The road to somewhere!

Right now in Wexford a lot of cars aren’t moving. If you listen each afternoon to the traffic report from AA Roadwatch you’ll hear the bottle neck on the N25 between the Whitford and New Ross Roundabouts regularly name checked.  

The first time I noticed it was the day of the Killag show when I saw a tail back. However it is fair to say that it has been a feature for most of the Summer.  So what is the cause of the present tailback and what is the solution? Firstly it is holiday time when the population of Wexford swells to put pressure on infrastructure.  It doesn’t help that elsewhere there is road works around town although it is unrelated to the gridlock I’ve noticed on the N25. 

Crossing Wexford Bridge has become a chore so much that as a regular walker I’m beginning to notice that if I walk fast from Ely to the Quays I’ll be quicker than many motorists stuck in their cars.

But is it the case that moving the arrival time of Stena from Fishguard into Rosslare for 16.30 is adding to the problem? Quite likely!  Summer sees ferries at full capacity with cars. It used to be the case, especially when we had a Borough Council that Wexford saw itself as a town hoping to attract in visitors that use the ferry. Sure, passengers want to get on the road after waiting around onboard and they have destinations to get to. But after driving 12 miles from Rosslare Harbour, at present they’re going nowhere along the N25 by pass.  The focus of the new borough and district council seems to be blurred when it comes to where a previous council saw an opportunity to do business.

There is a simple and relatively cheap solution to the problem at the New Ross Road roundabout. Traffic tails back to the Whitford Roundabout because the New Ross roundabout is inefficient and overloaded with traffic from town trying to get onto the N25 or the N11.

Traffic turning left from the bypass that is going from Rosslare must concede to traffic already on the roundabout which entered from the Newtown Road. The solution is to compulsory purchase land on the west side of the road opposite the Maldron Hotel and put a slip road about 100-200 M long directly from the N25 to join the main road about 50 M up from the roundabout on the Barntown side. Imaginative marking of the road with lanes will separate traffic before it arrives at the roundabout. This is what work on the M50 at the junction I often use to access the airport from the Ballymun-Naul road.  

This will separate N25 traffic from N11 bound traffic exiting Newtown Road. Of course we’ll hear that the solution has to wait till whenever the N11 motorway is complete and a PPP is signed. With a bit of luck we might also hear that some restaurants might have a happy hour to bring in some business, Kellys at Drinagh actually shuts each evening as the gridlock builds up within a stone’s throw. The problem may diminish as Summer ends but expect it to return again next year.

In the meantime, Enjoy what’s left of your holidays whether or not you get stuck in a traffic jam!