Bundoran speed ramps for Main Street and Atlantic Way approved

An initial two new ‘speed ramps’ will be erected on the town’s Main Street with another two for Atlantic Way, if funding comes through in the next few months, members of the Donegal Municipal District were told at their January monthly meeting.

Cllr Michael McMahon (Sinn Féin) said that such calming measures had been called for over the years, but had not been accepted by the council.

He said that while the news was most welcome, more were needed and an early start date was essential to dissuade certain road users who descend upon the town in the summer, at designated times, especially in more recent years.

He said that their placement would need to be coordinated with gardai to ensure the biggest impact, but time was of the essence, as he feared that the town was already being “cased” for events that might be planned for later this year..

At present the only traffic calming measures are located at the Sea Road and on the road beside the local GAA Park opposite Gaelic Park housing estate.

Acting Area Manager for Roads and Transportation Mark Sweeney said that this followed a change in policy from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) which now envisaged that such measures could be undertaken in built up areas and towns where speed had already been reduced, but needed to be maintained..

The measures were to ensure that slowed down traffic would stay at the designated speed prescribed.  

The ramps, he said, would be “to maintain slow speeds, not to slow down traffic”.

He added that he would be in a better position to give an update of proposals and funding requests at the March meeting, but that with a bit of tweaking, he envisaged that two could be placed on the Main Street and two others on Atlantic Way.

Hopefully by year's end, these proposals would have come to fruition.

Cllr Niamh Kennedy (Independent) said that the lack of ramps was causing “a lot of havoc up there and often parts of the town were destroyed on bank holidays”, a reference to what has become a yearly deluge of drivers and their vehicles on some of the busiest bank holiday weekends which is organised, sometimes at short notice, through social media channels and groups.