Short-term solutions needed for Letterkenny traffic gridlock 

Until a bridge over the Swilly is constructed - something that is ‘a number of years’ away - Letterkenny is in urgent need of short-term remedies to alleviate the ever-growing issue of traffic gridlock in the town.

The October meeting of the Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District heard a lengthy discussion on the matter.

The Bonagee Link, a proposed bridge from Ballyraine to Bonagee, has been proffered as a solution for some time now, but in its absence the town is in need of a park-and-ride system and a vastly-improved bus service.

Councillor Gerry McMonagle said the solutions were so urgent that they were ‘needed next week.

Councillor Gerry McMonagle tabled a motion asking that Donegal County Council approach the National Transport Authority (NTA) for extra resources to aid with the implementation of a transport plan for Letterkenny.

“We all know what the gridlock is like in Letterkenny - and it is getting worse,” Councillor McMonagle said.

“We have talked a lot here and members have brought motions about park and ride and the town bus service - but it seems to have come to nothing.

“The pressures our teams are under, we need extra resources to help and assist them. I would like our members to meet with the NTA - we could go to Dublin or they could come to Letterkenny to see the difficulties for themselves.

“This town, with the exception of two roads, is the same as it was 40 years ago, but there has been a significant increase in traffic. Twenty years ago, we sat here and spoke about the Bonagee Link. How often are we chatting here about relief roads?”

Councillor McMonagle was advised that engagement with and funding from the NTA is ongoing ‘across a multitude of projects’, including ongoing discussions to enable a viable town-based bus service in Letterkenny.

In a response, the local authority said that, with the NTA support coming alongside funding from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF), the delivery of funding was already ‘at capacity’.

Councillor McMonagle said: “The Town Bus service is very important. We need to provide viable alternatives to people using their cars. There is no sense in talking about the Town Bus because it’s not there, we don’t have one.”

He said: “We are one of six regional areas regarding growth into a city, but we need to see the colour of their money and we need to get investment.

“We cannot allow the people of Letterkenny to be hostages to cars and gridlock. It is very damaging when you see people posting up not to go into Letterkenny. It will get worse.

“Until bridges are built, we need to put in place active travel pathways. Two things that we could do with is a park and ride system and a bus service, but you can’t have one without the other: There is no sense in getting people to park on the outskirts of town if they can’t then get into town.”

Councillor Donal Coyle said officials needed to decrease the volume of traffic going into Letterkenny on a daily basis.

“We could set ourselves a target over a certain period to decrease the number of cars and vehicles by maybe 10 per cent,” Councillor Coyle said.

“If that was done, on the Four Lane alone we would reduce the number of vehicles by 3,500 on a daily basis. There is land earmarked as part of the Ten-T project and I don’t see why that land couldn’t be developed in the short term. We don’t have a local transport system and we are so dependent on the car because there is no alternative at the moment.

“We need to look at shorter term solutions - look at how long the stretch of road from the Dry Arch to the Polestar, which is just over 1km, has taken.”

Donegal County Council’s Director of Community Development and Planning Service, Liam Ward, said that Donegal County Council will follow up on a request to meet with the NTA. He said the Council executive had met with the NTA in July and the body was ‘prepared to work with us’.

“We are at an interesting time in the contest of the Letterkenny Local Area Transport Plan,” Mr Ward said. “We hope to have it adopted on November 13 and there will be a workshop in advance of that. That will include a transport hub and a park and ride system.”

In a separate motion, Councillor Michael McBride asked that Donegal County Council lobby the TII to put the Bonagee link as the first part of the Ten T Project due to the extreme traffic pressure in Letterkenny. The Bonagee Link is part of the Priority Route Improvement Project as well as the Ballybofey and Stranorlar bypass and the N14 road between Manor and Lifford.

In response, Donegal County Council said that, at present, the TEN-T Project does not separate out any scheme individually.

“The schemes are being collectively brought together for development consent to An Bord Pleanála,” the Council said in response, adding that the statutory process is likely to take a number of years to complete.

“It is only after the granting of development consent that we would expect TII / Department of Transport / Government to then consider with DCC if the entire project would be advanced, or individual schemes advanced on a phased basis – with availability of funding being one of the key elements at that time.”

The Council warned, in its answer, that any attempt to separate the project at this stage may cause significant delays.

Councillor McBride said: “There is absolute gridlock here at peak traffic times. It is not uncommon to speak to people who have waited 45 minutes to get from one side of the town to the other.

“Letterkenny is a place where a lot of people come to do business, but with the road layout it is also a town where people who have no business in it just come to get through it. The bridge over the Swilly would get people there and set them on their way to wherever they are going. There are five major roads coming into Letterkenny.

“We need to start getting our ideas moving. We need to start looking at these things properly. We have the main hospital in the county and the main fire station in the county. We can’t afford to have them blocked to traffic.”

Councillor McBride subsequently amended his motion to ask that the Council make a submission to TII ‘as soon as is prudently possible’.

Councillor Donal Coyle said that he previously proposed that the Bonagee Link be made a standalone project and had been told that there would be no funding to have the bridge running as a standalone.

Councillor Coyle said: “It would be a huge investment and it’s badly needed. This would be an essential part of our roads infrastructure.”