Cork town’s housing boom brings acute traffic woes with ‘crazy’ junctions and workers on ‘rat-runs’

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

Road junctions in the East Cork town of Carrigtwohill have become “absolutely crazy” since 1,000 houses were built there in an issue compounded by employees of a nearby industrial estate using the roads as a “rat-run” to avoid congestion elsewhere – a local councillor has said.

At this month’s recent meeting of the Cobh Municipal District Cllr Anthony Barry put forward a motion calling for three junctions on Carrigtwohill’s main street to be audited to determine whether they need to be signalised. In a second motion he called for safety measures to be installed at the junction of the L3615 and the L3616 roads at nearby Annsgrove given the number of traffic accidents there.

“Those junctions are absolutely crazy at the moment. And we still have no firm commitment from the [transport] department that we're going to get funding to upgrade those junctions. Also, in light of this, the N25 [upgrade] has been put in abeyance and hopefully that'll be rectified but I'm not filled with confidence in that given the announcement a few weeks back,” Cllr Barry said.

The thousands of houses being built in Carrigtwohill, around 12 km east of Cork city, and in the Waterrock development near Midleton are putting huge pressure on the local road network, the councillor said.

“I think we've built nearly 1,000 houses in Carrigtwohill. And even though we have a train station, that's a minimum of 1,000 cars that are coming in and out. Already a few hundred houses are in the process of being built in Waterrock. And I know there's a big push to open Waterrock up and to have access down to the Carrigane road and down to that junction. And I'll do everything I can in my power while I'm here anyway that that will not happen until the Carrigane road is made safer. It's just unacceptable that that could open until this happens,” Cllr Barry said.

Regarding the junction of the L3615 and the L3616 roads he said there has been “some quite serious incidents at this because of the speed that they're coming into the junction at. And the sight lines are appalling there, particularly if you're coming down from the Waterrock side, the Tibbotstown side of it. You have to stick the nose of the car right out onto the white line before you can see anything,” he said.

Cllr Barry said the traffic situation has deteriorated due to the increase in housing but also the increased number of people working in the industrial estate. “People are using that junction as a rat-run to get away from the Cobh interchange and the volume of traffic and the backlogs that are there, it's another knock-on of the increased usage,” he said. The Fine Gael councillor said that ideally the junction should be realigned but right now signage should be installed to “alert people that it’s dangerous.”

The Cork County Council response to Cllr Barry’s motions was that it will schedule a traffic survey of the three junctions on Carrigtwohill’s main street and its Road Design Office will use the results to assess whether the junctions be signalised.

Regarding the Annsgrove junction, the local authority said it is “aware of concerns regarding safety at the junction” and will carry out a safety assessment there. “Subject to the findings of this assessment, appropriate measures such as enhanced signage, road markings, warning measures or other suitable improvements will be considered within available resources,” the council said.