The Mooneenageisha Junction will have to revert to a roundabout if the alterations that are now being undertaken fail to ease the area’s chronic traffic congestion.
Alternatively, the Galway City Council should go back to the consultants who designed the so called ‘smart junction’ and seek damages for “the appalling advice it received”.
This is the view of Fine Gael councillor Brian Walsh, who said the installation of traffic lights has been “an unmitigated disaster to date” in which the “congestion has gotten worse”.
According to Cllr Walsh it can take one hour to get from the Docks or Eyre Square to the junction using Lough Atalia or College Road.
Further changes to the junction are now being undertaken, but Cllr Walsh says that with the additional school traffic, the situation will only get worse “if the new changes aren’t effective”.
“The only solution is to revert back to a roundabout at Mooneenageisha,” he said. “However the biggest stumbling block will be the unwillingness of the Galway City Council management to accept that the traffic lights do not work and their installation was a mistake.”
Cllr Walsh says that more than €320,000 has been spent on this junction. He said: “The fact it cost so much should not be a reason to maintain a system that simply doesn’t work.”
