Mayo county Council says a temporary road to allow traffic to pass at the Glenamoy Crossroads will be open to traffic later this morning.

The authority worked on the construction of the temporary road throughout the night, and a spokesperson for the council said protesters in the area impeded work on the construction throughout the night.

A large tunnel-boring machine belonging to Shell remains on the back of a lorry this morning after the vehicle jack-knifed at Glenamoy crossroads in north Mayo, early yesterday morning. That was despite efforts by large tow-trucks to move it yesterday evening.

The lorry was part of a large convoy, escorted by Garda vans and outriders, as well as other security personnel, that left Dublin Port on Sunday night, transporting sections of the machine to the oil company’s operations in Erris. The incident blocked a junction at the  lenamoy crossroads from early yesterday.

MD OF Shell, Michael Crothers, told Midwest News yesterday that the company was working with gardaí and Mayo County Council to resolve the matter and apologised for the inconvenience caused to all members of the public affected by the road blockage.

Spokesman for community group Pobail Chill Chomáin John Monaghan said the debacle was “yet another example of the lax approach to planning law by the developers and the authorities”.

County manager Peter Hynes said the local authority had issued special permits some weeks ago for the heavy loads carried on the Shell lorries. Mr Hynes said the authority “would not be taking any action against the developer as the special permit allowed for the ‘abnormal load’ to traverse a route from Dublin to Mayo that had no relation to the local haulage route for regular Shell works”.

Several protests had already impeded the progress of the convoy, earlier yesterday.

Four men were arrested for public order offences during the protests.