Grass-cutting brings city traffic to a standstill
Serious questions have to be asked about who authorised grass cutting during peak traffic flow on Thursday morning on the busiest route into the city – just hours before Taoiseach Enda Kenny was to arrive in Galway – a Fianna Fáil TD has told the Galway City Tribune.
Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív said that answers needed to be provided as to who gave the go-ahead for the grass cutting operation along the dual carriageway linking the N6 ‘motorway roundabout’ to the Briarhill junction, close to Dunnes Stores.
The grass cutting led to what many motorists described as ‘traffic carnage’ with one lane shut down leading to traffic being backed up to Oranmore and Carnmore Cross at different times between 7.30am and 10am.
It meant a nightmare scenario developing for students at both GMIT and NUI Galway who were on their way to practicals and exams at the third level institutes on Thursday morning.
Some motorists described scenes of students alighting from stationary cars and ‘sprinting off’ in an effort to get to their examinations on time. Many motorists said that they ‘were stuck in traffic’ for an hour as they tried to make their way into the city.
Sean O’Neill, Head of Communications at the NRA (National Roads Authority), said that the NRA were not involved in the authorisation of any work being carried on this stretch of roadway by the RMS road maintenance company.
“Initially it appeared that they might have been working under our remit but this wasn’t the case. The confusion on this issue may have arisen because RMS also do work for the Galway City and County Councils,” said Mr. O’Neill.
For more on this story, see this week's Galway City Tribune