Clare motorists warned busy commuter road to close for four days to facilitate roadworks

One of the main roads into Ennis will be subject to a full road closure from October 28 to October 31, with a 24-hour closure in place throughout this period.

Clare County Council has announced the closure of the R473 Kildysart Road in Ballaghafadda East, Clarecastle, to facilitate wastewater connection works for a new residential development.

Fine Gael councillor for the Ennis Municipal District, Paul Murphy told ClareFM: "The Kildysart Road is going to be closed, a full road closure for a week, which I think is going to impact on the daily life in the village of Clarecastle because you're going to have an additional traffic load coming in the Claremount Road - for the most part the additional traffic load will be heading for Ennis because people that come in the Kildysart Road are heading for Ennis."

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He expressed concerns that: "It's going to be a lot of traffic, the junction at The Castle Cafe, that's a bottleneck at the best of times, so I'm concerned about that."

Motorists travelling to Clarecastle, have been advised by the council, that they should divert via Claremount Road (L-4172), Patrick Street (L-4174), Old Road (L-4198), and Barrack Street (R458).

Meanwhile those travelling from Clarecastle, diversions will be in place via Barrack Street (R458), Patrick Street (L-4174), and Claremount Road (L-4172).

Cllr Murphy stated that despite his suggestion of the possibility that the roadworks be carried out over the weekend, and possible night time works raised by others, it is not feasible as it presents the problem "that you can't get tarmacadam and you can't get concrete and the likes because the places are closed."

"So while it might sound easy to say night time or the weekend - that's not always feasible either so I guess it's like they say 'you cant make an omelette without cracking eggs'."

He assured that the workers that will be carrying out the roadworks "are well aware that they need to be on the ball and to make sure that traffic flow is maintained."

This road closure follows a motion raised during the October meeting of the Ennis Municipal District, where concerns were voiced about the timing of roadworks and their impact on local residents, commuters, and schools.

Donnagh Murphy, A/Senior Executive Engineer, assured: "All  options in terms of positive traffic management [such as temporary traffic lights] are exhausted before a road closure is considered."

In cases where road closures are necessary, he explained that the council exhaust all options to “see how disruption to the public can be minimised for e.g. carrying out works outside of school terms, night works, flexible road closures, pedestrian management etc."

He explained: "Road closures are a last resort in terms of options for facilitating road or construction works, and we take on board the suggestion that at times carrying out works during weekends or at night are somewhat more accommodating to all. This however can bring its own complexities for contractors including additional costs, resource issues and acquiring of plant and materials out of hours."