Fianna Fáil councillor Aengus O’Rourke has insisted that works must be carried out on the bridge at Roslevin Lawns on the Ballymahon road before a one-way system can be considered for Athlone.
Cllr O’Rourke raised the issue at Monday’s meeting of the Athlone Municipal District.
“The road under the bridge at Roslevin Lawns floods regularly following heavy rain and on two occasions last year the council had to close the road, forcing traffic to find another route into town,” Cllr O’Rourke said.
“Most of the diverted traffic came up Northgate Street and turned left for town. However, the current one-way proposal does not allow a left turn at the top of Northgate Street. So, if a similar flood situation were to happen when the one-way system is in place we would have chaos as traffic would be forced to take a much longer diversion via the motorway and back into town via Garrycastle. This would be totally unacceptable.”
Cllr O’Rourke said the council needs to ensure it deals with any problems that may threaten the success of a one-way system, once it is put in place.
“Tackling these issue now is critical,” he said. “The flooding that occurs under the CIE bridge is due to insufficient capacity in the existing combined sewer infrastructure in the general locality, not just at this location. So this is not just a simple case of a gully being blocked with leaves when it rains, I wish it was. This solution will require a detailed engineering design; the work required is estimated to be in the region of €100,000.”
The council will now carry out a detailed design and investigate a source of funding for its implementation.
