Councillor calls for widening of ‘most dangerous section of road in the country’

CASTLEBAR-based councillor Harry Barrett has called for improvements to be made for what he called ‘the most dangerous section of road in the country’. 

Cllr Barrett has called for a review of the R312 through Glenisland after it was left unpassable from heavy snowfall on November 21.  

People travelling on the R312 and urban parts of Mayo were forced to abandon their cars due to the treacherous road conditions that evening. 

“Conditions did deteriorate, but it’s an extremely dangerous road and it was like a scene from Narnia,” said Cllr Barrett. 

“The section at Beltra lake is probably the most dangerous section of road in the country. If you leave the line in the centre of the road you’re in the lake and there is nothing but a mud barrier to stop you dropping five, ten metres into that lake.”

Cllr Barrett said that there would be a fatality at that section of the road unless it was widened. 

At present, Mayo County Council grits all of the county’s national primary routes but only grits a small proportion of the county’s local roads. 

David Mellet, Head of Castlebar Municipal District, said that the R312 is a Priority 2 route under the Winter Maintenance Plan 2024 ‘and is ordinarily treated and receives precautionary treatment, where salt is spread following warnings of expected low temperatures to reduce the likelihood of ice forming on the road’.

In response to Cllr Barrett’s notion of motion regarding the R312 at the monthly meeting of the Castlebar Municipal District, Mr Mellett said that the R312 was gritted two approximately two hours before the snowfall began on November 20.