M6 - Galway City Ring Road [planning decision pending]

Getting the excuses in early and as usual, it's somebody elses fault. It's not the planning system which is the issue here, it's the step before that which decided to pursue this "all things to all men" and to hell with everything else road solution. It was never likely to survive both the planning and public spending approvals processes.

The need for several tunnel and viaduct sections on such a short section of road should have been a red flag. That's before getting into the whole building a road to solve commuter congestion when such a road is only going to create more commuter congestion situation.

ABP have to assess projects on the basis of the information they have received. If they receive vast amounts of information relating to huge engineering works and environmental impacts of multiple proposed viaducts and tunnels, on top of the standard volumes of information which comes with a 17km road with a major river crossing and passing several sensitive areas, then they have to give review it all and give everything due consideration.

I don't see how it is ABPs fault that someone dumped an over-engineered mess on their desk, they just have to do their jobs and wade through it.

IF ABP can be overwhelmed by one large application then it clearly is not fit for purpose.

"Who said anything about being overwhelmed?"

Three years is an unacceptable turnaround time by any measure. If ABP does not have the capacity to deliver prompt decisions on key national infrastructure projects, it is overwhelmed. I'm not sure what the point in disputing this is.

As for hating the game, we don't have to. The Oireachtas can and should rewrite the rulebook.

Lets look at the timeline and how it unfolded;

23 October 2018 - application to ABP

4 April 2019 - ABP issue Request for Further Information

30 August 2019 - response to Request for Further Information

18 February 2020 - Oral hearing gets underway

26 March 2020 - Due to the continuing restrictions resulting from Covid-19, the oral hearing is postponed until further notice

12 October 2020 - Oral hearing resumes

Notice anything in there which delayed a necessary part of the process?

And the Oireachtas can't rewrite the rulebook, much of the legislation is underpinned by EU directives. Unless you are suggesting Ireland leave the EU which is probably the most difficult, and time-consuming and less likely to succeed way of achieving what you want, not unlike the Galway Bypass really.

A prompt before Covid would have had to have been made in Jan 2020 at the latest, little over a year after the application was submitted. The only possible decision which could have been made at that point was to reject it as any decision to approve at that point would almost certainly get thrown out in court (not least because it wouldn't have followed the standard process). For someone who keeps telling us how necessary this road is and how it needs to go ahead, that seems a major change of tune. Had ABP just rejected it after little over a year, you'd be doing twice as much complaining and bitching about ABP

In the 16 months between application and Covid hitting, ABP had assessed the submission and requested further information, the applicant had submitted the further information, a consultation on the further information had been held and the oral hearings had started. Everything was progressing in the standard manner until March 2020 when everything (literally the whole world) was thrown into chaos.

Transposing EU directives into domestic law slightly differently isn't going to remove the need for the EIA and NIS, both of which are incredibly complex, as are the appropriate assessments of them. Simply changing how EU directives are transposed into domestic law doesn't solve the problem you have as challenges can still be made to EU courts and the transposition can be found to be flawed. The Aarhus Convention would also continue to exist so the need for public consultation on the significant further information which was provided.

Anyway, keep moaning about it all you want, it doesn't change anything. You should be happy as the fact a decision hasn't yet been made keeps hope that this road might actually get built alive (for those who hope it gets build). My stated opinion on this project going back years has been that it is an over complicated and it wont happen due to costs and/or environmental grounds and that this process will ultimately be a massive waste of time. Looks like it is playing out like that.

Regardless of staffing issues at ABP, the oral hearings were delayed by 6 months due to Covid so no, the delay is not 100% down to ABP and their staff issues.

If ABP were not clearly overwhelmed, the oral hearings for the bypass would have taken place long before Covid ever emerged.

"A long decision process" and "a short decision process that will almost definitely get overturned in court" is a false choice.

If ABP were not overwhelmed, it would be able to carry out its statutory responsibilities, including reviews and oral hearings, in a prompt and efficient fashion, without an increased risk of its findings being overturned in court. We should expect this as citizens, and if it is not delivered, we should demand it.

True, only us fans on the Roads forum need things built. Our fellow citizens don't need houses, schools, sustainable transport infrastructure etc.

The same rules holding up the Galway bypass are impeding the mass rollout of bike lanes across Dublin and have put any further expansion elsewhere on ice. They're also preventing sustainable high-density housing developments being built across the country, and will almost certainly be used to prevent works necessary for BusConnects etc from proceeding. If you really want a national green revolution, you should be demanding reform of the planning system too.

If it gets approved, the uncertainty and delays in other investments are likely to remain as legal challenges look to be inevitable. Even if it survived those, this project could struggle to get approval under Public Spending Code (already expected to cost €600m with that possibly rising), government policy moving away from supporting car commuting (which this certainly does), not fitting within carbon budget, etc. Approval by ABP just kicks off new processes

This was always going to be the issue here, they basically put all their eggs in the basket that is an extremely difficult to construct road and figure everything else out later. Even with everything running smoothly and minimal delays, the road as designed was always going to take a decade from initial design to opening to traffic. The current uncertainty in transport spending and preventing any major investment in improving transportation in Galway was accepted a long time ago, as if having everything hinging on it would somehow ease this road concept's passage.

To be fair, given the condition of our planning system, the same long delays are in store for any serious transport project. It only takes one disgruntled person to set a project through years of judicial review and appeals.

A Gluas or any ambitious BusConnects will likely be stuck in the same planning nightmare as the bypass for years to come, unless the system is radically reformed.

The only city in Ireland not to have sufficient infrastructure? Like where do you get this from? Ever been to Dublin? Europe's largest metro-less city and Europe's largest non rail connected airport. Its not a Galway thing, all of Ireland's infrastructure is woeful for political reasons.

The main image for that article shows what a ludicrous idea the Galway Bypass plan is. Its an ocean of tarmac, it looks close to 50m wide, then a **** tunnel despite every PT project requiring a tunnel is considered too expensive.

This should be the first thing dropped from the NDP, put €100m into a new section of road and bridge splitting off the existing N6 west of the N83 and connecting to the N59 (and no further west), another €100m into Galway bus and cycle improvements and you'd still have at least €400m to plug funding gaps elsewhere (particularly Metrolink).

While I am sure that irishcycle.com has no vested interest in whether the bypass is built or not, some of the claims the author makes are a bit much. Saying that Galway is already bypassed because the N6 doesn't go directly through the city centre is like saying that we already have plenty of bus and cycle lanes all over Galway (because buses and bicycles can just travel in car lanes). And suggesting that Galwegians will switch en masse to cycling in the rain or waiting for the bus/Gluas etc to the extent that traffic is significantly reduced (even while the city gets far more inhabitants in the coming decades) seems utopian.

@Pete_Cavan A lot of the Dublin Metro is going underground. If it's cost-effective to build the tunnel, it will be built. The image shows two lanes of traffic with merge lanes - pretty standard for high-quality roads in Ireland, and nowhere close to 50 m wide on the mainline.

@CatInABox Reform is coming! Given the incredible political pressure to build more houses as quick and fast as possible, I would expect it to be more in that direction, although I'm sure the Greens will stick their oar in too.

I did specify west of the city, not west of the river.

The housing developments you're talking about are better suited for strong PT transport links than individual car based transport. Higher density living using higher density transport to get to higher density work, shopping, etc. It's just not possible to build enough road space to allow everyone to drive everywhere without congestion. There's a relatively small percentage of people and businesses that live further out that'll realistically always need something like a car due to the remote location, but we don't need to clog up all the road space they need with thousands of people driving a few km to and from work.

A situation like the A5 maybe. Endless delays on spurious environmental grounds so that the road is never delivered. A shame for Galway, but a win for other cities in the country I guess. That funding can be diverted to the M20.