This article is from page 12 of the 2007-08-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
CLARE County Council have yield- ed to public pressure and deferred closing the N67 Ballyvaughan to Lis- doonvarna road until after the busy September season in Lisdoonvarna. More than forty objections were lodged with the local authority fol- lowing plans to close the road for ten months, starting in early August. The road, which included Cork- screw Hill and is north Clare’s main tourism artery, will now be closed to
through traffic from October I, and will remain shut until May of 2008.
“Tt had been originally due to start on August 8, but we have now de- ferred the work until October,’ said Joe Spellissy from the road section of Clare County Council.
‘Most of the people who made sub- mission to us said that the main part of their business takes place between May and October. With this in mind we decided that deferring the work on the road would be the most pru- dent thing to do.
Local traffic will be accommodat- ed during the road closure and the council have committed to opening the road during the evening hours whenever possible.
A call had also been made for the local authority to put a stop-go traffic light system in place instead of clos- ing the road but this plan was reject- ed on health and safety grounds.
“It is my understanding that it is not possible to operate a traffic light sys- tem on this road because the road is too narrow. It is for health and safety
reasons,’ continued Mr Spellissey.
“Both emergency traffic and local traffic will be accommodated. In ad- dition to this we hope to be able to open the road between 8pm at night and 7.30am in the morning whenever possible.”
While the road works are in place, a diversion will operate for all non- resident traffic travelling from Bally- vaughan to Lisdoonvarna. The pro- posed route will increase the mileage from Ballyvaughan to Doolin from 14 to more than 40 miles, adding
more than an hour to the daily com- mute time for people living in north Clare and working in Galway.
The road works are to facilitate the connection of the new Lisdoonvarna Water Supply and the North Clare Regional Water Treatment Plant to the Ballyvaughan water supply.
Fears had been raised that the road- works could jeopardise this year’s Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festi- val which generates millions of euro for the north Clare tourism industry each year.