More Incompetence by Kildare co. co.

darc

Anyone who has been in Athy this week will know that it takes 45 minutes to get from the Kilkenny side of town to the Dublin road at any time during the day since Monday.

The problem is the lights in the centre of town are giving a right turn filter for traffic coming from Dublin direction on each and every phase even if no traffic is there needing the filter.

Up to last Friday, the filter only appeared when a car was stopped in the centre of the junction thus initiating the filter light.

According to kildare Co Co, they know about the traffic problem and they are trying to get someone to investigate it!!!! As to a timeframe. "We are unable to give a time frame for correcting the issue at the moment!!!"

So until the eejits in kildare co. co. get off their fat cat asses business in Athy may as well close.

This all comes after 2 weeks of the Carlow road in Athy being closed for pipe laying. The pipe laying work took place between 9.30am & 4pm. In Portarlington pipe laying was done too. They started at 8am and finished at 7pm 6 days a week and finished a major 4km project in less than 2 weeks. In Athy, 200 metres of pipe laying took 2 weeks. The difference, Portarlington was done by private contractors!!

jamsieboy86

Its the pedestrian lights at the post office that causes most of the problems.

They back the traffic up the main traffic lights, especially for cars turning right coming from the Kilberry road.

They should be changed to flashing ambers, cars only have to stop when there is someone crossing.

Royal Seahawk

darc wrote: »

This all comes after 2 weeks of the Carlow road in Athy being closed for pipe laying. The pipe laying work took place between 9.30am & 4pm. In Portarlington pipe laying was done too. They started at 8am and finished at 7pm 6 days a week and finished a major 4km project in less than 2 weeks. In Athy, 200 metres of pipe laying took 2 weeks. The difference, Portarlington was done by private contractors!!

It actually wasn't, it was done by private contractors as well.

darc

jamsieboy86 wrote: »

Its the pedestrian lights at the post office that causes most of the problems.

They back the traffic up the main traffic lights, especially for cars turning right coming from the Kilberry road.

They should be changed to flashing ambers, cars only have to stop when there is someone crossing.

They only cause the normal delays. the main lights were finally fixed yesterday evening, so it s back to the more tolerable 15 minute delays.

Maybe a bypass will be built in 2020:rolleyes: (plans will only be 40 years old then!!)

jamsieboy86

Naas and Newbridge have problems aswell, must be a Kildare County Council thing.

When you go to similar sized towns elswhere the traffice isn't as bad, ie Carlow or Portlaoise.

The County Council should take notes from whats happening elsewhere.

AndrewMc

darc wrote: »

Maybe a bypass will be built in 2020:rolleyes: (plans will only be 40 years old then!!)

Plans for the Southern Distributor Road (not the ill-fated Inner Relief Road) are reasonably well advanced, although funding is not yet guaranteed. One quote I saw estimated that construction would start in 2010...

darc

Lights still not fixed. Traffic eased on thursday when they turned the lights off and Gardai took control but the problem was still there today - yes it took 20 minutes to get though Athy with no shops open, no events, absolutely nothing happening, yet still 20 minutes at 4pm today. - Normally at 4 pm on any sunday you drive through without stopping.


Problem is still the same. The right turn filter light for traffic from dublin side goes on at EVERY light phase, (this is not needed at all) thus shortening the light phase for traffic coming from Castlecomer direction, thus causing mega tailbacks.


This would take a traffic light engineer about 5 minutes to fix, but the situation "needs investigation" according to Kildare Co Co. on Friday afetrnoon and "we do not have a timescale" fora solution.

In the meantime anyone who needs to go to Athy for shopping or business may as well divert to Carlow.

robo

Took almost a half an hour at 2pm yesterday to drive from the Kilkenny end of the town to those damn traffic lights at Xtravision corner, it is madness. But I really don't think that this will be fixed until there is a relief road built..2020 is optimistic for KCC IMO!

darc

AndrewMc wrote: »

Plans for the Southern Distributor Road (not the ill-fated Inner Relief Road) are reasonably well advanced, although funding is not yet guaranteed. One quote I saw estimated that construction would start in 2010...

:D:D:D


Check this out and you may see I'm optimistic with a 2020 date!!
http://archives.tcm.ie/kildarenationalist/2004/01/29/story16659.asp

First planned in 1976 - 32 years ago and being talked about ever since and as of today it is no nearer starting than it was in 1976.

Current problem is SOLELY to do with the light phases which were changed about 10 days ago. People here can plan for the normal 20 - 30 min delays at peak times, but not 45 minutes at 2pm in the afternoon!

AndrewMc

darc wrote: »

:D:D:D


Check this out and you may see I'm optimistic with a 2020 date!!
http://archives.tcm.ie/kildarenationalist/2004/01/29/story16659.asp

First planned in 1976 - 32 years ago and being talked about ever since and as of today it is no nearer starting than it was in 1976.

I know about the Inner Relief Road, which is a different thing altogether, and must be one of the slowest-moving non-events in the country. It seems that with so much effort put into it, that the bypass got sidelined completely. When the Inner Relief Road was dropped once and for all, people finally started concentrating on the bypass, and this summer the council managed to get an agreement from CIE on the acquisition of the old Tegral railway line, which is the line the bypass will follow (apparently you can't serve a compulsory purchase order on another statutory body).

Of course, there's no funding guaranteed and this is a bad time to be looking for it... I'm not holding my breath.

Varkov

There's talk of a new elevated moterway from beyond Athy into dublin.

darc

Varkov wrote: »

There's talk of a new elevated moterway from beyond Athy into dublin.

That's the one connecting with the Irish Sea tunell?


The good news is after Garda intervention yesterday morning, Kildare Co Co. got a team out to Athy at 2pm yesterday and fixed the lights.

The problem?

The right turn sensor for traffic coming from Dublin was incorrectly set!:rolleyes:

The time to fix the problem - 15 minutes.:rolleyes:

Even with the traders market today, at 9am you could get from Satoil on Kilkenny side to Dublin side within 10 minutes.:pac: - Yesetrday this was 40 minutes!