Balla residents seek fresh answers over N60 safety concerns

A NUMBER of communities in Balla have raised concerns over a lack of clarity around proposed road improvements on a notoriously dangerous stretch of road along the N60 Balla to Claremorris.

Their concerns have arisen out of the recent announcement of a total of €6 million to the Heathlawn N60 project from Balla to Claremorris with works currently well underway.

However, residents of Ardboley, Rathduff and the wider Balla community have said that while there are public plans in place for a number of other sections on the route, there is nothing available for the last 1.3km into Balla.

The local residents have been lobbying strenuously in recent years for the speed limit along the busy stretch of road just outside Balla to be reduced after a high number of dangerous accidents have occurred.

However their concerns have fallen on deaf ears and this new development in the issue is causing further anxieties over safety in the area.

“As part of the €6 million recently announced for the Heathlawn N60 project from Balla to Claremorris it includes funding for works from Heathlawn to Balla (€100,000) and Manulla Cross design (€300,000),” the local residents’ committee said.

“However, the Balla, Ardboley and Rathduff communities on the Claremorris side of Balla have absolutely no information about how this funding is to be used other than an accompanying greenway.

“The objectives of the communities affected by this are simple: to have the same road standard coming into Balla from the Claremorris side as from the Castlebar side - safety, paths on both sides, lighting, signage, speed limits, road surface - and to make the Ardboley and Rathduff entrances/exits safer.”

The committee added that they have been ‘hugely impressed’ by the standard of works recently constructed on the Castlebar Road side of the town, but the opposite side is dangerously unimproved.

A survey carried out by local residents in 2017 found that 1,622 cars passed the junction in three hours – an average of one every second – and that that number was only going to increase with the opening of the Tuam motorway extension.

Although there have been efforts from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Mayo County Council to improve safety at the junction in question, there has continued to be a number of accidents and near misses taking place in the past 12 months.

The committee have been advised by TII that Mayo County Council, as road authority for the area, can submit a feasibility report to them for additional safety improvement works at this location.

In order for TIl to consider any such proposals relating to national roads, the road authority is required to carry out an analysis of the location; to design an appropriate scheme to deal with the safety issues identified; and to fully cost the scheme and prioritise it.

The community has recently met members of the Castlebar Municipal District to voice their concerns and have made a formal request to attend a district meeting to appraise them of the situation and look for progress.

“There is a good likelihood that the new Heathlawn to Pollavaddy road will mean higher speeds coming into Balla,” they concluded. “While also, the new dual carriageway to Westport will increase traffic on the N60.

“If, as seems more and more likely, the Claremorris to Galway rail line will eventually reopen, this will also increase traffic to and from Claremorris.”