Relief in Sligo as Govt arranges to upgrade road where 30 lives have been lost

Local people in Sligo have said they feel a sense of relief after it was announced that a road known as the most dangerous stretch in the country is to be upgraded.

30 white crosses, each one marking a life lost, line the stretch on the N4 between Castlebaldwin and Collooney in Sligo.

€102m in funding has been included in the Government's Capital Funding plan for the upgrade which will include a dual carriageway, roundabouts, road overbridges and a number of new side roads.

The N4 Action Group has campaigned for decades for the road to be made safer and spokesperson Bernard Mulhern has said the news comes as a relief.

“In this stage in, it has already got CPO’d, the archaeological digs are also ongoing and Sligo county council are still doing some preliminary work along with it,” Mr Mulhern said.

“So the funding now allows the project to go to the tender stage and the estimated construction period after that will be about 24 months.”