Clare County Council has been asked to get ‘its house in order’ after one of its own trucks breached a weight restriction on a bridge that the authority has already threatened to close.
Around 25 people turned out yesterday to protest at Latoon Creek Bridge on the old N18 Ennis to Limerick road.
Angry locals and business people carrying banners and placards, flagged down vehicles they believed to be close to or above a 3.5 tonne restriction imposed on the structure late last year.
The restriction was placed on the bridge last December after it was established that the structural capacity of the bridge is compromised.
The local authority has said the bridge cannot reliably accommodate anything other than light vehicles until an extensive remediation programme of works is implemented later this year.
Locals believe however that the council is not doing enough to see repair works carried out more quickly and that not enough is being done to prevent larger trucks from ignoring the 3.5 tonne restriction.
Yesterdays protest was organised by Ann McGuire from Manus near Clarecastle.
“Heavy trucks continue to cross this bridge when they are not supposed to be. They are breaking the law and worsening the damage already caused to the bridge,” she said.
“The council has already threatened to close the bridge if truck drivers continue to ignore the weight restriction and that would be an awful loss to everyone around here. And, when I told the council that their own trucks were still using the bridge they denied it but we saw it here for ourselves today,” Ann added.
“Buses can’t use this route at the moment and that’s an awful thing because my son needs the service and if further damage is caused to the bridge we could lose our bus service altogether and that’s our biggest fear,” she added.
Local Councillor Paul Murphy (FG), who also attended the protest, said: “A lot of heavy trucks are still using this bridge and I’m blaming Clare County Council for a lot of this because the signage has been totally insufficient and I’ve been telling them this for the past 6 months.”
“I’m also disappointed that a local authority truck crossed the bridge while the protest was going on but I don’t know whether that’s because the council hasn’t instructed its own drivers about the restriction but either way, the signs are still there,” he said.
Commenting on why one of its own trucks crossed the bridge yesterday Clare County Council has confirmed it investigated the matter and spoke with the driver in question.
“The local authority employee had intended travelling on the motorway but took the wrong exit at the Clare Inn roundabout due to confusion arising out of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) roadworks which have commenced at the roundabout in question.
Clare County Council is satisfied that the passing of a Council truck over the bridge happened in error. Council road staff have since been reminded about the weight restriction,” the statement said.
Clare County Council has said there has been a 50% drop in the number of vehicles breaching the weight restriction since it a warning earlier this month which threatened to close the bridge.
Senior Engineer Tom Tiernan said: “Since Clare County Council issued its warning on Thursday June 2nd, the volume of vehicles breaching the 3.5 tonne weight restriction on Latoon Creek Bridge has been reduced by 50%. Clare County Council welcomes this progress and would remind all drivers that there can be no exception to the weight restriction in place indicating that the limit is 3.5 tonnes.”
“A series of patrols and checks have been implemented by An Garda Síochána in order to enforce the restriction. Signage alerting motorists to the weight restriction has been in place on all approach roads since the road restrictions were introduced in late 2015. Additional signage has been put in place in recent weeks,” he added.