This article is from page 24 of the 2011-01-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 24 JPG
THE MAIN road between Ennistymon and Lahinch came within an inch of being closed over the Christmas period, it was revealed at yesterday’s North Clare Area meeting of Clare County Council.
The road, which carries an estimated 20,000 cars per week during the winter months, was severely damaged as a result of the pre-Christmas cold snap, with local authority crews forced to conduct daily emergency repairs on the road.
Despite these efforts, a large number of minor accidents were reported on the road during the Christmas period.
Responding to a motion put forward by Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) at yesterday’s meeting in Ennistymon, council engineer Stephen Lahiffe said that the road “was in danger of being closed” over the Christmas period.
This section of the N67 is one of the main routes in north Clare and is also a major tourism artery, carrying more than € 1 million visitors to the Burren each year.
Clare County Council yesterday confirmed that a new contractor has been hired to strengthen and tar the road with works expected to get underway in five weeks. This follows difficulty in engaging a contractor before Christmas, with one chosen contractor going into liquidation and a second being unable to raise a bond for the project.
“The money is still there and work will start in the next five weeks and that is good news. I would hope that when the work is completed that we will have a state of the art road between Ennistymon and Lahinch,” said Cllr Nagle.
“I have been inundated with complains about the state of the road over the last few weeks. That there had to be daily works carried the road just to keep it open shows how bad it was.”
Seconding the motion, local councillor Martin Conway (FG), said that the road should have been prioritised long ago.
“This is the main connnectivity route to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. Even at off peak we are talking about 20,000 cars per week and much more in the summer,” he said.
“This is one of the most used stretches of road in the county. Really and truly it should have been prioritiesed long ago. I would like to commend the council for the work they have done to keep it open. It is just such a pity that so many small acident had to take place on the road over the last while.”