Pressure for Slane bypass must be kept up

The publication last week of Meath County Council's intention to compulsorily acquire land in six townlands to facilitate the construction of a bypass of Slane marks the first concrete step in the provision of this critical piece of infrastructure after many years of campaigning by locals. Needless to say, the news has been warmly welcomed by community leaders in the picturesque village as they approach Slane's 250th anniversary in 2010. They could not have asked for a more important birthday present. After decades of tragedy and 22 deaths in road accidents, there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel for village road safety campaigners. However, this is but a first step in a long process and pressure must continue to be applied to the National Roads Authority (NRA), in particular, to continually move this project forward. Some 40 landowners in the area will be affected by the compulsory purchase order and locals think it unlikely there will be much in the way of objections to the council order. Everyone in Slane is at one on the issue of the need for a new route to take the traffic away from Slane Bridge and the village and return ownership of Slane once again to the local community. The pile-up involving nine vehicles, including two lorries, in the centre of the village last March has been the catalyst for the current momentum to not only introduce more short to medium-term traffic-calming measures in Slane, but also is behind the latest push to progress the bypass issue. Seven people were hurt in this year's crash and it was a minor miracle that no-one was seriously injured or even killed. Given its geographical position and the nature of the local topography, the potential for serious incidents in Slane has long been amplified, with a long hill running down to the village from north to south, followed by an exceptionally steep descent down the bridge over the Boyne. It is also an extremely hectic crossroads with two busy arteries which cross each other in the centre of the village - the N2 and the N51 linking Navan and Drogheda, carrying large volumes of traffic. It is almost 50 years since the first recorded fatality at the narrow bridge over the Boyne. In this week's issue, the garda who investigated that incident, Cyril Maguire, recalls the accident which took the life of a young cyclist, Myra McGuirk (24) from Beauparc. She was struck by a lorry which lost braking power as it negotiated the steep descent towards the bridge in October 1961. Sadly, there were to be many other equally horrific crashes to follow over the decades as traffic volumes became greater and trucks got bigger and heavier. Indeed, many of the tragedies on the bridge have involved heavily laden trucks. A bypass of Slane has been the most obvious solution to avoid the mayhem of the past but there never appears to have been quite enough political pressure brought to bear on successive governments to get it done. The area's cultural heritage has often been cited as a reason not to build a bypass but it no longer acceptable to place such issues before people's lives. In this case, safety considerations should always come first. The dangers presented to the people of the Slane area on a daily basis have been sidelined for too long. Groups like the Slane Bridge Action Group and the Bypass Slane Campaign Group have done sterling work in recent times in keeping this issue in the public eye, and they remain resolute and determined to keep the pressure on now - as they know they must - if this important project is to be realised. With the CPO expected to be confirmed in the first quarter of 2010, a route selected and a design already on paper, it will take a relatively modest amount of money to build this project. The people of Slane now need to hear from those with influence at Government level that this bypass will be made a priority and that funds will be provided for its construction in the very near future. The Oireachtas Committee of Transport has already heard Slane is in the top one per cent of the worst accident blackspots in Ireland - some would say it is among the most dangerous in Europe. The volume of traffic passing through Slane on a daily basis remains inordinate: about 200 heavy goods vehicles per hour and 6,400 cars per day. Public pressure has forced this issue to the top of the agenda and it is up to all of Meath's public representatives to continue to keep this at the forefront of this Government's mind until the first sod is turned. Safety is Slane is too important an issue to be allowed become a victim of inertia like it has so often in the past.