Foynes and Ringaskiddy Motorways

Danno

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/state-may-have-to-fork-out-500m-on-new-motorways-30287160.html

According to the article, the country will be "forced" to build motorways to service these two ports.

Surely, with the state coffers running low these roads will be tolled. We all know how the lorries are currently dodging tolls at present, would these roads be a waste?

Your thoughts?

L1011

There isn't a chance that they'd be tolled as there wouldn't be enough traffic, even with 100% toll obedience, to cover the costs. The N28 is already being planned anyway.

antoobrien

Danno wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/state-may-have-to-fork-out-500m-on-new-motorways-30287160.html

According to the article, the country will be "forced" to build motorways to service these two ports.

Surely, with the state coffers running low these roads will be tolled. We all know how the lorries are currently dodging tolls at present, would these roads be a waste?

Your thoughts?

Great news, especially considering these are projects that are already under consideration.

The impact of these will mean a nationwide reassessment of priorities, so a number of Cork projects may get bumped up the list, as the Ringaskiddy project (already in planning according to the article) may well need to link into a Cork ring road. Similarly the Foynes road could also double as a bypass for Adare. These could boost the M20 project.

Will they be tolled? Not likely, especially considering there are supposedly negotiations for the government to pay the HGV tolls for the Limerick Tunnel.

Will they be a waste? No, as they will help avoid EU fines. Where would you rather spend 25k per day, on Brussels or somewhere on the Island?

Personally I hope the EU start threatening to fine Dublin for having to "beg" Dublin to ask for money for the West.

AugustusMinimus

N28 Thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=214509&page=5

munchkin_utd

WTF,
heres a picture of Foynes port, which can just take 2 middling small ships from the look of it.



And it needs a motorway and a rail link to cope with the gigantic traffic.

Seriously?

Cookiemunster

munchkin_utd wrote: »

WTF,
heres a picture of Foynes port, which can just take 2 middling small ships from the look of it.


And it needs a motorway and a rail link to cope with the gigantic traffic.

Seriously?

There's are plans to expand Foynes. It (and West Limerick) needs better road access, but there will never be a need for a motorway. I think that's just lazy journalism again labeling every new road as a motorway.

Nordicgael

Foynes is irelands second largest port and have a plan for future expansion -
so it isnt as small or as quiet as it may look -
besides its a good thing to plan properly for the future.hopefully irish ports may become busier over the coming years - galway harbor has a big expansion plan going through the planning process right now.

munchkin_utd

Cookiemunster wrote: »

There's are plans to expand Foynes. It's (and West Limerick) needs better road access, but there will never be a need for a motorway. I think that's just lazy journalism again labeling every new road as a motorway.

I hope so.
A decent single carraigeway road, with climbing lanes if necessary, should be more than sufficient.

Ringaskidy is a different prospect altogether as the traffic on that road is already that heavy that it justifies a motorway/ HQDC

TINA1984

Would the restoration of the railhead at Foynes be a more cost effective option then a new build road?

Likewise with the N28, though it would be a huge asset to the lower harbour area, it's still just going to be mainly beneficial to commuters. it still seems strange that the Port of Cork want to build a new port away from mainline road and rail down in Ringaskiddy. Building a new facility on or near the N25 and Cobh railway is surely the more sensible option?

Cookiemunster

TINA1984 wrote: »

Would the restoration of the railhead at Foynes be a more cost effective option then a new build road?

Likewise with the N28, though it would be a huge asset to the lower harbour area, it's still just going to be mainly beneficial to commuters. it still seems strange that the Port of Cork want to build a new port away from mainline road and rail down in Ringaskiddy. Building a new facility on or near the N25 and Cobh railway is surely the more sensible option?

There's no point restoring the rail links, when Irish Rail don't do freight anymore, and won't let anyone else use the lines.

flazio

Cookiemunster wrote: »

There's no point restoring the rail links, when Irish Rail don't do freight anymore, and won't let anyone else use the lines.

Irish rail do link Ballina and Rosslare AFAIK

TINA1984

Cookiemunster wrote: »

There's no point restoring the rail links, when Irish Rail don't do freight anymore, and won't let anyone else use the lines.

I've read on these forums before that IE are willing to unmothball the line if Foynes Port Co. and/or various mining concerns would pony up the cash for it. Surely the lure of EU funding would only enhance the prospect of the line re-opening.

Goofy

munchkin_utd wrote: »

WTF,
heres a picture of Foynes port, which can just take 2 middling small ships from the look of it.



And it needs a motorway and a rail link to cope with the gigantic traffic.

Seriously?

There are 2 ships in that picture. There is space for another large ship in the background and there is an oil and gas( i think) berth on the far side of Foynes island. There are plans to extend the port to the foreground of the picture to make the port capable of handling post-Panamax ships.

Maybe the road could be an extension of the Adare bypass? It could possibly head south of Askeaton ant join up with the Adar bypass.

I agree that it doesnt necessarily need to be a motorway right now but if the port does manage to attract post panamax container ships in the future, it would make sense to build it to motorway standard. It will be a relatively sort stretch of motorway and there are EU grants available now for it.

Zoney

I'd imagine that it could well be a motorway at least some of the way for Foynes, as the intention seems to be to use this project to extend the N21, a very busy road past Adare at any rate even before you add HGVs that currently use the N69. Unlikely this would be done less than motorway with this plan, even if the Adare bypass on its own was only going to be dual-carriageway.

Looking at Google maps with topology switched on, and satellite view to see settlement, lakes, rivers, hills, etc, it seems that it might make sense like the railway line to go towards Rathkeale on the N21, before going fairly directly north towards the Shannon Estuary west of Foynes and curving back in north of the current N69 (maybe atrocious bog there of course)

AugustusMinimus

munchkin_utd wrote: »

I hope so.
A decent single carraigeway road, with climbing lanes if necessary, should be more than sufficient.

Ringaskidy is a different prospect altogether as the traffic on that road is already that heavy that it justifies a motorway/ HQDC

The N28 will link Cork City to

1. The new Cork Port facility at Ringaskiddy
2. Carrigaline and Crosshaven
3. Numerous drug manufacturing facilities in Ringaskiddy
4. Irish Naval Service HQ at Haulbowline Island

Very important piece of road and at under €150m, not really that expensive on a cost / benefit exercise.

cgcsb

antoobrien wrote: »

Personally I hope the EU start threatening to fine Dublin for having to "beg" Dublin to ask for money for the West.

Oh honestly, do wake up and smell the coffee. Dublin can't have DART underground, the most important transport project in the state because Ballygobackwards needs a rail service and Tuam (pop. 8000) needs a motorway. a disproportionate amount of money is spent on infrastructure in the west already.

antoobrien

cgcsb wrote: »

Oh honestly, do wake up and smell the coffee. Dublin can't have DART underground, the most important transport project in the state because Ballygobackwards needs a rail service and Tuam (pop. 8000) needs a motorway.

According to the numbers that would be GCOB, neither white elephant rail project in Dublin comes anywhere near it.

cgcsb wrote: »

a disproportionate amount of money is spent on infrastructure in the west already.

You really know nothing about the amount of development money being spent in the west do you? Fyi the cost of the M50 upgrade was more than the combined cost of the road and rail investments for the west, that's before we start getting to things like the criminal amount of money spent on vanity projects like MN that will cost more than.

cgcsb

antoobrien wrote: »

According to the numbers that would be GCOB, neither white elephant rail project in Dublin comes anywhere near it.

You really know nothing about the amount of development money being spent in the west do you? Fyi the cost of the M50 upgrade was more than the combined cost of the road and rail investments for the west, that's before we start getting to things like the criminal amount of money spent on vanity projects like MN that will cost more than.

Incorrect DART u will tripple rail capacity in Dublin to 100 million trips /yr hardly 'white elephant'. By comparison we have the empty Ennis to Athenry rail line, the barely used limerick tunnel. You obviously know nothing about demographics, the entire population of Connaught is the same as Dublin City, where the state's economic heart is. Yet we are still going ahead with connecting Tuam to Galway by an over designed road.

antoobrien

cgcsb wrote: »

Incorrect DART u will tripple rail capacity in Dublin to 100 million trips /yr hardly 'white elephant'.

Didn't say it was, if you'll read what was written, I referred to MN.

cgcsb wrote: »

By comparison we have the empty Ennis to Athenry rail line, the barely used limerick tunnel.

One wonders why this is the case, perhaps because they are not being run to benefit the locality.

It's blatantly obvious in the case of the case of WRC, which is being run to benefit the IE staff rather then the working populations of either Galway or Limerick.

As for the criminally incompetent decision to toll a city bypass, well the less
said about that the better.

cgcsb wrote: »

You obviously know nothing about demographics, the entire population of Connaught is the same as Dublin City, where the state's economic heart is.

You do realise that those very demographics is just why there is no value for money left in infrastructure development and why, instead of further concentrating industry in an area that clearly can not support it - as evidenced by the fact that they "have" to extract water from the Shannon within 5 years or they'll run out. These projections based on a DCC claimed 20% loss rate that was updated to over 40% by Irish water. Fix the pipes and we'll find that there is plenty of capacity. Nah, let's take the easy way out.

cgcsb wrote: »

Yet we are still going ahead with connecting Tuam to Galway by an over designed road.

And therin lies the problem, it's not a Tuam-Galway road (it's about 10km from the eastern edge of the Galway), it's part of an actual national project designed to link up the major towns along the Western Seaboard.

Fot what it's worth, it past time we started building "over designed" roads and rail, as they provide spare capacity - which as DCC will tell us about water - is not a bad thing!

antoobrien

cgcsb wrote: »

the entire population of Connaught is the same as Dublin City

So Connacht and Munster are owed probably owed more than 10 billion each in investment for the past 20 odd years. :cool:

Victor

On topic please.

Moderator

---

Nordicgael wrote: »

Foynes is irelands second largest port

Do you mean the several disparate ports along the Shannon are somewhat busy? A motorway to Foynes isn't going to serve the fuel terminals as Moneypoint power station and Shannon Airport. Likewise Aughinish and Tarbert have no need for a motorway. Any expansion at Foynes is likely to see the closure of the docks in Limerick.

In any case, Rosslare claims to be busier.

marmurr1916

Do the TEN-T regulations require motorways or just high-quality port access routes?

The NRA could meet the requirements for Foynes by building a single-carriageway route at far less cost.

If a motorway (or even a 2+2 dual-carriageway) is going to be built, it would make sense to design the route in such a way that it serves both as a road from Limerick to Foynes as well as part of a road from Limerick to Kerry.

Building a completely new off-line road from the existing N21 west of Patrickswell to a point close to mid-way between Rathkeale and Askeaton, near to the R518, would satisfy that requirement.

There could then be a northwards spur towards Foynes, joining the existing N69 west of Askeaton, with a southwards spur towards Tralee, joining the existing N21 west of Rathkeale.

The most suitable route for the connection between the existing N21 west of Patrickswell to the R518 would be either to use to build on the railway line or build a road more-or-less parallel to the railway line.

This option is also available for the northwards spur towards Foynes.

relaxed

Victor wrote: »

On topic please.

Moderator

---

Do you mean the several disparate ports along the Shannon are somewhat busy? A motorway to Foynes isn't going to serve the fuel terminals as Moneypoint power station and Shannon Airport. Likewise Aughinish and Tarbert have no need for a motorway. Any expansion at Foynes is likely to see the closure of the docks in Limerick.

In any case, Rosslare claims to be busier.

I think Shannon Foynes collectively is the second biggest by tonnage, but then again there are really only 3 or 4 large operations, Dublin, Cork, Shannon Foynes and maybe Waterford, so its not like its near the top of a big list.

Moneypoint and Aughinish make up a lot of it, and they are self contained in their own facility, so will never need a motorway.

spacetweek

marmurr1916 wrote: »

Do the TEN-T regulations require motorways or just high-quality port access routes?

The NRA could meet the requirements for Foynes by building a single-carriageway route at far less cost.

It's unlikely they specify motorway. At the end of the day the only thing that matters is improved journey times for freight.

marmurr1916 wrote: »

Building a completely new off-line road from the existing N21 west of Patrickswell to a point close to mid-way between Rathkeale and Askeaton, near to the R518, would satisfy that requirement.

There could then be a northwards spur towards Foynes, joining the existing N69 west of Askeaton, with a southwards spur towards Tralee, joining the existing N21 west of Rathkeale.

I think Fred Barry of NRA was hinting at that idea.

antoobrien

marmurr1916 wrote: »

Do the TEN-T regulations require motorways or just high-quality port access routes?

It seems to specify motorway, though given the fact that this is a European document, that could be a linguistic nuance, rather than a grade specification It's also not limited to road, but also mentions rail & inland waterways.

Here is the text that seems to apply from the regulation:

optimising the integration and interconnection of transport modes and enhancing the interoperability of transport services, while ensuring the accessibility of transport infrastructures. The achievement of this objective shall be measured by:
(i) the number of multimodal logistic platforms, including inland and maritime ports and airports, connected to the railway network;
(ii) the number of improved rail-road terminals, and the number of improved or new connections between ports through motorways of the sea;
(iii) the number of kilometres of inland waterways fitted with RIS; and
(iv)the level of deployment of the SESAR system, VTMIS and ITS for the road sector.

There are a list of Irish projects that are specified that could receive funding from the "Connecting Europe Facility"(it seems that there are funds associated with this plan/initiative).

The interesting thing about the Irish document and the regulations is that they mention Foynes in the context of rail not road (not exactly surprising that our journos didn't spot that).

The list of projects includes:
Core routes: North Sea – Mediterranean

Cork - Dublin - Belfast|Rail|Studies and works; Dublin Interconnector (DART);
Dublin, Cork, Southampton|Ports, Rail|Studies and works on port capacity, MoS and interconnections


Rail connection Shannon Foynes - Limerick junction| Other Core Network | Rail | Studies

Other
NODE NAME|Airport|Maritime Port
Carrickfin|Comprehensive (Donegal) |
Cork | Core | Core
Dublin | Core | Core (GDA port cluster)
Inishmore | Comprehensive
Kerry -Farranfore |Comprehensive
Knock |Comprehensive (Connaught)
Limerick | Comprehensive (Shannon)| Core (Shannon-Foynes)
Rosslare | | Comprehensive (Europort)
Waterford | Comprehensive |Comprehensive

Limerick74

Article 17 of the TEN-T Regulations describes the type of roads required:

3. High-quality roads shall be specially designed and built for motor traffic, and shall be either motorways, express roads or conventional strategic roads.
(a) A motorway is a road specially designed and built for motor traffic, which does not serve properties bordering on it and which:
(i) is provided, except at special points or temporarily, with separate carriageways for the two directions of traffic, separated from each other by a dividing strip not intended for traffic or, exceptionally, by other means;
(ii) does not cross at grade with any road, railway or tramway track, bicycle path or footpath; and
(iii) is specially sign-posted as a motorway.
(b) An express road is a road designed for motor traffic, which is accessible primarily from interchanges or controlled junctions and which:
(i) prohibits stopping and parking on the running carriageway; and
(ii) does not cross at grade with any railway or tramway track.
(c) A conventional strategic road is a road which is not a motorway or express road but which is still a high-quality road as referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2.

SpaceTime

Whatever about Ringaskiddy, the big issue in that area is that there should be a motorway / DC to Carrigaline feeding into the N40. It's a town of about 15,000 people which is basically a suburb of Cork and it's connected by a stub of a link into the N40 which turns into a twisty country road.

Every morning it's jammed and it's handling very heavy traffic all day.

Any motorway link that direction would absolutely have to connect Carrigaline.

marmurr1916

Limerick74 wrote: »

Article 17 of the TEN-T Regulations describes the type of roads required:

3. High-quality roads shall be specially designed and built for motor traffic, and shall be either motorways, express roads or conventional strategic roads.
(a) A motorway is a road specially designed and built for motor traffic, which does not serve properties bordering on it and which:
(i) is provided, except at special points or temporarily, with separate carriageways for the two directions of traffic, separated from each other by a dividing strip not intended for traffic or, exceptionally, by other means;
(ii) does not cross at grade with any road, railway or tramway track, bicycle path or footpath; and
(iii) is specially sign-posted as a motorway.
(b) An express road is a road designed for motor traffic, which is accessible primarily from interchanges or controlled junctions and which:
(i) prohibits stopping and parking on the running carriageway; and
(ii) does not cross at grade with any railway or tramway track.
(c) A conventional strategic road is a road which is not a motorway or express road but which is still a high-quality road as referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2.

In other words, there's no necessity to build motorways to Foynes or Ringaskiddy.

The regulations would be satisfied by the building of 'high-quality' and 'conventional strategic roads'.

marmurr1916

antoobrien wrote: »

It seems to specify motorway, though given the fact that this is a European document, that could be a linguistic nuance, rather than a grade specification It's also not limited to road, but also mentions rail & inland waterways.

Here is the text that seems to apply from the regulation

'Motorways of the sea' aren't roads - they're just shipping lanes with appropriate port infrastructure.

antoobrien

marmurr1916 wrote: »

'Motorways of the sea' aren't roads - they're just shipping lanes with appropriate port infrastructure.

Oops, mind totally blanked the "of the sea" at the end of the sentence (probably because it's not a phrase I'd heave heard e.g. sea lanes) .

AugustusMinimus

SpaceTime wrote: »

Whatever about Ringaskiddy, the big issue in that area is that there should be a motorway / DC to Carrigaline feeding into the N40. It's a town of about 15,000 people which is basically a suburb of Cork and it's connected by a stub of a link into the N40 which turns into a twisty country road.

Every morning it's jammed and it's handling very heavy traffic all day.

Any motorway link that direction would absolutely have to connect Carrigaline.

Have a look at the link I threw up near the start of the thread. Contains a map of the N28 dualling project.

It will be an offline build and will have a junction for Carrigaline. That junction will be quite close to where the current roundabout entering Carrigaline is.

The road is badly needed. The traffic queuing in the mornings is terrible.

spacetweek

Did anyone else notice that the photo accompanying the Indo article is of a British motorway. I've caught Irish newspapers doing that many times. Lazy use of Google Image Search!

zetalambda

Nordicgael wrote: »

Foynes is irelands second largest port and have a plan for future expansion -
so it isnt as small or as quiet as it may look -
besides its a good thing to plan properly for the future.hopefully irish ports may become busier over the coming years - galway harbor has a big expansion plan going through the planning process right now.

I'm not sure about that.

Dublin:



Cork:



Foynes:

relaxed wrote: »

I think Shannon Foynes collectively is the second biggest by tonnage, but then again there are really only 3 or 4 large operations, Dublin, Cork, Shannon Foynes and maybe Waterford, so its not like its near the top of a big list.

Moneypoint and Aughinish make up a lot of it, and they are self contained in their own facility, so will never need a motorway.

I doubt it. Dublin takes 60% of Irelands total trade and Cork takes 20% which doesn't leave a lot for the remaining ports.

TINA1984 wrote: »

Would the restoration of the railhead at Foynes be a more cost effective option then a new build road?

Likewise with the N28, though it would be a huge asset to the lower harbour area, it's still just going to be mainly beneficial to commuters. it still seems strange that the Port of Cork want to build a new port away from mainline road and rail down in Ringaskiddy. Building a new facility on or near the N25 and Cobh railway is surely the more sensible option?

They are also planning on buying a land-bank on the Cobh side of the harbour, presumably because it gives them access to the rail line.

Cookiemunster

zetalambda wrote: »

I'm not sure about that.

I doubt it. Dublin takes 60% of Irelands total trade and Cork takes 20% which doesn't leave a lot for the remaining ports.

You've only shown one part of the port there. Shannon Foynes Port includes Foynes, Limerick Docks, Shannon, Tarbert, Moneypoint and Aughinish.

From it's own website
Shannon Foynes Port Company, Ireland’s second largest port operation , has statutory jurisdiction over all marine activities on a 500km2 area on the Shannon Estuary, stretching from Kerry/Loop Heads to Limerick City. The strategic location of our terminals offers access to the vibrant economy and population of a large part of Ireland.

SFPC specialises in bulk cargoes, which constitute more than half the cargoes transiting Irish ports. SFPC accounts for more than 35% of all bulk cargoes in the Republic (CSO 2010)

It doesn't justify a motorway for the Foynes bit, but the figures are correct.

moyners

Their website is probably technically correct but when you delve a little deeper the story is a little different.
From their website:
Shannon - Terminal dedicated to aviation fuel imports (for the airport presumably)
Aughhinish - Terminal dedicated to the import of bauxite and export of alumina for Rusal facility (An aluminium refinery)
Tarbert - Terminal dedicated to fuel oil import (for Tarbert power station)
Moneypoint - Terminal dedicated to coal imports for ESB electricity generating plant

Only Limerick docks and Foynes take general shipments of containers etc.

So, yes, they do process all of those bulk shipments which may make it the second largest port "operation" in the country but since for all the terminals listed above the shipments are used right there and don't need transportation, they shouldn't affect whether the port needs a motorway or not...

Cookiemunster

moyners wrote: »

they shouldn't affect whether the port needs a motorway or not...

Read the last line of my post.

moyners

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Read the last line of my post.

Sorry, was agreeing with you on that part. Just fleshing out where I think they're getting their statements on their website.

BionicRasher

zetalambda wrote: »

They are also planning on buying a land-bank on the Cobh side of the harbour, presumably because it gives them access to the rail line.

The main road in to Cobh/Marino Point (where the rail line is) is a joke. It handles 12-15,000 cars per day and is lethal. That must be upgraded if anything were to happen on the Cobh side
Could you imagine 100 additional trucks on that per day?
Seriously neglected for years and needs major updating.

cgcsb

BionicRasher wrote: »

The main road in to Cobh/Marino Point (where the rail line is) is a joke. It handles 12-15,000 cars per day and is lethal. That must be upgraded if anything were to happen on the Cobh side
Could you imagine 100 additional trucks on that per day?
Seriously neglected for years and needs major updating.

A perfect opportunity for An Bord Pleanala to insist on use of the railway instead of road.

BionicRasher

cgcsb wrote: »

A perfect opportunity for An Bord Pleanala to insist on use of the railway instead of road.

You still need to get good roads to service the railway line. How would you get freight in and out of the area otherwise?
It should be planned properly and then we won't have to redo it 10 years down the line like everything else in this country.

Carawaystick

BionicRasher wrote: »

You still need to get good roads to service the railway line. How would you get freight in and out of the area otherwise?
It should be planned properly and then we won't have to redo it 10 years down the line like everything else in this country.

Isn't there a quay/wharf at the fertiliser factory?
Then you can get goods off ships to trains, no roads needed

BionicRasher

Carawaystick wrote: »

Isn't there a quay/wharf at the fertiliser factory?
Then you can get goods off ships to trains, no roads needed

Fine if you don't want your freight to go to Waterford or the South East. The rail lone goes as far as Midleton and that's it. I am sure that not every container would go via rail.
That's why I say these things need to be planned correctly so as all angles are looked at
You still need a road network to service the railway terminal and shipping wharfs
Ringaskiddy will rely entirely on road unless they plan to throw in a rail line which is not going to happen.

kub

BionicRasher wrote: »

Fine if you don't want your freight to go to Waterford or the South East. The rail lone goes as far as Midleton and that's it. I am sure that not every container would go via rail.
That's why I say these things need to be planned correctly so as all angles are looked at
You still need a road network to service the railway terminal and shipping wharfs
Ringaskiddy will rely entirely on road unless they plan to throw in a rail line which is not going to happen.

No the rail line comes out of the old IFI Plant and joins up with the Cobh/ Cork line, therefore it is on the mainline. Midleton is much further east, but is as you say a dead end.

BionicRasher

kub wrote: »

No the rail line comes out of the old IFI Plant and joins up with the Cobh/ Cork line, therefore it is on the mainline. Midleton is much further east, but is as you say a dead end.

Yes on the main line with Cobh / Cork but Midleton is a spur on that line also as it branches off at Glounthaune (old Cobh junction station) but is a dead end so any freight going to the South East would have to go by road and the roads out of the area are atrocious
That's why I say if this is part of the Ringaskiddy port development they will have to look at improving the roads in and around Cobh as well as just blasting ahead with the motorway to Ringaskiddy otherwise it's half a job.
Then again we are used to half arse jobs and improper future proofing in this country so why am I surprised!

kub

Indeed forward planning in this country is a joke, I suppose some genius will propose that Irish Rail reopen North Esk and any containers for Waterford/ Wexford can be taken off the train there for road transfer.

pigtown

Planning for the Foynes-Limerick road has started. http://clareherald.com/2014/07/15/foynes-limerick-city-road-scheme-planning-begins-2378/

AugustusMinimus

pigtown wrote: »

Planning for the Foynes-Limerick road has started. http://clareherald.com/2014/07/15/foynes-limerick-city-road-scheme-planning-begins-2378/

What standard of road are they going with. Presume 2+2 would be the very max they'd consider ?

spacetweek

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

What standard of road are they going with. Presume 2+2 would be the very max they'd consider ?

It's still in Feasability stage so they won't have decided. But I agree that 2+2 is the max and really just online widening with a few bypasses is all you'd need.

Either that or the other idea where you build a new Rathkeale-Foynes road and direct traffic along the M20.

SpaceTime

cgcsb wrote: »

A perfect opportunity for An Bord Pleanala to insist on use of the railway instead of road.

There's also a huge problem with access for emergency services to Cobh due to only one narrow bridge.

It effectively means you cannot site dangerous industries down there, including ports handling anything nasty.

IFI wouldn't pass modern European requirements for emergency access under The Seveso Directive.

If there was a port in Cobh it couldn't handle anything like chemicals, fuel etc.

Chris_5339762

OT I know, but Cobh had grand plans for a new 2+2 route from the edge of Fota Island right the way in. It died along with the boom.

The Belvelly Bridge does the job well enough though for the time being. Could do with peak time traffic lights though.

Limerick74

I see the council have set up a project web site for the scheme foyneslimerick.ie