Bohola closer to getting its reduced speed limit

Edwin McGreal

A campaign by locals in Bohola to have a reduction in speed limits on the N5 through the village is set to pay off, with plans advancing for traffic calming and lower speed limits.
Locals have been campaigning since early 2014 for a reduction in the current 100 km/h speed limit through the village.
At last Thursday’s November monthly meeting of the Castlebar Municipal District of Mayo County Council, held in the Sheridan Community Centre in Bohola, Ann Sweeney, a Senior Executive Engineer with Mayo County Council, outlined the progress made.
A large number of locals were present at the meeting and Ms Sweeney told them she had met with the National Roads Authority, who are responsible for the road, earlier that day and they need to amend some parts of the design but she expects that ‘in a week or two’ the traffic calming design will be ready for the public to view.
Ms Sweeney told The Mayo News that an ‘informal public consultation process’ will take place and then the councillors will decide whether it needs to go to a formal consultation process.
Ms Sweeney described a meeting with locals in Bohola for the purpose of designing a traffic calming scheme as ‘very productive’. She said the scheme will include speed reductions.
Director of Services Paddy Mahon said there had been ‘a lot of progress’ and what is being designed shows ‘significant safety improvements’.
James Golden, the Chairman of the Bohola Traffic Calming Action Committee, thanked the councillors and the council executive for their work on the issue.
The Committee had staged a protest in early August. At the September meeting of Mayo County Council, Mr Golden described the N5 main Castlebar to Dublin road through Bohola as a ‘deathtrap’.