Six months of roadworks in Buncrana

Traffic on the Cockhill Road in Buncrana will encounter significant disruption from this week as the upgrade of the town’s sewerage network steps up a gear.

Vehicles travelling on the Cockhill Road, which is on the R238 main route from Buncrana to Carndonagh, Clonmany and north Inishowen, will be restricted to single lane flow while sections of trenches to lay sewerage pipework are dug.

The roadworks are due to commence this week, with traffic management scheduled to run until they’re complete next January.

“Trenches will be excavated on one side of the road only at any one time, allowing single lane traffic flow on the other side via a shuttle system,” a spokesperson for Uisce Éireann, the company formerly known as Irish Water, said.

“Comprehensive traffic management plans associated with the proposed works including details of temporary traffic signals were reviewed and agreed with Donegal County Council.”

Electronic message boards were set up on Cockhill Road and on the entrance to the town at Ballymacarry over the weekend to provide advance notice to the public.

The roadworks are associated with the multimillion euro investment to upgrade the wastewater network infrastructure in Buncrana designed to reduce the risk of sewer flooding and addressing overflows that have been found to pollute Lough Swilly.

The work, which includes the construction of stormwater storage at Westbrook Bridge where work is already under way, will also improve the capacity of the sewer network allowing for current and future population growth, and supporting the social and economic development of Buncrana.