Removal of Kilmartin's roundabout remains 'a possibility': council

The old Dublin Road at Creggan, Athlone, could be in line for a new layout, with a top council official describing the removal of the roundabout at the Kilmartin N6 service station as "a possibility".

Westmeath County Council is currently in discussions with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) about this stretch of road, and a consultant is due to be appointed to examine its current layout and come up with proposals for improving it.

The matter was raised for discussion by Cllr Aengus O'Rourke during the November meeting of the Athlone Municipal District.

Cllr O'Rourke called on the council to "assess the current road layout on the old Dublin Road, from the Birr turn to Kilmartin's roundabout, in order to provide a new arrangement that will ease the heavy daily congestion (at peak times) being experienced by road users."

The Fianna Fail councillor said this issue had been "a long time on the agenda" and he wanted to know when action would be taken on it.

"It's an accident waiting to happen," said Cllr John Dolan. "A fairly major job is needed there... There are huge volumes of traffic coming in and I think it needs serious attention."

Cllr Michael O'Brien agreed. "It's extremely dangerous, and it's worse it's getting," he said.

Barry Kehoe, Director of Services with the council, said the first step would be the appointment of a consultant to identify the problems with this section of the road.

"At the moment, traffic is streaming in without any blocks at all. The signalisation of that junction, and the elimination of that roundabout, is a possibility. But first we need to appoint a consultant to look at it."

He estimated that it would take six months for the consultant's report to be completed.