Thompson's Cross on MD agenda ... again

The 'next steps' for Thompson's Cross is the subject of a question from Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer at Wednesday's upcoming meeting of the Kildare-Newbridge MD, writes Brian Byrne. This follows a consultant's report to the council.

According to the agenda question, it seems that the council feels none of the recommendations made for the longtime problematic junction appear to be appropriate. The findings from the consultation have not been shown to the councillors.

Last December, the councillor was informed that six options had been identified to make the junction safer, but that there were 'no design resources' to progress any of them. At that meeting she asked why details of the completed survey carried out by Clandillon Consulting Engineers hadn't been shared with the councillors.

The junction has been dangerous for many years, since the realignment of local roads with the completion of the M9 in the Kilcullen area. With a long history of crashes there since then, attempts to make the intersection safer have failed and are widely considered to have been 'tinkering' with the problem. The last of these, carried out under the Low Cost Safety Improvement Scheme in 2016, included a controversial removal of a run-off lane on the turn towards Kilgowan. In October 2017, Council engineers told councillors that issues raised at works in 2016 had 'been resolved'. 

Cllr O'Dwyer has been working in association with local Garda to try and have something substantial done. In February of last year, Kildare County Council announced that a consultant would be appointed to investigate how to best deal with the dangerous nature of the junction — along with nine others in the county.

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