Car-mageddon: Cork citywide gridlock investigation launched
Hours of delays were encountered around the city after what has been described as the worst gridlock ever experienced by commuters.
It was mainly sparked by flooding which led to the closure of the left lane heading northbound from Junction 10 at Mahon to the Jack Lynch Tunnel. As a result, from around 4pm traffic started to grind to a halt on the N40 South Ring Road.
When motorists became aware of the gridlock on the approaches to the tunnel, many opted to turn towards the city at the Kinsale Road Roundabout which then created mayhem on the South Link Road and especially at the junction near the Elysian Tower.
Tailbacks in the city centre were still being witnessed up to 9pm.
Meanwhile, other motorists chose to try and avoid the city by rat-running through Blackrock and Douglas, which led to even more traffic tailbacks.
Frustrated drivers whose cars and tempers were beginning to overheat decided to vent their anger through social media, describing the situation as “horrific” and a “disgrace” and referring to the event as “car-mageddon”.
One person claimed they had a three-hour wait to access the Jack Lynch Tunnel from the Kinsale Road; another left Ballincollig at 4.30pm and got to the tunnel at 7pm; while a third driver had a two-hour wait to get from Wilton to the tunnel.
Another took an hour just to get from Mercy University Hospital to Jury’s Inn.
“We will be holding a post mortem on the issue to see if we can avoid a repeat occurrence or if any additional engineering measures are required but these could take time,” said TTI spokesman Sean O’Neill. He said they had no option but to close the lane approaching the tunnel due to flooding.
“We were dealing with rising river levels, significant water runoff from the land and excessive rain. These combined to flood the lane and the timing of the event was absolutely terrible. It shows how critical the N40 is and, similar to the M50 in Dublin, if something bad happens on it then the entire region is affected.”
TII (formerly the NRA) and not the city council is responsible for the N40. Motorists might want to take heed of Mr O’Neill’s warning that further heavy rain is expected over the weekend.
“We have a team in place who can better manage the situation directly,” he said.
A Garda spokesperson described the situation as pandemonium, confirming that while gardaí were dispatched to help ease the situation they were overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the problem.
“If there is an incident such as a collision or an unusual traffic situation we can fix it. The problem is that unfortunately when there is a massive downpour we have to wait for it to abate,” he said.
“If the South Ring Road is down to one lane then it becomes mayhem. Once traffic moves on to the ring road they are stuck until they can come off at an exit. It’s just one of those things.”
Cllr Des Cahill (FG) said a lot of questions needed to be answered as to how a single lane closure could result in the worst traffic Cork has ever seen.
He said his daughter missed the 7.20pm train to Dublin and only just made the 8.20pm by getting out of the car at Parnell Place and running to the train station.
“The flooding of the road began at 10am and it was closed at noon but even then I didn’t see any machinery working on the drains to resolve the issue and they did not move quickly enough to reopen the lane once the flooding had subsided,” said Cllr Cahill.
He said the issue will be raised at a city council meeting.
Cllr Cahill added it was a clear example of how important the tunnel is and why tolling it can’t be an option.
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