Speed concerns on Naas road matter for gardaí, say council

It seems Kildare County Council has a handle on Maudlin’s Avenue in Naas in terms of speeding and road surface noise, despite the concerns of two sitting councillors with regard to both issues.

In consecutive motions at this month’s municipal district meeting in Naas recently, both cllrs Ger Dunne and Anne Breen raised their concerns with this stretch of road to the executive, which remained institutionally unmoved.

First out of the blocks was cllr Dunne who asked: “that the council implements a safety audit on the traffic situation on Maudlins Avenue in Naas, where there appears to be an issue with speed, the amount of speed limit signs and the amount of speed ramps”.

However, the council’s senior engineer for sustainable transport and traffic management Donal Hodgins laid out the situational practicalities from his department’s point of view.

“Maudlin's Avenue is approximately 580 metres in length from junction to junction, with a speed limit of 50km/h,” he pointed out.

“The road has a rigid surface, including four ramps to reduce the speed along the length of Maudlin's Avenue. (This equates to a ramp every 145m.) 

“While the Naas Municipal District office can request our Roads Design Section to carry out a traffic survey at Maudlin's Avenue, the issue appears to be driver behaviour and is therefore a matter for An Garda Siochána."

Immediately after, Cllr Anne Breen enquired: “that the council takes action to reduce the noise created by passing road traffic on Maudlin's Avenue, by upgrading the road surface to a smooth, low-noise tarmac. The road surface is rigid concrete and this coupled with a lack of speed control signs and traffic calming measures, is creating serious concerns for local residents,” she claimed.

Again, Mr Hodgins fielded this motion, and went from the technical to the practical very efficiently. 

“The Available Pavement Structural Condition Index (PSCI) rating shows the road is rated as good and in reasonable condition,” he said.

“No funding is allocated at the moment, (so) due to limited resources, it is not possible to change the existing rigid surface to a bitumen surface."