An agricultural contractor, travelling with a silage harvester, got stuck for over an hour on the new road being constructed in Fossa when he met a minibus travelling in the opposite direction.
He brought the incident to the attention of Mayor of Killarney, Cllr Maura Healy-Rae, who today informed Kerry County Council officials of his experience.
“He couldn’t mount the kerb and neither could the minibus he met,” the mayor told KillarneyToday.
“Eventually, the minibus had to reverse into a resident’s entrance in order for the silage harvester to get through,” she added.
The major roadworks continuing in Fossa was the subject of heated debate at a meeting of Killarney Municipal District Council this week and Mayor Healy-Rae told officials that she has never before encountered such public frustration about any matter.
“This is a different beast completely but people are not being hysterical in any way. There is a great sense of worry and they fear there is going to be a serious accident,” she said.
She pointed out that the road is just six metres wide but large vehicles, like combined harvesters, are 3.5 metres in width so what will happen if they meet in Fossa?
“What about wide vehicles from Liebherr.? What about if there is an accident or a breakdown? Emergency services will have to mount the kerb to get to them and that is putting pedestrians at risk,’ she said.
Mayor Healy-Rae added: “There will be complete gridlock and traffic mayhem. We can’t just drive on with this and we must do something to address it now”.
Council officials said, however, that the construction work is at an advanced stage and there is nothing that can be done to change it at this stage.
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