Traffic running smoothly during Lough Atalia roadworks
‘Steady as she goes’ seems to be the consensus of opinion on the traffic impact of the Lough Atalia bridge project, now in the third week of work on the €2 million scheme.
Fears that week two of the project – when all the schools reopened after the Easter break – would bring traffic chaos to the city, have not been realised, with many motorists taking alternative routes.
Impatient drivers and ‘lane hoppers’ seem to have caused most of the problems in the Lough Atalia and College Road areas, according to the consulting engineers in charge of the project.
Liaison officer with Tobin Engineers, Tom Cannon, told the Galway City Tribune that it was a case of ‘so far, so good’ with the new traffic system, as drivers were generally heeding the direction signage.
“We had obviously planned in advance to begin the project during the Easter school holidays period and this give us a bit of breathing space during the first week of the job. “Initially it did take a couple of days for drivers to get used to the new one-way routes but since then, the whole system seems to be running fairly smoothly,” said Mr. Cannon.
He outlined four main advisory guidelines for people travelling in and out of the city:
■ Adhere to the lane instructions where the one-way systems apply.
■ If there is an alternative route available other than Lough Atalia, take it.
■ Consider using alternative modes of transport: “Give the buses a try; consider rail from Oranmore; think about car pooling, walking or cycling.”
■ If driving, exercise that extra little bit of patience especially if you come on motorists encountering the system for the first time.
He said that good progress was being made in the early stages of the bridge project with the road being lowered to give a standard height clearance level of just over five metres.
“The work so far has involved excavation to facilitate the lowering of service mains such as gas, water and telecommunications lines. Progress has been good and we are on schedule for our completion date of Friday, May 29 [just before the June bank holiday weekend]” said Mr Cannon.
A spokesman for Galway City Council said that the Traffic Management Plan in place seemed to be working well with commuters only experiencing slightly more delays than the normal during the morning and evening peak traffic times.
“This is a vital piece of work for the infrastructure of the city and we look forward to its completion before the June bank holiday weekend,” said the spokesman.