One-way streets in Limerick city centre may be scrapped

A NEW transport strategy for Limerick city centre could recommend the biggest shake-up to traffic flow in almost 30 years.

Mayor John Moran says he hopes to have the new blueprint published by summer.

And he said one of the things he will look at is axing one-way traffic on some city centre streets.

Much of the city centre has been governed by a one-way system since the 1990s.

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But Mayor Moran said: “I’m going to significantly try to change the flow of traffic in Limerick. In the past, when I was growing up in Limerick, most of the streets were two-way. Then we came through with the idea of making them one-way which is really unsafe for people and don’t work well for shopping.”

As it stands, O’Connell Street, Sarsfield Street, Roches Street, Cecil Street and William Street are among those which only allow drivers to travel in one direction.

But, speaking to Limerick Live, the mayor said: “I think what we are going to try and do now is assess some of the one-way streets to see would they work better two-ways, and will that allow us to change the three blocks of O’Connell Street as to how they work?”

Separately, it has emerged the controversial revitalisation of O’Connell Street went overbudget by almost €2m.

Information given to councillors in a report stated the revised budget for the part-pedestrianisation of the street stood at €12.6m.

“By October 2024, the total expenditure incurred on the project was €14.3m,” states the report.

This adds to the fact the completion of the street also ran significantly behind schedule.

Following the overspend of €1.7m, a review of the overall project is taking place, which council director Vincent Murray said is “90% complete”.

He made the comments at this month’s full council meeting, where Mayor Moran raised concerns at the spend on the project.

The first citizen was critical of the redesign of O’Connell Street, which was initially budgeted at €9m.

“I never liked the design of O’Connell Street. I think it was a missed opportunity. It shows you can’t rush decisions like this,” he said.

Meanwhile, a council spokesperson said funding for phase two of the O’Connell Street redesign will only be sought once the transport plan and a public realm plan are completed.

Phase two will see a redesign between the former International Rugby Experience and the water fountain at the Crescent.