. His report included a proposal to have a road running north of Moyross from Coonagh roundabout to the Knock- lisheen Road in Meelick.
Whilst the entire Northern Dis- tributor Road will take a number of
years to come to fruition, the section from Knocklisheen to Coonagh will be fast-tracked.
“IT hope that ultimately this road will do a lot to alleviate the daily congestion on roads in the south east Clare area. The road system from Clonlara, through Parteen and Ar- dnacrusha and on into Meelick has become a rat-run for commuters,” SO voy (our bee
He added that it is “important that all efforts are now made to build on the positive momentum around John Fitzgerald’s report. I hope that both local authorities, in conjunction with central Government, will now try to advance the entire Northern Distrib- utor Road project”.