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Cllr Terry O’Brien
A TRALEE councillor says serious consideration needs to be given to the timing of road works in the town after a ‘perfect storm’ of traffic delays over the past couple of months.
Labour Cllr Terry O’Brien had a motion before the Tralee Municipal District meeting on Monday that Kerry County Council review their traffic management policies going forward to ensure that a town of Tralee’s size does not go into gridlock with too many road works at the same time in the same areas.
The past months have seen works carried out on a number of streets and access roads into the town including Strand Street, the Oakpark Road and the ongoing works at Bridge Street/Russell Street/Rock Street.
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Cllr O’Brien said Tralee has been ‘absolutely hammered’ traffic-wise. He said the Council should look at what they’re doing, where they’re doing it and when they carry out the works. He said the works carried out last month created a ‘perfect storm’ of traffic delays.
Cllr O’Brien said he understood road works and Irish Water upgrades had to be completed, but they shouldn’t be carried out all at the same time.
In reply, Council Management said the impact of the Covid 19 Level 5 Public Health restrictions in early 2021 delayed the smooth delivery of approved projects resulting in their annual roads programme being concentrated in the second half of the year.
Consequently, projects that were scheduled to be completed in series had to be rescheduled to be delivered in tandem to facilitate their completion by year end. This resulted in more significant traffic delays.
They said they will endeavour to minimise delays associated with the delivery of its Municipal District Works Plan into the future.
