Council submits funding request for five major junction improvements on busy road

Roscommon County Council has confirmed that it has submitted a funding request to TII in order to carry out improvements to five junction improvements along a stretch of the N61 in south Roscommon.

At a detailed presentation on the N61 Strategic Review report, senior executive engineer with Roscommon County Council Alan Mulryan said the local authority had submitted a request for funding “in quarter four 2023” in relation to five junction improvements. He said this was under consideration by TII as part of the 2024 allocation process.

The five priority locations which combine a cluster of junctions are St. Brigid’s, St. John’s Church, Kiltoom junction, Ballybay National School and Ballymurray.

Councillors were told the proposals were subject to design development, planning, and land acquisition procedures. The council was now engaging with TII to seek the funding.

“Subject to receiving funding next year, the first step in the process is the appointment of technical consultants to commence the planning and design stage of each project. We will have to engage with consultants, go through the normal design process and planning process.

“It has become a lot more onerous to advance schemes through the planning process,” said Mr Mulryan.

“They are not quick-fix solutions, these are fairly substantial projects, and they are going to take time to design, plan and implement. We would hope within two or three years, we would get through a lot of that process in relation to planning and design,” he said.

At the outset of Mr Mulryan’s presentation on the long-awaited N61 safety report on the 28km stretch between Roscommon Town and Athlone, the meeting was told that the average annual daily traffic count from Athlone to Roscommon was 14,000 vehicles.

He said the improvement of the Ballymurray to Knockcroghery section had been identified in various studies as a priority intervention on the N61 national secondary route.

The N61 Ballymurray to Lecarrow project began development in 2016/2017 and progressed to the identification of the preferred route corridor in 2021. However, the project was suspended due to funding constraints in December 2021, and significant safety concerns remain.

Mr Mulryan outlined that TII provided limited funding for a strategic review of the road from Roscommon Town to Ganly’s roundabout Athlone. Concurrently but independent of this study, a national road speed limit review undertaken by Tobin consultants in conjunction with TII and relevant local authorities was being finalised.

During this process, Roscommon County Council’s elected members proposed a reduction in a maximum speed limit at specific locations on the N61 between Athlone and Roscommon to help improve safety. He said these proposals were generally rejected.

In relation to the strategic review, he said the scope was to undertake a detailed analysis of the N61 for alignment, cross sections, junctions and entrances, traffic data, collision data, non-motorised users, utility information, planning, pavement, drainage, and structures.

Based on the analysis, the objective was to identify a series of measures to help address the issues in the short- to medium- term, and then to prioritise a series of measures for implementation.

Since 1996, Mr Mulryan said that there had been 12 fatal, 20 serious and 118 minor collisions recorded on this section of N61. On this stretch, he said there were a high number of junctions (53) with more than 600 direct accesses. The meeting also heard that EU studies suggest under- reporting of minor collisions by a factor of three.

Councillors were told that the N61 was sub-standard in geometry, particularly north of Knockcroghery. “The crosssection is largely deficient between Ballymurray and Knockroghery, and between Kiltoom and Hodson Bay.” “The N61 has unforgiving roadsides with numerous hazards located within verges. Overtaking opportunities are limited and are concentrated south of Knockcroghery. Based on the existing alignment, a number of the road sections are more suited to an 80km road section,” said Mr Mulryan.

“There are no pedestrian facilities other than those located inside the urban zones of Roscommon Town, Knockcroghery and Hodson Bay. Traffic volumes are currently approaching capacity of a single carriageway near Roscommon and exceeding capacity near Athlone.

“Essentially the main issue with the N61 is safety,,” he said.

Councillors were told a geometric analysis concluded an 80kph speed limit was more appropriate at specific locations.