Traffic woes return as Big Dig blocks two town centre routes

By JACQUELINE HOGGE WEEKS of gridlock await the motoring public of Tuam as the next phase of the Big Dig leads to the closure of two of the main routes into the town centre over the coming weeks.[private] Shop Street and Church View will be closed to traffic at the same time as work progresses on the main drainage and sewerage scheme from next week on. This is despite a commitment from the contractor, Coffey's, and Galway County Council at the outset of the two-year project that only one area of the town centre would be worked on at any given time in order to minimise disruption. Access to the town centre from the N17 will be restricted to Vicar Street via Gilmartin Road and Bishop Street via the Bobby Burke Road and Dunmore Road from Tuesday next, May 3, when work on Shop Street begins. Although the contractor hopes to have the Shop Street area complete within three weeks, the council has granted Coffey's a road closure notice for six weeks. Shop Street divided The road will be divided into two sections with the council and Coffey's agreeing to a Chamber of Commerce suggestion that the lower end of the street be opened up to two-way traffic in order to facilitate parking at the Garvey's Mill car park while work on the upper section of the road continues. The Chamber is also to request that High Street be made two-way to accommodate the road closures, but unless council officials have a change of heart from a similar request made for Dublin Road, while Vicar Street was worked on, it is unclear whether such a measure will be agreed to. Church View is undergoing a six-week schedule of works that began on April 11, the day on which Tullinadaly Road also was closed for six weeks. If the works progress on target, both roads are due to reopen to traffic by the end of May. Meanwhile, the impasse over Tuam's inner relief road has given way to a final decision as to when the last area of the town centre will be dug up as part of the Big Dig. Bishop Street in June With work due to commence on Shop Street next Tuesday, a tentative start date for the Bishop Street area has been agreed for Tuesday, June 7, with the road being completed in four stages. However, with exams due to begin that same week, students sitting the Junior Cert and Leaving Cert are in for some lengthy diversions to get to both the Presentation and St Jarlath's Colleges to sit the State exams. Senior Engineer Eoin Long said there was little alternative now that the decision on the inner relief road had not been favourable and that a six-week programme of works was scheduled for the road, the first section of which will begin at the Square as far as the Cathedral.'We will engage with all the businesses on the road over the coming weeks to address any concerns they have,' he said. 'We found that when we did the same with the Shop Street traders we were able to reduce the concerns they had simply by giving them the information they needed, as a lot of the stress and tension surrounding the works seems to stem from the fact people don't know what is involved until we tell them.' Galway County Council has agreed to investigate the possibility of 24-hour works on the road in order to speed up the project, but the cost implications could prove too significant, given that a similar request by Shop Street traders was rejected. It is understood the extensive nature of underground piping in the area has meant trial holes along Bishop Street towards the Square were not possible, so the precise timescale of this phase will be determined by the exact nature of what lies underneath the road surface. What's to come The subsequent sections of the road will be worked on as follows: Palace Grounds to Bishop Street Car Park; Quinn's corner to Curragh Park and finally Curragh Park to Sun Street. If the project runs to schedule in the area, it is understood the road will be reopened in its entirety before the annual builders' summer holiday period in the middle of July. Considerable work is needed to run a pipe from the entrance of Waterslade House to the Palace Grounds, but this will not impact on road users as the route will go along that of the proposed inner relief road, a start date for which remains undetermined. [/private]