By Chris Ashmore

PLANS are in the pipeline for the installation of traffic lights on the busy Knocknamona Roundabout on the main Letterkenny to Kilmacrennan road.

It’s all part of the Active Travel Project, but it could be some time yet before the work is carried out as it is not envisaged until the third phase of the four phase project. The work will see new cycle lanes and footpaths introduced from the old creamery roundabout at Ballyraine and then going via the Kiltoy roundabout and up the Business Park Road.

Raising the matter at the October meeting of Letterkenny-Municipal District Council, Cllr Gerry McMonagle said the Knocknamona Roundabout is “continually blocked” at several busy times during the day.

Regarding the long term plans to “signalise” the roundabout, he suggested that the local authority look at putting in yellow boxes – and felt they could do so also at Kiltoy.

Commenting on the official response that he had been given, he remarked: “You have to sit back and wonder sometimes about the answers we get.”

In particular, he singled out the Council’s admission that certain “legs” of the roundabout are “exceeding capacity” at times.

“Yellow boxes stop blocking, they do work, I would ask that we look again, and do not wait,” he said, adding: “Look at yellow boxes as a short term fix until such time as it becomes signalised.”

His motion was backed by other councillors, with the point being made that traffic is flowing at the Polestar Roundabout (which has traffic lights) but the same cannot be said of the Kiltoy or Knocknamona roundabouts.

Senior Executive Roads Engineer, David McIlwaine, said the Council would be speaking with Transport Infrastructure Ireland and there will be a workshop in November to discuss the Active Travel Project schemes.