New 80kph speed limit proposed from Ballykeeran to Glasson

Westmeath County Council is planning to make changes to the existing speed limits on three roads in the Athlone area, it emerged last week.

The main change is a 20km per hour reduction in the speed limit on the busy N55 Ballykeeran to Glasson road. The limit is due to change from 100kph to 80kph.

Changes to the limits are also due to be made on the L5455 Twyford road in Baylin, and the L54791 Kippinstown road in Ballykeeran.

Proposed changes to the speed limits on five other local routes were rejected by the local authority.

At last week’s meeting of the council’s Athlone Area committee, its senior engineer for the roads section, Michael Connolly, presented a report on proposed changes to the default speed limits in certain areas.

He said eight proposed limit changes had been examined by the local authority and it recommended these three revisions:
* N55 Ballykeeran to Glasson road: 100km per hour speed limit to be reduced to 80kph.
* L5455 Twford road, Baylin: 50kph limit to be extended by 44 metres
* L54791 Kippinstown road, Ballykeeran: 50kph limit to be extended to end of cul-de-sac

Other suggested changes - including a proposed 10kph reduction to the 60kph limit on the N55 in Tubberclair - were not approved by the local authority.
The process of changing the limits will now move to the public consultation stage, where the changes will be advertised and the public will be invited to make submissions on them.

At last week’s meeting, Cllr Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran said many proposed changes to speed limits had been aired at council meetings in recent years and some of these had not featured in Mr Connolly’s report.
He said these included requests for changes in locations like the Derries, Tullywood, and Coosan.

“Some of the speed limits are laughable,” he said. “You’d bring some Yanks down and they’d be saying ‘oh man, you can drive on this road 120?!’ when it’s a road you wouldn’t bring an ass and cart on. There’s an 80 (kph) speed limit in the Derries which is an absolute joke.”

The council executive replied that the speed limit in the Derries had since been changed to 50kph.“It should be down to 30!” responded ‘Boxer’.

Cllr John Dolan mentioned the Clonmacnois road in Ballinahown, saying the 50kph limit “starts where the school is... you would need to be moving it further along the road to slow traffic before it gets to the school.” He said he had received a number of representations about this from concerned locals.

Mr Connolly said the speed limit at this location was “clearly visible” from a distance, adding: “you’re supposed to be observing the speed limit as soon as you can see it, so (motorists) should be observing it by the time they reach the school.”

He commented that motorists had “a responsibility to drive at an appropriate speed regardless of the speed limit” in any given area.

Director of Services Hugh O’Reilly said there was a process which the council had to follow when assessing the possible need for speed limit changes.
“The fact that someone might feel that the speed limit outside their house should be changed is not in itself a basis for making that change,” said Mr O’Reilly.

Cllr Mark Cooney took issue with the decision not to amend the speed limit in the Tubberclair area. He also pointed out that motorists should remember “they are speed limits, not targets,” a point which was echoed by the other members.
The council agreed to move the three proposed speed limit changes to the public consultation stage, after which draft bye-laws to enact the new limits are due to be prepared.