Lack of investment costing lives and prosperity, say West Cork communities
Traffic on the N71 in Bantry. Picture: David Forsythe
“You just have to stand by the road for a few minutes to get a sense of it, the cars speeding through, huge numbers of trucks, they shouldn’t be passing through a small village like ours,” says Joe Walsh, local resident and founder member of the Innishannon Traffic Action Group.
About 17km from Cork City, Innishannon is the first village you pass through heading west on the N71, the main route into West Cork.
Like most towns and villages along the route there is no bypass of Innishannon, forcing thousands cars and trucks down Main Street every day.
As traffic volumes continue to rise, the number of accidents has risen too, as well as an increase in noise and air pollution, prompting concerned locals to set up the group.
Mr Walsh said: “We just thought enough was enough and we had to try and do something about it. In the long term of course we want to see a bypass but we have been focusing our efforts on traffic calming and speed reduction to make the village safer for everyone as a priority.”
One of the first things the group did was commission its own traffic study to see just how busy the N71 actually is passing through Innishannon and the results were stunning.
The survey conducted over a seven day period in 2021 by Irish Traffic Surveys Ltd found that there were 16,000 vehicles per day passing through the village and more than 80% of those were travelling faster than 50 kmh as they passed down Main Street.
Mr Walsh said: “We knew it would be high but the results were quite startling.
"There has been a lot in the news recently about the Macroom Bypass finally being completed which is great for Macroom but these figures show there are more vehicles passing through Innishannon every day than was the case in Macroom.”
Unlike Macroom, Innishannon is not on a “national primary route” defined as the main inter-urban routes connecting Dublin, the regional cities and major ports around the country which have historically been the priority for investment.
The N71 is instead defined as a “national secondary route”, which while still major traffic arteries, have not seen anything like the level of investment in recent years as their primary counterparts.
Starting in Cork City, the N71 is the only national road in West Cork serving an extensive rural and coastal area larger than most Irish counties.
Along its 187km length it passes through the major towns of Bandon, Clonakilty, Skibbereen, and Bantry before crossing into Co Kerry, passing through Kenmare and terminating in Killarney.
One of the country’s major tourist routes, a substantial part of the road is part of the Wild Atlantic Way while at its eastern end, it serves as a major commuter route into Cork City. The last major improvement to the route was the completion of the Skibbereen bypass in 2003.
According to Padraig Barrett, director of services for roads and transportation at Cork County Council, recent changes in priority at national level may benefit secondary routes like the N71.
“There are many sections of the N71 where bypasses are needed I would say. We are working on Bandon, I would say Innishannon and Clonakilty are both necessary and it’s something we are taking up with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).
"The focus of government in the current programme is for relief roads and bypasses as opposed to inter-urban and long stretches of rural construction. I think that’s an opportunity for us in places like Clonakilty and Innishannon to advance our designs so that we can give people certainty for the future.”
Despite the guarded optimism, Mr Barrett said that funding was still the major obstacle and even if projects were approved it can take decades to complete them.
“I mentioned at the opening of the Macroom Bypass that we published the feasibility study for that project in October 2001 so you are talking about decades of work. Roads in general in the country are underfunded.
“We get the same as every local authority gets in terms of euro per kilometre of road but I would argue in terms of our proximity to and given the level of tourism activity that we have, our roads suffer to a higher degree than other local authorities. Both Meath and Kildare get a multiplication factor of 1.2 and no other county council gets that.
"I think there is a very strong case for Cork County to get that multiplication factor as well, given its proximity to Cork City and given the level of tourism activity and the level of industry that’s in the county. So I think we should argue for that.”
In Bandon, a public consultation was held during the summer to select a route to finally complete the town’s N71 relief road. The project has been awaiting completion for more than 20 years. Currently a steep gradient at one end of the road still forces many trucks through the town centre.
Hilary O’Farrell, chairperson of the Bandon Business Association, says that the town has waited long enough.
“In Bandon we have a half completed bypass. It’s probably 25 years since it was opened.
"It’s been very hard for residents in Bandon, for businesses, the bypass needs to be completed, we are tired of waiting. The feasibility study is a good positive step in the right direction but Bandon is a town that has had huge infrastructural works over the last few years.
"We are now at the cosmetic stage and if we could get onto this last part of the bypass it would just be the icing on the cake. The town needs it now and it needs to move forward. We’ve waited long enough to get funding and hopefully with the commencement of this feasibility study it will happen soon.”
Further west, in Clonakilty, the town’s urban relief road is struggling to cope with heavy traffic volumes as more housing and business developments are completed in the area. Local independent councillor Paul Hayes says that planning for a northern relief road should be happening now.
“I’m still going to be banging the drum, looking for a bypass around Clonakilty. They want to develop the town but you have to have the infrastructure to support that.
"The amount of planned development with Clonakilty being a hub town, you can clearly see already that the existing bypass is choked especially around school times, morning and evening, so we really do need to progress this northern relief road.”
Mr Hayes said that safety was also a major concern as traffic volumes continue to increase on the N71.
At Newmills near Rosscarbery — a notorious accident blackspot where many fatalities have occurred— plans are finally being drawn up to realign the road and a public consultation was held in October.
Mr Hayes said: “At Newmills there have been numerous serious accidents, a lot of fatalities and serious injuries. People living by the road due to the frequency of the accidents have had towels and first aid kits inside their doors ready to respond to accidents in the middle of the night.
“The emergency services too are asking after these serious accidents, how many more people have to die, how many more have to get I injured before any road improvements will take place?
"It’s just not good enough, it really brings home the stark reality of underfunding for national roads like the N71 here in West Cork.”
Mr Hayes added: “Like a lot of places around the country we are suffering from under-investment. I was elected in 2014 and sadly an awful lot of the projects that were on the agenda then are still on the agenda all these years later.
"There are clearly issues for roads like the N71."
In Bantry, there are hopes that work on the first phase of a proposed relief road may commence as soon as 2024 but plans for a full bypass of the town are still some way off.
County Mayor Danny Collins, who owns a pub in the town, says that the public has become very cynical about the likelihood of improvements actually happening.
“If I said on my social that this would be happening in 2024 they would say to me ‘you’re in dreamland’. It’s a project I will keep on pushing, I will keep on mentioning and hopefully we will see a design and hopefully the Government will send funding.
"Even if the first part of it, phase one can happen, because it will take a lot of traffic out of the main streets of Bantry.”
Danielle Delaney, chairperson of the Bantry Business Association, says that without a bypass the town cannot reach its full potential.
“It holds us back, definitely. We have a lot of traffic passing through, there is no way to get around the town without them coming straight through and we have a lot of trucks that are using the road. It’s a congestion issue, its a safety issue and its an issue for the truck drivers as well.
“The streets that they are trying to get through, Marino Street, Glengarriff Road, they are narrow streets, they are not made for the size of the trucks and it is causing problems.
"Sometimes we see trucks stuck and traffic backed up. We need to get the relief road in, I know it’s a process that has started but hopefully they can get it started sooner rather than later and find a way for the trucks to avoid the town.”
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