Cork town to get safety upgrades to reduce traffic speeds after pedestrian deaths
Charleville main street is due to have significant traffic-calming measures, with road narrowing and a subsequent loss of some car parking spaces. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Plans are at an advanced stage to improve safety measures in a Co Cork town which has seen 10 elderly pedestrians killed in almost as many years by trucks while they were trying to cross its main street.
The understands temporary "fixes" are planned in advance of a proper bypass of Charleville — as part of the planned N/M20 Cork-Limerick main road upgrade.
These will include an upgrade and extension of a relief road to the eastern side of the town, new junction connections to it at the northern and southern ends of the town, narrowing of the main street for traffic, plus improvements to existing pedestrian crossings and the addition of new ones.
It is understood Baker’s Road, to the east of main street, will be enhanced as an interim relief road and it will be extended on its northern side to link directly with the main Limerick and Kilmallock roads.
Traffic calming measures will also be carried out at schools close to the new junctions to be created there.
Padraig Barrett, the county council’s director of roads, confirmed plans would be presented shortly to councillors representing the Kanturk/Mallow Municipal District Council.
Mr Barrett said there would be significant traffic-calming measures in the main street, with road narrowing and a subsequent loss of some car parking spaces.
He said work would be carried out to improve safety at the five existing pedestrian crossings on the same street and more will be created to make it safer for those crossing the road, which sees up to 20,000 vehicles pass through it daily.
About 15% are HGVs servicing not just Cork and Limerick but the general Charleville area where they supply a large industrial base and agricultural community.
The town was due to have been bypassed years ago. In 2009, An Bord Pleanála held an oral hearing to examine plans for a new motorway between Cork and Limerick. Within months of that hearing, the government pulled the plug on it as money dried up due to the recession.
The upgrade of the route is now back on the table, but it will be many years before it is completed.
Mr Barrett said they could not wait that long and needed to put in safety measures now to protect the public.
“We have put together a multi-disciplinary team to draw up designs to make it safer for people. There’s a big, wide main street in the town and it's part of a national road. The road needs to be narrowed in places to reduce traffic speed," he said.
The county council needs to submit its plans to local councillors for approval and then forward them to Transport Infrastructure Ireland for similar rubberstamping and funding.
Mr Barrett said upgrades of pedestrian crossings and the additions of new ones, along with further traffic calming measures in the main street would be done in 2024.
The upgrade of Baker's Road may take a bit longer.
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