PICTURES: Large crowd at meeting on Limerick border town's traffic concerns

A LARGE crowd attended a public meeting on Wednesday night which called for a ring road of Charleville to be fast-tracked as traffic congestion in the town continues “to put lives at risk and impact business activity”.

Over 14,000 vehicles travel through the Limerick border town per day. The human cost is stark with 10 pedestrian deaths on Charleville’s main street between 2013 and 2023.

As the N/M20 Cork–Limerick motorway remains at the planning stages, Charleville Community Forum is requesting the proposed traffic management / ring road / relief road Project be fast-tracked, and a firm commitment for the provision of Government funding is sought.

Plans for a bypass date back to 1979, yet the latest timeline pushes a public consultation on a preferred route to early 2027, with construction still years away.

The public event in the Charleville Park Hotel was attended by residents, business owners, public representatives, schools, community organisations, transport representatives and other stakeholders. They were asked to join organisers Charleville Community Forum (CCF) in an “urgent call for action”.

The local forum argue that the volume of traffic, particularly HGVs, travelling through the town centre is unacceptable and negatively impacts road and pedestrian safety and economic and business activity.