INVESTMENT AND UPGRADES to the N11 are needed to tackle the growing traffic congestion along the roadway, Fianna Fáil’s Stephen Donnelly has said.

Drone footage captured during rush-hour morning traffic shows the extent of the backlog of cars making their way to Dublin each morning.

The N11 is a major national road, connecting from Wexford to Dublin, and is one of the main routes used by commuters to the capital each day.

“As everyone in Wicklow knows the traffic on the N11 has been getting worse and worse and worse for five years now,” said local TD Donnelly, who added that “it is so bad now that very early in the morning the entire county is strangled with people going to work”.

For years, there have been promises to invest in the road, but Donnelly said so far all there has been are reports and feasibility studies.

“We are not seeing any serious capital invested,” he said, adding, that there have been several crashes amid gridlock traffic recently.

“The least that Wicklow residents can expect is that their main route to the capital is properly managed so they can leave and return safely. This road is used daily by people on their way to work, school and college and they deserve better.

“It is absolutely essential now that a third lane is added to the N11. The long-awaited report from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has warned that any delay in road network improvements will ‘constrain growth’ in the Wicklow/ Dun Laoghaire Rathdown area because it will hit our competitiveness and productivity,” he said.

Third lane needed

In December 2016, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) preliminary findings recommended that longer term, more permanent solutions should be invested in, referencing the need for a third lane at key choke points on the roadway.

The long-awaited report on how to improve the N11 was published in April 2017 and said that any delay in road network improvements will “constrain growth” and hinder productivity in Wicklow and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown areas.

It recommended a number of key improvements to the road network, including a third lane, which TII states is of vital importance nationally.

“It is imperative that it begins to operate more efficiently,” stated the report.

However, since then progress has been slow.

Consultant engineers were appointed to progress the improvement scheme at the end of the last year, but there are a number of phases to begin from public consultation to design.

To date, Transport Infrastructure Ireland announced funding of €2 million for the Kilmacanoge safety scheme, while €1 million to the design process for the major improvement works from Bray North to Coyne’s Cross.

Drone footage showing tailbacks

To highlight the traffic jams, Donnelly’s drone footage from Wicklow from 6.30am shows a queue of cars already on the slip road at Newtownmountkennedy trying to get on the N11, while cars are backed up from Greystones to Newcastle.

“It is essentially a car park and it could take two hours for people to get out of it,” he said.

Commuter Ruth Donnelly uses the N11 to travel from Bray on to the M50 towards Tallaght everyday and says, “It’s all just congestion from the M50/N11 merge. If there’s an accident or breakdown, good luck – you’ll be stuck for hours so better going the back roads.”

Although they can be just as backed up with everyone has the same idea, she added.

“What this footage proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt is that traffic is a genuine problem for commuters on the N11. I will be showing this video to the Transport Minister and the NTA and telling them it further supports our calls for investment in Wicklow’s roads and public transport network,” said Donnelly.

More capacity needed