Carlow County Council ‘bogged down in red tape’ as TII is accused of not acting quick enough to avoid N80 tragedy

Over a week on from the devastating car crash on the N80 in Co Carlow, grief has been replaced by frustration, as questions have been raised as to why there has been a delay to implement safety measures on a road which has been has been plagued with fatalities.

Three young people were the latest victims to lose their lives on a stretch of road known locally as ‘Shirley’s Bend’, in the Leagh area on the N80 between Carlow town and Wexford.

The road is a well-known blackspot and has been the scene of a number of fatal road traffic collisions over the past number of years.

The latest fatal collision took to lives of 19-year-old Katie Graham, 21-year-old Daryl Culbert and 25-year-old Michael Kelly, when the car lost control on the dangerous stretch of road and crashed into a tree before catching fire.

“Are Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) serious about road safety in Ireland?,” questioned an exasperated Councillor John McDonald at this month’s Carlow County Council meeting.

Councillor McDonald had previously raised concerns about that particular stretch of road, most recently at the January County Council meeting, right before the tragic N80 crash which happened on the night of Wednesday January 31.

“I asked for safety measures to be implemented immediately on the N80 after the last Carlow County Council meeting in January. I would like an update on that please,” asked Councillor McDonald.

“I have also been calling for turning lanes along that N80 as a matter of urgency. I know it’s a complex process to deliver capital projects and it takes time.”

Councillor McDonald also highlighted how a second collision had taken place on the same stretch of road, only days after the Wednesday crash. “After that horrendous accident of last Wednesday week, there was another accident there on the Friday.

“Maybe we need to bring TII down themselves to have a look at this because they are not acting, they are not acting quick enough.”

Other councillors jumped to the support of Councillor McDonald with several blaming red tape for delaying the project to realign the road.

“We all know that TII have plans to work on this road, but the way things have been going in this country, there are obstacles to trying to move on projects,” stated Cllr Charlie Murphy.

“From what I can see it is obstacle, after obstacle, after obstacle. I think as a country we are so bogged down in red tape, it’s probably easier to do the project than get around the red tape.

He concluded: “I don’t believe this project is heavy on the environment. To realign that road is a small amount of land at the end of the day, which is miniscule in the broad sense.

Cllr Adrienne Wallace argued that the tragedy could have potentially been avoided if processes to developing a road weren’t so lengthy.

“There is another discussion that needs to happen and I don’t think it’s going to be resolved immediately, but there has to be a way to expediate these processes when there is clearly a very dangerous road.

“Week after week there are accidents and now there has been an absolute dreadful tragedy that potentially could have been avoided and that’s horrible for a lot of people to accept and have to live with.

“I really think we should be having discussions with the TII, but we should also be having discussions with the minister as well that we can’t slice through red tape. Some of the red tape is necessary, but when we have an issue that is burning like this one there needs to be a way to hurry up that process to really push things through at a department level a lot quicker because it’s not fair on the communities and the families that are involved in this.

“Where there is a very dangerous situation, there should be a mechanism to really hurry things on.”

Carlow County Council Chief Executive Coilín O’Reilly agreed that the processes are slow, but he countered that there must be a balance.

“I accept the point around capital projects, the difficulty is the balance. It’s getting the balance right. Some of it is Europe as well, some of it goes further afield than even our own national government.

“I think we have become very obligated to statutory processes and due processes and that’s to make sure there’s the level of transparency and oversight that you as councillors demand.

“Even the next phases of the project such as CPO and planning, the reality is that has to be done correctly, we can’t just go realign a road and take somebody’s land.

“I fully accept frustrations about capital projects and I think we are equally frustrated with the level of time it takes on our side. But unfortunately that’s the process we are now in. We can do what we can on our side to expedite projects. It’s not just roads projects, it’s also housing projects, it’s everything, so anything that is capital in nature takes that amount of time.

“But it probably does need to be looked at to see if there are ways to expedite those processes.”

He outlined what stage the project for the realignment of the road was at and what safety measures had already been implemented.

“I will start by outlining the existing safety measures that are there. At the moment we have vehicle activated signs both directions and sharp bend signs on the location which flash ‘Slow Down’ in Irish and English once a vehicle’s speed is over 50km/h. That was 80km/h, but following the January council meeting we reduced it to 70km/h and it’s now set at 50km/h.

“The second safety measure at the site currently is horizontal bar markings so they are the lines on the road that say ‘Slow’ and they are both directions as well. The final current safety measure is signs on the bends to highlight the bend alignment.

“We have also met TII twice in recent weeks; once following the January council meeting and once last week and the discussions centred around the project and safety measures at that location,” explained Mr O’Reilly.

“The status of the capital project is that we have Phase Zero, One and Two complete. We are in really good position with Phase Three which is the design and environmental evaluations and that will be submitted to TII in the coming weeks.

“The next steps post that submission, once it’s approved is to move to Phase Four which is the statutory processes. First of all we have to undertake a legal review and we’re already in the process of procuring that legal advice to undertake that review so that shortens the process only by a number of weeks but it does shorten the process.

“I think what happens then is we go to CPO and planning, both with An Bord Pleanála. We don’t know how long that’s going to take. We would hope that it would be out in a reasonable period. But there is no statutory timeframe for those processes. Once that’s complete it’s enabling works, it’s archaeological excavations and the construction phases.”

Mr O’Reilly added that discussions have also been had about additional signage at the location. But emphasised that all the current signage meets the statutory requirements, but that didn’t mean that more conversations weren’t going to be had about other measures as well.

Cllr Ken Murnane then asked about the possibility of installing speed cameras along that stretch of road. He argued that only speed cameras have the capability of slowing people down, because “if people get caught speeding once, they will not get caught speeding again.”

Mr O’Reilly explained that as a country we have moved away from fixed speed cameras to speed vans. But unfortunately the road is too narrow at that location to have speed vans there.

“We are certainly going to investigate fixed speed cameras at that location, but if we were to have the cameras then we would probably be only place in Ireland to have them,” added Mr O’Reilly. “That’s not saying we won’t have a discussion and look into doing it.”

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