Mallow town centre is in line for a major €4.7 million upgrade following news that URDF funding for the renewal of the Main Street and offshoots will see the project ready to go to tender for design in June, with design consultants expected to be appointed in September.
The news was given at last week’s meeting of Mallow Municipal District, where it was welcomed by all members, but Cllr Gearóid Murphy stressed the importance of improving traffic flow in the town centre and asked that the council take into consideration the idea of putting a second lane into the Town Plaza across from the Clock House. The plaza was constructed following the disbandment of Mallow Town Council in 2014, but it has always been the subject of controversy due to the fact that the two-lane approach to the Clock House turnoff was reduced to one lane, causing fury among motorists who have had to contend with long tailbacks at times.
A council official admitted that the traffic flow problem wouldn’t be solved until the Mallow Relief Road is built, though Cllr Murphy has previously suggested that the relief road won’t be the full answer to Mallow’s traffic problems, because the town already has a lot of interior traffic flow that a relief road won’t alleviate, and he believes that narrowing the plaza to allow for an extra lane would be a step in the right direction to ease con-gestion. In the meantime, traffic congestion is a way of life for the town, particularly the Main Street.