Traffic calming measures for Cork's Harbour View Road move a step closer

LONG-AWAITED traffic calming measures on Cork’s Harbour View Road have taken a step closer to becoming a reality with preliminary design on a new scheme currently underway.

It comes as councillors in the city’s North West ward agreed to allocate €100,000 from this year’s Local Area Committee (LAC) funding to carry out the works on the busy throughfare in Knocknaheeny.

This is in addition to €25,000 allocated from the 2021 LAC funding.

A spokesperson for the council told The Echo that preliminary design on a scheme is now being carried out.

“The Members of the North West Local Electoral Area have agreed to fund traffic calming measures on Harbour View Road.

“A fund of €125,000 has been set aside for this project.

“The proposed traffic calming measures will comprise of a mixture of raised tables and traffic light interventions designed to ensure that vehicles using the road travel at the appropriate speed.

“The preliminary design is currently being undertaken,” the spokesperson said.

“Once same is complete, public consultation, through a Section 38 process, will commence.

“It is envisaged that the Section 38 public consultation process will commence in the coming months,” they continued.

In January, councillors in the ward were told that following the ringfenced funding of €25,000, Cork City Council had undertaken a number of site visits and stated that the local authority considered it “appropriate to engage a suitably qualified transport engineering consultant to review all factors relating to speed on the road, to consult with the community and design a suitable solution in accordance with current best practice”.

It added that the cost of engaging a consultant could be €25,000.

Local residents have lobbied extensively for traffic calming measures on Harbour View Road after two high profile traffic incidents on the road in 2020 which included one fatality, that of 16-year-old Kimberly O'Connor.

PROGRESS WELCOMES BUT FRUSTRATION AT PACE

Don O’Sullivan, one of those involved in the local campaign, said he “very much welcomes” the progress to the scheme but expressed some frustration at the pace it has moved at.

“We thought we had it home and dry at one stage when there was €25,000 allocated from the LAC and then that was put on that back burner,” he said.

“We do really need the traffic calming measures and as I say, we welcome the progress, we just thought it would have been done sooner,” he added.

Mr O’Sullivan said he hoped the scheme would soon move to construction, following the public consultation stage.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin councillor in the ward, Mick Nugent also welcomed the progress.

“I think what’s planned for Harbour View Road will be good and at the public consultation stage people will have the opportunity to have their say,” he said.

The update on the plans for traffic calming measures along the road come as at a meeting of city council’s Strategic and Economic Development Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) last month councillors were informed that “further refinement” of the proposed BusConnects Sustainable Transport Corridors (STCs) would be required to reflect the CNWQR (City Northwest Quarter Regeneration) project aimed at creating better homes, enhancing social and economic opportunities, improve transport links, and creating better and safer streets, squares, and parks.

A city council spokesperson told The Echo that the council will “consult with BusConnects prior to installation of the traffic calming measures”.