Reopening of old Letterkenny route could be ‘brilliant help’ for school traffic
It's hoped that a former road beside Little Angels School and the Donegal Hospice in Letterkenny could be brought back into use under a proposal brought to the council this week.
The old road to the Donegal Hospice at Knocknamona was converted into a path (pictured above, left) during the extension of the N56 and is now only accessible by pedestrians and cyclists.
100% Redress councillor Tómas Seán Devine believes reopening this route as a road could take pressure off school buses, parents and other road users at key times.
Since the opening of the award-winning new Little Angels school, Cllr Devine said it would be a "brilliant help" if the path was considered for one-way traffic.
As a father whose child attends the school, Cllr Devine said the route would suit the large number of buses that travel into Little Angels every day and allow vehicles travelling up the N56 to turn left into the school.
He said he could not see why the idea could not be considered when the existing road was already in place.
He described the proposal as “a temporary solution” to the congestion affecting the area.
The council’s written response said introducing a one-way system would require either an entry or exit junction onto the N56.
It said the proposal would require approval from Transport Infrastructure Ireland, along with an assessment of its potential impact on traffic movements and road safety across the national road network.
Independent Cllr Michael McBride said he believed that connecting the two roads would be “a very simple job” and could provide a practical way of easing congestion.
Cllr McBride also referred to major projects planned by Atlantic Technological University in the area and called for short-term traffic solutions to be progressed while those developments move forward.
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