• News
• [ Services ]
• [ Publications]
• [ Your Council]
• [ About Us]

Tom Brennan Senior Engineer, Sligo County Council. His responsibilities include the promotion and delivery of transportation and related projects in the Sligo City and Environs area. These projects are critical to the growth of Sligo City and surrounding areas as a gateway, as designated under the National Spatial Strategy.

Several transportation projects in Sligo City and County are critical to the growth of the Sligo region. However there are a number of schemes which need particular emphasis in the short-term, with respect to promotion and funding and are considered critical to the growth of Sligo as a city:

The Traffic Management Strategy developed for Sligo included the completion of the Sligo Inner Relief Road which was opened in September 2005. This is to be followed by the construction of a Western Distributor Road to serve Western areas of Sligo City and an Eastern Garavogue River Bridge crossing to improve access to eastern areas.

Phase 1 of the N15 Realignment Sligo to County Boundary will widen Hughes Bridge and provide a Dual Carriageway to Shannon Eighter, and will relieve traffic congestion on the Northern approaches to Sligo City. One of the main purposes of this overall strategy is to relieve traffic congestion and introduce new traffic flow arrangements, including pedestrian only streets and allow major environmental improvement works to take place.

As you know the Inner Relief Road opened in 2005. A preferred route has been selected for the Western Distributor road from the Caltragh Interchange to the Strandhill Road and this project is expected to go through the planning process shortly with construction commencing in 2007.

Consultants have been appointed for the design of the Eastern Garavogue River Bridge and design work has commenced. The planning process is due to commence by mid 2007 with the publication of the Environmental Impact Statement, and construction could start within two years.

The design of Phase 1 - N15 Sligo to County Boundary from Hughes Bridge with a dual carriageway out of Sligo has commenced and it is expected that funding for construction of this project will be made available in the next few years. The opening of the Sligo Inner Relief Road has allowed for revised traffic flow arrangements and in particular the changing of O'Connell Street to pedestrian only.

The overall objective of the Traffic Plan for Sligo City Centre, which has been incorporated in recent years into the Sligo & Environs Development Plan, is to encourage and promote greater pedestrian activity in Sligo City Centre. This will reduce conflict between pedestrians and vehicles and will allow us to carry out major environmental improvement works to city centre streets. The pedestrianisation of O’Connell Street is part of this overall process. It is intended to make the core city centre more pedestrian friendly and to direct traffic around the urban block defined by Wine Street, Bridge Street, Thomas Street, Temple Street and Adelaide Street and to limit vehicle penetration into the city centre except to those doing business there.

Overall, Sligo Borough Council is encouraged with results so far. It should be noted that traffic congestion on Wine Street and Bridge Street has eased and overall traffic flow along Castle Street is reduced. Queues at the ESB corner on Bridge Street are no longer a feature of Sligo traffic. The city centre core is much more pedestrian friendly which is a key objective of Sligo Borough Council.

Now that pedestrianisation is well ‘bedded in’, it is planned to introduce new street furniture and box planters to improve the attractiveness of the street. Plans are also being prepared for a major environmental improvement scheme for O'Connell Street similar to Shop Street in Galway or Grafton Street in Dublin. Public consultation on proposals will take place within months with construction work expected to commence later in 2007.

One overall aim of this Traffic Management Strategy, is to eliminate traffic passing along core commercial city centre streets and to encourage through traffic to use a circulatory route around the centre including Sligo Inner Relief Road. Core city centre streets such as O'Connell Street, Castle Street, Grattan Street, John Street, Market Street and High Street can then be traffic calmed, made pedestrian priority or made pedestrian only. Major cityscape environmental improvement schemes can then take place on these streets. This will greatly improve the attractiveness of these streets and the city centre in general to shoppers and tourists and greatly improve business.