Speed limit measures will ‘change culture’ of Limerick village

PLANS to reduce the speed limit on the N69 in Mungret will stop one side of the village's main road being “physically isolated” from the other.

That’s according to local councillor Daniel Butler, who has welcomed measures from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to introduce crossings on the busy Limerick to Tralee road.

Funding of €945,000 has been secured from the transport body in order to progress the scheme.

At the moment, he says, the village is “segregated” with locals not able to cross the road, where vehicles currently speed by at up to 80 kilometres an hour.

He believes it is halting growth in the community, with the units on one side of the N69 being too small with limited use.

But cutting the speed limit to 30 kilometres per hour would “change the culture” of Mungret, he believes.

The new pedestrian crossings will “change the culture” of Mungret, believes Cllr Butler.

“It will slow the traffic down, we’ll have a crossing point. We’ll have realignment of junctions. Boland’s Cross near the Clarina side is very dangerous with a number of accidents having taken place there, so they will realign it to make it safer for cars.

“The N69 has meant the far side of it feels some distance even though in reality it is metres away. I want to see Mungret as a village be protected and enhanced retaining its village feel,” the Fine Gael man said.

He praised the owners of the Westward Ho for keeping the pub operational, but said there needs to be support to see that continue.

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“At the moment when you come into the village, where most of the activity is, around the church, there are small buildings so you cannot really grow the village. The road itself, with traffic at high speed, there is no way of crossing, so it feels physically isolated,” he said.

As things stand, the Mid-West Roads Design team are progressing a detailed design for the road realignment, pedestrian crossing and speed limit.

“It has taken longer than anticipated, as they are including a road pavement project with the safety scheme and that required additional approvals from TII, an extension of their consultants’ brief and additional design.” reported the City West member.

He expects that a contractor will be sought for the improvement works by summer.