Charleville’s Main Street under review

An urgent review of Charleville’s Main Street has begun to facilitate the planning of safety improvement proposals in the area.

It comes the wake of 2 people being killed in separate incidents, having been hit by heavy goods vehicles in the North Cork town in the past 3 weeks.

Cork County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) Regional Road Safety have met in recent weeks to discuss plans for the street.

A statement from Cork County Council said: “The purpose of the review will be to expedite the delivery on Main Street of the existing Part 8 Scheme for pedestrians near Charleville Library, assist Cork County Council to devise proposals to address pedestrian safety specifically and in due course request funding from TII.

“It is likely that the nature of the street will require alterations to improve the visibility and safety of pedestrians.”

The statement released on Tuesday also said any long-term solution will need to take by-passing heavy goods vehicles out of Charleville altogether via either an acceleration of the construction of a portion of the N/M20 Project or via a new relief road or upgrading of existing routes.

In this regard, Cork County Council said it has requested TII funding to progress the planning of options to provide traffic relief for Charleville and that such a scheme be funded, and progressed, in addition to the N/M20 Project together with developing safety improvement proposals for the town centre.

“Cork County Council welcomes the approval from TII to bring these proposals forward,” concluded thecouncil statement.