Traffic in Ennis 'like a car park' due to ongoing construction works

Councillors likened the traffic congestion around Ennis to "a car park", due to ongoing construction work in the town, at a recent meeting of Ennis Municipal District.

Cllr Clare Colleran-Molloy brought a motion to the meeting on Tuesday, May 7, asking the MD to "assess the ongoing traffic congestion on Carmody Street in Ennis, particularly in light of the ongoing construction works in our town".

Responding Cllr Colleran-Molloy's motion, senior executive engineer Paddy Tierney confirmed that the MD has "committed to a full modern upgrade of the traffic signals at the Carmody Street/Upper O’Connell Street junction," to be carried out as part of the ongoing Public Realm works in the town.

"The upgrade will incorporate technology which will control signals based on traffic volumes and queuing as opposed to the existing dated system which is time-based," Mr Tierney said.

He expalined futher that the traffic signals at the Carmody Street/Kilrush Road junction would be linked with these new set of signals at the Upper O’Connell Street junction, meaning vehicles travelling along the Clare Road/Carmody Street "should at most only have to stop at one set of these signals during moderate or heavy traffic conditions".

He advised these works could cause "an element of traffic disruption" for 4-5 days while the singals were installed.

Cllr Colleran-Molloy welcomed Mr Tierney's response, saying she was glad "to see these works will improve flow of traffic through the town."

Cllr Johnny Flynn also welcomed Mr Tierney's response, but put it to the senior executive engineer that his reply did not address issues regarding the Kilrush road traffic lights at Carmody Street/Market area, which he likened to a "car park".

Mr Tierney replied that these lights had been changed as a result of a number of "near misses" by pedestrians using the junction, stating there is "not much else we can do with that junction".