N55 Ballinagh Relief Road

munchkin_utd

With all other substantial projects on the Cavan Co Co part of this road complete, the next substantial bottleneck/ potential project under their management would be a Bypass/ relief road of Ballinagh (officially called Bellananagh so map and road sign makers use that spelling - but not the post office or anyone local, see https://www.anpost.com/Store-Locator/BALLINAGH or https://www.facebook.com/ballinagh.gaa/ or https://www.kilmorediocese.ie/st-felims-church-ballinagh/ - but anyhow..)

It was on the list of potential projects a few years back when it was audited by the National Oversight and Audit commission who had this to say

The N55 Ballinagh Relief Road would comprise the construction of approximately 3.00 kilometres of new single carriageway road linking the roundabout at Garrymore, south of the town to a location north of Cashel Cross on the N55.
The proposed scheme will improve travel times and provide a safe and consistent alignment along this section of the N55 taking large volumes of traffic out of Ballinagh. The proposed scheme is consistent with the recent and ongoing investment in the N55 over recent years, improving the N55 from a legacy road to an acceptable standard.

https://cdn.noac.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Appendix-5-PSC-In-Depth-Checks-Combined.pdf

It has been getting funding over the intermediate years, €100k in 2022, €300k in 2023, €100k in 2024 with very little mention of progress.

The last definitive status update direct from TII was in Feb 2024

Tender published on 23 November(2023) for Technical Consultancy Services to progress the project through Phases 1 to 4(inclusive) of TII’s Project Management Guidelines. Appointment of Consultants is anticipated in Q1 2024

https://www.tii.ie/media/xxdnmkhv/jctc-i-1107-report-delivery-status-update.pdf

Great to see progress but still annoying that you will have a Ballinagh by pass (and refered to by TII, Council, Dail records, everyone local, contracts signed etc) but you will have all signs on the road saying Bellanananananagh .

Absolute stupidity.

Slutmonkey57b

I've seen almost 0 signs saying bellannannagh. But then, all signs in Cavan point to ballyjamesduff. Not sure what that's about but even in surrounding counties the assumption seems to be that everyone wants to know where ballyjamesduff is.

Freddypaccman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122984684#Comment_122984684

Just in case Paddy Reilly can't find his way back 😂

KrisW1001

Ballyjamesduff is the largest town in Cavan that isn't on a National road, so it's not a suprise that it appears on junction signage on national roads in Cavan. But the reason is the other way around: lots of people already know where Ballyjamesduff is, and more importantly they will know where other places are in relation to there, or they will have been given directions that start there.

There is a set list of towns that can be signed from national roads: if one of those towns is reachable by a junction of a national road, then it is signposted as the destination of that junction. Being consistent like this helps with navigation.

Bellannanagh isn't a major destination or even a waypoint where you'd change direction; it's a small settlement that the road happens to go through… there's lots of these places on the network, and they don't make it on to the destination lists on route-confirmation signs.