MORE than 230 children are to walk across a dangerous bridge in Kildangan en masse on Wednesday to highlight local concern about road safety.

Residents have raised serious concern for the safety of pedestrians on the railway bridge on numerous occassions, particularly since the population in the village increased dramatically around ten years ago.

Young children have to cross the bridge to get to the local national school and scouts gatherings in Kildangan hall.

To highlight the issue the children of Kildangan National School will do their Walk on Wednesday this Wednesday, 8 June, from Kildangan Gala Garage. They will walk from 8.30am across the bridge to get to school and traffic marshalls will be in attendance.

“There is a bend at the top of the bridge and there is absolutely no visability,” said Vivienne Kelly-Keane, secretary of the Kildangan Community Development Association.

“At the top there is an old wooden telephone pole that is leaning down. A resident placed a hi vis jacket on it and that’s what we use as a warning to motorists.”

The bridge is located in the centre of the Kildangan, dividing the both sides of the village.

The issue of making the railway bridge pedestrian friendly and re aligning the road has been raised on a number of occasions with Kildare Co Council.

Residents have been told by the council that they will investigate the possibility, in co operation with Iarnrod Éireann, and that works will be carried out as soon as funding becomes available.

The development association feels a stronger commitment is needed. They are calling on people to make submissions to the council regarding the county development plan.

“We want commitment that this work will be done,” she said. “The county development plan is open for submissions until 13 July and we want as many people as possible to make one. We have been trying to get this bridge safe for years.”

A signalised one-way traffic system, pedestrian crossings, safety railings and cctv are just some of the measures that residents would like to see being carried out as part of safety improvements to the bridge.

A list of proposed solutions were brought forward to the council and an option of a separate footbridge was considered but due to a number of third parties that would be affected it was not be considered a viable option.