A number of major road closures are to be announced in the coming weeks along the N17 in a bid to tackle the rising number of road deaths in Mayo.
It is understood that members of Mayo County Council will soon be briefed on the plans for temporary and permanent road and junction closures.
14 people have died on roads across Mayo so far this year which is two more than the whole of last year. Eight people have lost their lives on the N17 alone in the past ten years.
The planned road closures are to allow for upgrades of a number of dangerous junctions on the N17.
Charlestown cllr Gerry Murray is among those who will be finding out more information on the plans before the month is out.
He says that with these closures, the drive from Sligo to Galway will take longer in the 21st century than it did in the 20th century, and continued to say that ‘the west of Ireland is going backwards’.
Cllr Murray said that morale in Transport Infrastructure Ireland is at an all time low, and persists that a motorway must be constructed from Sligo to Tuam.
He has been outlining his frustration on the situation with the N17 to Midwest Radio’s Rian Bailey:
