€200m bypass road could be 12 years away
MILLIONS of euro have been spent on the provision of major new roadways in every town in the county with the exclusion of Killarney which is being completely forgotten by the powers that be, a local councillor has claimed.
Cllr Donal Grady said Killarney is “falling asleep” in the fight for a long-promised bypass road, from outside Farranfore to Lissivigeen on the Cork Road, to relieve chronic traffic congestion in the town centre.
The outer relief road was promised by the then government in 2009 but it was shelved three years later when the recession hit and the plan has yet to be reactivated.
Kerry County Council’s senior roads design engineer, Paul Curry, said plans for the 27km stretch of roadway, which has an estimated price tag of €200, including the cost of land acquisition, could still be 10 or 12 years away.”
“A project of this scale hasn’t been taken on by Kerry in the past,” said Mr Curry who added that he was disappointed that it wasn’t included in the current National Development Plan which is due to run for another five years.
But the matter is back on the agenda and it is the subject of talks between Transport Infrastructure Ireland and council officials. A sum of €25,000 has been provided to allow preliminary work on the bypass in 2018 and it is considered a viable solution to the traffic problems in the Killarney Municipal District.
But Cllr Donal Grady has hit out at the lack of progress and he said those responsible in Killarney are “far too quiet”.
“Every other town in the county has got their bypass. Listowel and Tralee and Castleisland have all got them but in Killarney we’ve been left whistling,” he fumed.
“We’re getting the crumbs in Killarney. Nobody is listening. We must wake up,” he told this week’s meeting of the Municipal District Council.
Town Manager, Angela McAllen, insisted that there is very active work being done in relation to Killarney and the project is with the council’s national roads design office.
“It takes time. It takes extensive studies. A huge effort is being made by this council in Killarney,” she stated.
Published from Killarneytoday.com
