CASTLEDERMOT WAS transformed yesterday by the opening of a 27.5km stretch of motorway that bypasses the Kildare town.
“If I could afford to buy tumbleweed from America, I would buy it and put it on Main Street to celebrate,” said local John Doyle.
He was one of many residents yesterday “delighted” that their village had “at long last” been bypassed by the new M9 motorway through Co Kildare which links Kilcullen and Carlow.
He had been “waiting for 40 years – now we’re going to have a quality of life again”.
For decades, Castledermot has been a notorious traffic blackspot and generations of motorists had learned to dread its very mention on AA Roadwatch. The old N9 Dublin-Waterford main road passed right through the village’s main street, carrying an estimated 17,000 vehicles daily.
Sean O’Neill, a spokesman for the National Roads Authority, said the removal of so much traffic would give Castledermot “an opportunity to thrive”. He said the number of vehicles using the old N9 – renamed the R445 – would drop to just 2,000 per day.
At the Mad Hatter Cafe, just feet from where articulated trucks had thundered past as recently as lunchtime yesterday, proprietor Alice Cope-Hogan was slightly apprehensive” as 60 per cent of her business had come from passing trade. But she hoped the absence of heavy traffic “might entice new businesses into the village”. Outside, Edwin Hendy remarked on “the silence” and observed that “it used to be chaotic here”.
In O’Gorman Meats, Brendan Murphy said: “This is the best thing that’s ever happened to Castledermot”. He believed shops will benefit as people who had been deterred by the traffic, lack of parking and sheer difficulty in crossing the street would return to the village.
One of his customers, Caroline Doran, was glad to see the end of the “unreal traffic” and said: “It’s going to be safer for the children and we’ll have peace of mind.”
However, farther up the old N9 at Crookstown, Séamus O’Reilly, who runs a Texaco service station employing 25 people, expected his business to “drop by 70 per cent immediately and at least 15 people will lose their jobs”.
He was not against the motorway but had lobbied the National Roads Authority unsuccessfully to build a slip road to enable motorists to access his business and a neighbouring retail park which employs 100 people.
He claimed it was “crazy” that there are no service areas on the M9 or any other motorway.
A customer, Séamus Fahey, observed wistfully that “everybody will have forgotten about Crookstown within a week”.
Last week it was alleged that local politicians had lobbied the Department of Transport to delay the motorway opening until January to give the businesses “a last Christmas”.
The decision, which prompted fury among commuters, was swiftly reversed by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey.
The stretch of motorway cost €307 million and was completed 10 months ahead of schedule.