Ring Road moves slowly through planning gears
FURTHER information and report updates on the Galway City Ring Road [GCRR] project have been presented this week to An Bord Pleanála, Conamara councillors were told at their area meeting on Friday last in County Hall.
Galway County Council Director of Services, Uinsinn Finn, said that the information requested by An Bord Pleanála would be submitted by this Tuesday [April 15], which was essentially an update on the 2018 application.
He added that there were no changes in the application itself – which initially had been approved by the Planning Board in December 2021 – before the High Court ruled in January, 2023, that this approval had not taken account of the State’s Climate Action Plan.
Uinsinn Finn said that reports, data and survey information on the project had to be update and this process had now been completed by Galway County Council with this information to be submitted to Bord Pleanála this week.
It is understood that the revised data now submitted to the Planning Appeals Board will also outline how the long-delayed project can be compliant with the State’s Climate Action Plan.
Cllr. Eileen Mannion [FG] said that people of Conamara had been waiting for years and decades for ‘this much needed road’ which would mean that they could avoid the city as they travelled across the Corrib from either direction.
“The absence of this Ring Road around Galway City has had a major negative impact on the lives of people living in the Conamara region.
“It’s important that we get behind this project which is a really important one for the people of Conamara. It is vital that we get this through for the people of the region,” said Cllr. Mannion.
The 18-kilometre GCRR project would bypass the urban area, running from Coolagh on the east side of the city to west of Barna village in Conamara – the scheme is now understood to have an estimated cost figure of between €600 million and €1 billion.
The Ring Road project – sometimes referred as the Outer Bypass – dates back to 1999 but it has been dogged by High Court challenges and European Court rulings over the past two-and-half decades.
Earlier this month, Super Junior Minister of State with Responsibility for Road Transport, Sean Canney, told the Connacht Tribune that there was an absolute 100% commitment from the Government to deliver on the GCRR project.
He also said that he was hopeful of a positive decision on the project from the Planning Board before the end of the year, with a possible start-up date for the GCCR by the end of 2028.
Pictured: Cllr. Eileen Mannion...people of Conamara have been waiting for decades.