A COMPLETE overhaul of the notorious Ballylickey junction is urgently required, say locals, due to the bad road surface and faded line markings, making it impossible for any motorist to know who has the right of way.
Liz Moynihan of Eagle Point Camping told The Southern Star that the surface on that road is ‘horrendous.’
‘You can’t even see the road markings. You have traffic coming from four different directions and it’s very difficult to know who exactly has the right of way,’ she said.
‘The road surface has got progressively worse over the years and there is a lot more traffic, including large articulated trucks crossing the bridge to and from Castletownbere and you can hear them rattle as the surface is so bad. They also said it is very dangerous for pedestrians trying to cross the bridge.’
The Southern Star visited the junction recently and in one ten-minute period, witnessed two separate incidents where cars had to stop in their tracks, unsure of where to go.
The ongoing issues at the junction were also raised at a meeting of the West Cork Municipal District recently, where Cllr Danny Collins (Ind Ire) said the junction, where four roads meet, is a ‘disgrace’.
‘It is definitely the worst junction in the country and there will be an accident there. It’s humpty dumpty surface’, said Cllr Collins. ‘It could take another two years to get a design completed for this notorious junction, which is deadly. Forget about chips, a proper job has to be done here.’
Cllr Finbarr Harrington (Ind) agreed with him, saying the junction is ‘lethal’ and that someone is going to get killed there.
‘You have the regular potholes, coupled with no line markings, and the surface is cat. Plus you have four roads coming into the junction. It’s the height of danger especially when traffic is busy,’ said Cllr Harrington.
Senior executive engineer John Ahern said that they will put an application together to see if they can get an allocation of funding to carry out works at the junction.
