There are no plans to improve one of the busiest junctions in Kildare

Kildare County Council has again resisted a call to improve one of the busiest junctions in Naas.

KCC was asked by Cllr Carmel Kelly if there are plans to improve the Sallins Road/Monread Road junction,which is also the location of an Applegreen service station.

The Sallins Road is the busiest route in Naas and this junction provides access to the Monread area, where many people live.

However she was told at a Naas Municipal District meeting that the council has no proposals to carry out improvement works there “at the present time.”

Fourteen months ago another councillor, Anne Beeen, said KCC  should redesign the  road layout at the junction to improve traffic flow and pedestrian safety.

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But KCC responded that this would  involve significant civil engineering works and would require a widening of the junction into lands owned by third parties. 

It also said there is no “funding resource available to progress a design for such a scheme.”

Cllr Breen countered that it is impossible for parents to walk with their children there adding “we should try to get funding.”

Cllr Bill Clear said the junction cannot cope with the traffic and Cllr Fintan Brett said consideration should be given to making an entrance to the Applegreen site from Monread Avenue instead of having traffic drive on to Sallins Road and then drive on to the forecourt.

In late 2021, Cllr Clear asked for a right turn filter for traffic leaving Naas towards Sallins at the right turn into Monread Avenue.

He said if this was done it would result in only a few seconds delay for traffic coming from the Sallins direction.

At the moment, he told a NMD meeting, there is only room for one lane of northbound traffic “resulting in traffic mounting the footpath (and) endangering pedestrians.”

He added: “This has been an issue for a long time; a (filter) light for a few seconds is all that’s needed. It’s a busy road and people are going up on the footpath multiple times in a day,” he said.

He said his proposal represented an “engineering solution to an engineering problem.”

He added that the infrastructure already in place means that the lights “know” if traffic is waiting to turn right.

“It should be trialled to stop cars going onto the path,” he said, adding that KCC is unwilling to accede to requests to alter how traffic light systems are operated.

According to KCC the proposal was reviewed and it does not recommend altering the sequencing at the location and it said there is not enough physical space at that location to create a dedicated right hand filter lane.

A KCC report at that meeting added that  vehicles mounting the path are in breach of traffic regulations “as driving wholly or partly along or across a footway is an offence.”