‘Jumbo jets’ needed for cars to get through ‘horrific’ Waterford junction

Cars would need “jumbo jets” to get through a busy junction in Waterford city, a council meeting has heard.

Social Democrats councillor Mary Roche spoke about two junctions in Ballygunner at the December Metropolitan District meeting of Waterford City and County Council.

Cllr Roche said: “I want to talk about both ends of Ballygunner Hill. First of all, there at the Riverside Cottage where the junction is.

“There’s as much traffic coming out onto that T-junction as there is at the top of the hill and that’s a fully signalised junction.

“Down at the bottom, we’re still expecting people to make right hand turns, like take their lives in their hands.

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“The traffic I would say has expanded ten-fold in terms of the amount of houses that have been built there.

“There are two schools at the top of it and consequently, the amount of traffic coming out of it onto the main Dunmore Road is horrific. Something needs to be done because it is dangerous.”

She went on to describe the situation at the junction at the top of the hill, which is often referred to as Ballygunner Cross.

“At the top of the hill there, I go through that junction a lot and before you get across, because it is such a big junction, halfway across, the lights are gone amber and red again.

“So either the junction needs to be reworked, the traffic signal needs to be reworked or we need to start adding jumbo jets to the cars [...].”

“Something needs to be looked at at both of those junctions please,” she concluded.

In response to Cllr Roche, Senior Engineer Paul Johnston said that the council has already started looking at the junction at the top of the hill.

Meanwhile, he recognised that Cllr Roche also brought up the junction at the end of the hill at the last meeting and said that the council would look into that also.