Rumble strips are ruled out as ‘too noisy’ to install at national school

CORK County Council have assured councillors that flashing warning lights outside Castledonovan National School will be repaired and that line markings will be redone but they’ve ruled out installing rumble strips in the area.

At a recent online meeting of the Municipal District of West Cork, Cllr Declan Hurley (Ind) raised a motion calling on the Council to repair the warning lights and install rumble strips on the approach to the school.

‘The road markings are very faded at the moment as I went out there recently to look at them, but I think the principal of the school and the Parents’ Association have also requested rumble strips on both approaches to the school,’ said Cllr Hurley. ‘The flashing lights are not working at the moment and they need to be fixed as a matter of urgency.’

Cllr Danny Collins (Ind) lent his support to the motion and said he has been approached by a number of parents from the school about the same issue.

Area engineer Ruth O’Brien said that the reason that the road markings are so faded is because they surfaced-dressed there last year and they are waiting on the line markers to re-instate what was there before.

‘Weather was the main issue here for the contractors to come down as it’s not just yellow and white lines, it’s more coloured symbols and once the weather improves they will be down,’ she said.

Ms O’Brien said that the Council would be putting advance lines there too.

‘They’re not exactly rumble strips, but they would help to slow cars down. The lights were fixed but they went again and the company is waiting to get the part back and they have been reminded that it is urgent.’

Cllr Hurley enquired further if rumble strips could be made more prominent on the road to make motorists more aware about slowing down.

The Council engineer said they can certainly make the lines more prominent, but pointed out there is an issue around rumble strips which is in the Council’s policy about traffic calming issues in residential areas, and the noise that they can cause as well as hindering emergency services vehicles.

‘The warning signs that were there before and the lights were quite effective and improving those will certainly make a difference.’