Bonhill Road diversion is ‘a disaster waiting to happen,’ say residents
Refurbishment work at the Central Station Bridge in Townend Road will take ten to 12 weeks and cost £1.3 million. It’s the second major road diversion to be put in place in three months.
By Bill Heaney
Residents in Bonhill Road are raging that their street has been designated as the main traffic diversion while refurbishment work continues at Dumbarton Central railway bridge in Townend Road.
Ann McColl Graham, pictured right, whose driveway exits on to Bonhill Road, said: “With Townend Road closed- Bonhill Road is like the M1. I just counted over 30 cars in one single minute.”
She added: “Honestly, it took 10 minutes to get out of the drive. No one will slow down to let you out.”
Elizabeth Devine Daly said: “I’m finding that, getting out of work. I’ve been coming out at the funeral parlour, which, as you know, is a crossroads.
“It’s terrifying, especially as it’s so dark, but safer than trying to get out at the Meadow Centre. Everybody is in a hurry too!”
Bonhill Road was already one of the most difficult streets in Dumbarton to negotiate because car parking is unrestricted there and custom and practice has led to drivers squeezing past each other on the single lane space that is left.
Buses and lorries find it impossible to pass and, inevitably, there is a bus stop where nothing can get past when buses are at a halt there.
Passing there is a tight squeeze and there have been a number of accidents, some of them serious but also lots of minor bumps which have seen parked cars lose their wing mirrors.
Ann McColl Graham said: “It’s murder, Liz….I’m just down from that crossroads, and they seem to put on a spurt of speed when they get by the junction of Round Riding Road.”
She accused drivers who refuse to give way as “ignorant” and revealed that when drivers further up the road got out eventually, they were again held up near the Meadow Centre.
Elizabeth Devine Daly said: “Bonhill Road was not made for that kind of traffic. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
West Dunbartonshire Council, who gave little warning if any at all of the new arrangements and put few signs in place to direct traffic along safer routes, refused to comment to The Democrat.
I suppose we are banned by them for writing stories such as this, which contain criticism, although they have never told us why we are being banned and boycotted. It leaves one wondering what will happen to democracy and a free press if Scotland ever achieves independence governed by the SNP. Editor