Claremorris - Transport

Transport

Road

Claremorris is situated at a major road junction. The N17 (Galway-Sligo road) and the N60 (Castlebar-Roscommon road) meet in the town.

The town was once a major traffic bottleneck.

Claremorris ground to half every afternoon, (particularly Fridays), when the busy N17 slowly negotiated the old bank corner which consisted of a sharp right hand bend. By the late 1990s, over 13,000 vehicles were trundling through the town daily.

In 1994 a design for the bypass was completed by Mayo County Council, the CPO went ahead in 1995. Then there was a 3 year wait for funding for the scheme. Eventually in 1998 the go ahead was given and construction of the bypass commenced. The N17 bypass opened in July 2001 to the relieve of thousands of motorists. Journey times at peak periods were reduced by 30 minutes on the Galway/Sligo route after the opening. The project was built as a grade separated single carriageway which is unusual for single carriageway bypasses in Ireland. The new 16 km road bypassed one of Irelands most treacherous national routes, the original 7 mile stretch between Claremorris and Knock had a very high accident rate due to its poor alignment. The busy N60 still passes through the town via an inner relief road. A second bypass for the town is included in the proposed new N60 road to Castlebar, although this road won't be built until at least 2018.