Key bypass decision put off for a fortnight
Residents whose homes could face demolition to make way for a road will endure more sleepless nights as publication of the preferred route of the proposed new city bypass is delayed.
Private consultants Arup and Galway County Council were due to publish the emerging preferred route this week but have extended the decision deadline by a fortnight.
“We have put it back by about two weeks to allow for a more detailed analysis of the various options,” senior engineer with the local authority, Michael Timmins, said yesterday.
The new deadline is put back to the week ending, May 7 and 8.
Mr Timmins said all landowners and property-owners impacted by the preferred route will receive a letter informing them that they lie within the 150 metre corridor. On the last occasion only people whose houses or businesses face demolition received letters, and not for example, those whose gardens or fields were impacted.
Fine Gael City Councillor Pádraig Conneely said the delay has caused “unnecessary anxiety and stress” to homeowners located along the six colour-coded corridor routes, which will probably be combined to arrive at the preferred route.
“People living along the route corridors got an awful shock when the six options were announced in February. They have been worried sick ever since, and many of them endured sleepless nights wondering what they will do if their homes are knocked. And now they face more weeks of uncertainty and stress and anxiety because of this unnecessary delay,” said Cllr Conneely.
“When people got letters they were traumatised and the delay is adding to the trauma. People are waiting, they are in limbo, don’t know what to do, have put their lives on hold and can’t plan for the future. The delay is heaping more stress on people, who are already traumatised.”
Meanwhile, Fine Gael Galway City Councillor Frank Fahy fears that a tweaking of some of the six routes to come up with a preferred route, could impact on homes that are not currently located inside any of the six corridors.
“You could have a situation whereby they tweak the route, and go outside the six corridors that were published. That could lead to a situation where people who didn’t get a letter the last time warning that their homes are in a route corridor, could get one in a few weeks, informing them that their property is now within the emerging preferred route. It is unlikely that that will happen but it could happen, and people who are not along the routes now, and not impacted, could find once the preferred route is published that their property is affected,” said Cllr Fahy.
Mr Timmins said this scenario is possible but at this stage it is “highly unlikely” they will stray outside the six corridors outlined at the beginning of the process.