'Forgotten' Clonown residents 'furious' at further road closure

There is growing anger within the Clonown area over the ongoing and repeated cutting off of direct access to Athlone town.

It comes as the latest road closure to affect the area has been extended by another month.

Works on McQuaid's Bridge over the canal at the start of the Clonown Road in Athlone have been underway since May as part of the Athlone Main Drainage Scheme undertaken by Uisce Éireann.

The work was due to be completed and the road reopened on the weekend of July 27/28, but that has now been extended to August 23.

The works involve the closure of a small section of the Clonown Road and thereby, in many cases, force Clonown residents to undertake a lengthy detour through the village of Clonown in order to access their local town of Athlone via the old Ballinasloe Road.

Worst affected are those who live between Athlone and Clonown, particularly those closer to the urban centre.

It's the second significant closure of the McQuaid's Bridge and Clonown Road as part of the main drainage scheme, and residents believed the work had been completed last year and that further work would not be required. They also are critical of what they say is the lack of any communication regarding the works.

In addition to the current road closure, there were at least two significant periods when the same section of road was closed during 2021 and 2022 when the Office of Public Works was carrying on work as part of the the Athlone Flood Alleviation Scheme.

During this time construction of a new Mick McQuaid's Bridge commenced in early May 2021 and was due to take four and a half months, but continued for almost 13 months.

Separately, later in 2022, the Clonown Road was closed again to facilitate further flood defence works near the Canal Walk housing estate.

These closures are in addition to the fact the road between Athlone and Clonown is subject to regular winter flooding, and is repeatedly impassable during the winter months.

One local resident Laura O'Brien said residents in the Clonown area are furious.

“Firstly we were not told that the road was closing and now when we thought the road was opening on July 28, it is now closed until August 23.”

The suggested detour proposed by Westmeath County Council directs traffic down a narrow rural lane at Duogue, which is only able to sustain one-way traffic and requires motorists meeting oncoming traffic to reverse for long distances.

“I live five minutes from Athlone and now have to travel 30 minutes to get in and out of town.”

“Not only do we have to go up to six months around the other route in the winter, when the road is flooded, now we have to do it in the summer time too.”

She said residents feel they are being forgotten. “Residents would like to get compensation for the inconvenience.”

Cllr John Naughten has thrown his support behind locals, describing delays to the reopening of McQuaid’s Bridge as “unacceptable” and highlighted the impact it is having on local residents.

“The scheme involved the closure of the road at McQuaid’s Bridge, which has already caused significant inconvenience to the residents of the Clonown area for two months,” outlined Cllr. Naughten. “These residents are severely effected as they are forced to take a significant detour on a daily basis to access the town of Athlone. The reality is that this road has been closed almost continuously since last November due to flooding and now the ongoing works.

“It is unacceptable that these delays have taken place. I understand this is due to ground conditions being worse than expected, however if adequate ground surveys were completed in advance that could have ensured this project was completed within the allocated time without the need to further inconvenience local residents.

“These works now need to be expedited in as timely manner as possible, increased working hours would assist in shortening the length of the closure and the frustration and annoyance for local residents.”

Cllr Naughten added: “I will be raising the unacceptable situation that has arisen at the next meeting of the Athlone Municipal District.”

Uisce Éireann, working in partnership with Westmeath County Council, is progressing the €114m Athlone Main Drainage Sewer Network Upgrade project. When completed, the scheme will reduce the risk of sewer flooding in Athlone and address non-compliant sewer overflows into the River Shannon. It will also improve the capacity of the sewer network allowing for current and future population growth.

Uisce Éireann said it was always planned and communicated with stakeholders that further works were planned along Clonown Road this year in order to complete the sewer from McQuaid’s Bridge to the existing Clonown Road Pumping Station.

It said the extended construction period was due to a number of factors.

"Initially, this work was planned using open-cut methodology and would have taken several months to complete. To reduce the length of road closures and the resulting impact on the local community, the project team made the decision to install the new sewer using trenchless techniques." "Ground conditions encountered during these works were worse than pre investigations suggested and water table levels have remained higher than anticipated. This has resulted in extensive temporary works having to be completed at each end of the section of sewer. This has led to lower than anticipated production rates for the trenchless installation of the sewer.

"Additionally, trial holes which were completed at the start of this phase of works identified that the layout of the existing sewer network in the vicinity of the Canal Walk estate entrance to be different to that shown on record drawings. This resulted in the need for an additional manhole and sewer connection which is now being constructed as part of these works."

Uisce Éireann said it regretted any inconvenience that the delivery of these necessary works may cause.