Motorway set for major move
Contract documents for the new Gort to Tuam motorway are to be signed in the coming weeks, a public meeting on transport infrastructure in the West was told on Tuesday.
Michael Timmins, senior engineer at Galway County Council, said that the contracts for the major road project, which will complete the motorway from Galway to Limerick, are expected to be signed this February.
He made the comments at Engineers Ireland’s West regional branch which held a public discussion Tuesday evening about transport in the West. Mr Timmins was one of three guest speakers that addressed the crowd of around 50 at the Ardilaun Hotel.
Last week, a Galway West TD called for a public inquiry into why there has been such a delay in signing contracts. Mr Timmins’ remarks this week about contracts will, however, assure advocates of the road.
The lengthy delays in progressing the motorway, which was supposed to go to construction a few years ago, was highlighted by another guest speaker at the meeting, Deirdre Frost, policy analyst at the Western Development Commission (WDC).
Ms Frost said that over the past 10 to 15 years, State investment in transport was “entirely on radial and inter-urban routes from Dublin to the regions and connecting Dublin to the cities in the regions” to the neglect of the West.
“Construction on the Gort to Tuam element of the Atlantic Corridor network is to begin in 2014 and that is very welcome but from a regional perspective the real problem is that it has taken so long. I know there were issues, but a lot of the issues with respect to that road are financial and part of the reason they are financial is it took so long to get the project commenced. There is a lack of priority on our roads in the region compared to the prioritisation of the roads in the rest of the inter-urban network,” said Ms Frost.
“The business community know improvements in physical infrastructure will generate productivity gains and increase the attractiveness for an area generally and for tourism as a particular sector within that,” she said.
Ms Frost also pointed to data which supported the argument for the reopening of the northern section of the Western Rail Corridor, from Tuam to Galway.
For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.