Dangerous junction to be highlighted
The dangerous junction at Knockbounce, where there have been at least five accidents in recent times, will be discussed on KFM radio this morning on the Clem Ryan show.
The matter was raised yesterday at the Athy Local Area Meeting by Cllr Martin Heydon. The following is a statement he made after the meeting.
‘Urgent action needs to be taken if a fatal accident is to be avoided,’ that is according to Cllr Martin Heydon who was referring to the dangerous junction of the R448 and R418 (where the old N9 Carlow rd meets the old N78 Athy rd) at Knockbounce, south of Kilcullen.
Speaking at the March monthly Athy area meeting, Cllr Heydon outlined how there had been five car accidents reported to the Gardaí for this area on September 18th, October 21st, November 9th and 20th along with December 19th last. This contradicts claims from the National Roads Design Office at a special meeting the week before last that ‘there was no requirement for further delineation work or public lighting and that there was no contact with Gardaí re accidents’ at this same site.
The NRDO have stated that the new junction forms part of the N9 Phase 3 Works and the design and construction are the responsibility of the Contractor. When the Certificate of Completion is issued, that particular stretch of road will fall under the jurisdiction of KCC. However Roadbridge (the contractors) contend that they have handed control of the road over to Kildare County Council already.
Heydon continued, ‘I was shocked to learn that the final safety audit for this stretch of road has not yet been carried out by the contractors. Kildare County Council need to take control of this situation immediately and ensure that the final safety audit is carried out in conjunction with the Gardaí and the local area roads engineer and whatever remedial work that is deemed necessary from a safety point of view, is carried out straight away.’
‘I have received numerous calls from people who have had near misses at this junction, the contractors admitted that the temporary lighting that was present during construction was for the safety of their workers however the NRDO now contend that there is no need for this junction to have such public lighting on an ongoing basis’, concluded Heydon.
