Consultant to be appointed for Thompson's Cross safety

Kildare County Council is to appoint a consultant to decide on how to make Thompson's Cross a safer junction, writes Brian Byrne.

This was confirmed to Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer today following her most recent request for an update on a situation she has been campaigning about for the last three years. The Council say a tender process to appoint a consultant will likely take place in Q2 of this year.

The consultant will be dealing with ten junctions of concern countywide once appointed, carrying out a design process on each.

"Depending on what the design proposes — it could be land acquisition, significant temporary traffic diversions, etc — a decision will be made on how best to proceed to construction phase," Cllr O'Dwyer told the Diary. "Where works are below €200,000 a low cost safety improvement scheme may be possible through the MD Office. Where the cost is higher than that, a specific funding request to the Department of Transport will be required."

Cllr O'Dwyer says the process of getting a safer junction is taking more time than she would have liked, but it is a much better approach to what is a complex junction.

"With the support of local residents and everyone that uses this junction, together we have maintained a spotlight on how dangerous this junction is, which has been really helpful to me each and every time I raised it in the Council over the past three years," she says. "I believe the outcome of this process will deliver a much safer junction and I would like to thank Kildare County Council for staying the course with me throughout this project and I look forward to continuing to work together to reach a positive solution."

Thompson's Cross has been a contentious road safety issue ever since the roads involved were realigned with the construction of the M9 section south of Kilcullen. Most recently, the potholed condition of the road at the junction has caused concern and anger.

These were addressed this week with surface repairs by the Council.

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