Urgent action needed at Old Kilmore Road says resident

John Lund, who has lived on the road for 20 years, has contacted Roads Minister Danny Kennedy urging him to spend money to widen and strengthen the road to allow it to be of ‘an adequate safe standard.’

Mr Lund described the road as ‘seriously breaking up’ and said it was too narrow to take heavy traffic such as lorries and tractors.

“What we need is a new road,” said Mr Lund. “There is no point in the DRD patching the road up. They will have to do a traffic survey and look at widening the road for these type of vehicles.”

He said that the road needs to be around 22 feet wide but is just 16 feet wide.

“How the Department of Rural Development’s engineers, architects and planners have allowed this road to collapse despite considerable warnings from myself and others beggars belief.

“The DRD cannot just keep patching the road up and they cannot just ignore it. No matter how much it costs they need to do something about it.”

Mr Lund said he sympathised with motorists who complain about the amount of roadworks around Lisburn but said it showed money was available.

“There is substantial local and agricultural traffic, heavy tractors and their trailers, implements and heavy self propelled farm machines which use the road as well as it becoming a ‘rat run’ from Lurgan to Moira,” he continued.

“This problem has caused some, luckily so far minor, traffic accidents.

“Many suggestions and possible solutions to this problem have been advanced by me to the Department’s engineers but all have been ignored and rejected because of budget restraints which they claim limit their expenditure.”

A spokesperson for the DRD said: “Roads Service officials met with a resident of Old Kilmore Road on Thursday, March 22. They discussed with him his concerns. Roads Service has also carried out some carriageway repairs on the road. There is additional work still to be undertaken. This road is inspected on a cyclical basis. Any defect which is considered to present difficulties is identified and processed for repair.”