Residents Emma Lahiff, Lilly Connolly, Paul Kinsella, Nathasha McClelland, Sebastian Tineghe on Tuesday evening at the site of the works
No enthusiasm for kerbs at Bawnogue turn
WATCH:
NEW traffic measures on a major Clondalkin road are causing considerable issues for residents, weeks before they are even complete.
Work is set to finish up in mid-October on the Bawnogue District Centre Enhancement Scheme, which proposes to “upgrade and enhance the local community of Bawnogue, making it more accessible, sustainable, and attractive for residents, businesses, and visitors”.
However residents are complaining that the road has been narrowed too much to make way for a segregated cycle route, and that the junction at Bawnogue Road and Lealand Road has been made “too sharp” for traffic to pass through safely.
Natasha McClelland is a resident of Lealand who said she came across the aftermath of a collision at the junction on Friday, August 22, and heard from another neighbour that a second, separate crash had occurred at the Lealand Road/Bawnogue Road junction later that same evening.
“It’s a very, very sharp turn, and just two metres back a big wide double-sized bike track starts from nowhere, the junction has been narrowed,” she told The Echo.
So many people have hit the kerb at the junction that it’s black from their tyres, Natasha said.
“I need to go a little bit wider in order not to either clip my back wheel off the kerb or take the nose off the car that’s trying to come out, it’s very hard, it’s impossible.”
Work is still ongoing at the junction, and a new road surface is due to be put down which will reduce the height of the kerb.
Natasha hopes to see the council take on board the concerns that she and her neighbours have voiced and incorporate them into the final works.
“They will say they gave the communities a chance to probably participate before, but I don’t know, did they really,” she said, referring to the Part 8 public consultation that South Dublin County Council ran for the Bawnogue scheme in late 2023, which only got five submissions at the time.
Cllr Eoin Ó Broin (SD) acknowledged the concerns from local residents about the current issues with the junction, but said he looked forward to seeing how things would pan out once all works have been completed.
“Definitely the junction takes some getting used to, when the whole works are finished we’ll have a better sense of how it all fits,” he said.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
