Traffic chaos in Blackrock to continue until Friday as Council officials rule out later start time

By Olivia Ryan, The Drogheda Independent

Traffic ‘chaos’ emerged in Blackrock on Monday morning as Louth County Council began roadworks on the main route into Dundalk.

Long tailbacks developed as motorists sought alternative routes into town, and according to one local councillor “some children didn’t get into school until 10.30am and others couldn’t be dropped off at creche.”

Cllr. Shane McGuinness told the October meeting of Louth County Council that he had been “inundated” with calls from people who faced extremely long delays.

“I don’t think there was any thought or planning put into this, and I don’t think it is acceptable at all that a road that is as busy as this one should be closed for up to seven to ten days."

"It was absolute madness out there on the roads this morning, people couldn’t leave their kids at creches and children didn’t get to school until half past ten.”

He said he had requested that the starting time for works be moved from 8am to 9am, adding, “it would make a lot of people’s lives a lot easier for the rest of this week.”

Cllr. McGuinness said he had reached out to eight different officials at the council, and had not received a reply from anyone.

Director of Service, David Hanratty told the meeting that the council make every effort to reduce disruption when roadworks take place. He said that with all works in urban areas “there will unfortunately be disruption.”

He said they had looked at closing half the road, and keeping the other half open for traffic, but it wasn’t possible due to how narrow the road is.

He said the starting time for works would not be changed as the works are now underway, and the contractor is aiming to finish by Friday.

"Every option was looked at, by working the hours they are working at the moment they are aiming to get it done within five days.”

A number of councillors said they had received calls from the public, including Cllr. Maeve Yore who said: “I have been getting calls all weekend, and this morning people telling me it has been chaos in Blackrock. Some of them are bus operators, businesses and residents.”

“We need to start thinking out of the box in relation to roadworks, whether that means pushing the starting time back to 9 so that children can get to school.”

She added: “Blackrock is like a small town at this stage, and there are so many people coming in and out several times a day. Some people said they hadn’t seen the advance warning about the roadworks, as not everyone is on social media or reads papers.”

Cllr. Robbie Nash added many people had been in touch with him asking why the work could not have been carried out during mid-term next week.

"I appreciate that we can’t put all the roadworks off to mid-term, and that roadworks need to be done. I do see the argument on both sides, and as most of the traffic would probably be gone by 8.45am, maybe we could move the start time until then, but would that then mean working until 7.”

"I don’t have a solution to it, but I think it does raise the issue of a secondary school being needed in Blackrock as a lot of traffic is going into schools in Dundalk.”

Cllr. Kevin Meenan said: “I think we need to have an element of patience here as you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. We all want roads to be improved, and this needs to be done. We have become a very impatient society.”

Mr. Hanratty told the meeting that advance warning signs had been placed along the road for a number of weeks.

He told councillors that moving the contract to night-time would see a 40pc increase in the cost of works.