Proposal for a relief road to ease Fermoy traffic
Councillor McCarthy conceded that the proposal might not ultimately prove to be feasible, but he said something would have to be done, with Fermoy’s traffic congestion problems only likely to worsen once the town’s new Primary Care Centre opens, and if the proposed new Tesco is built.
A North Cork councillor is proposing a relief road for a town which, despite a 2006 bypass, is suffering from increasing traffic congestion.
Fermoy County Councillor Noel McCarthy has proposed a relief road be built to the south-east of Fermoy on lands partially owned by Cork County Council, to address the town’s ongoing traffic problems.
Councillor McCarthy told he had tabled a motion at the recent Fermoy Municipal District meeting asking whether the council has considered the feasibility of a relief road.
“It seems to me fairly obvious that we will have to do something to tackle the traffic situation in Fermoy, and someone suggested a relief road on the south-east of the town would be a good idea,” Councillor McCarthy said.
“The proposal would be for a relief road going off of the N72 below Toss Bryan’s, to the west of the motorway bridge, and going north into the fields there, which are council-owned, toward the river, and then west, parallel to the river, behind Toss Bryan’s and the site of the proposed new Tesco, and joining Mill Road at the corner by the new Primary Health Care Centre.
“The idea would be that traffic would then be one-way up the Mill Road and O’Neill Crowley Quay toward Pearse Square, with traffic lights at the corner of Spillane’s butchers,” he said.
“With O’Neill Crowley Quay one-way westbound, traffic coming over the bridge and heading east from the square would be directed down Patrick’s Street.”
Councillor McCarthy conceded that the proposal might not ultimately prove to be feasible, but he said something would have to be done, with Fermoy’s traffic congestion problems only likely to worsen once the town’s new Primary Care Centre opens, and if the proposed new Tesco is built.
Michael Lyons of Lyons’ Pharmacy, who is chairman of the Fermoy Forum, a voluntary collaborative group of businesses and organisations, said that, as a business owner, and as someone who is familiar with what he called “daily traffic chaos”, he welcomed Councillor McCarthy’s “thinking outside the box”.
Fermoy was bypassed in 2006, but the toll at Watergrasshill has long proven a point of controversy, with some claiming it has resulted in cars and lorries driving through the town as a way of saving money.
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