Galway to Athlone Greenway

Any idea when it would be completed once they decided on the route?

Nothing happens fast in Galway so would be nice in the next 10 years

Am I right in saying that according to the time line above, they hope to begin construction in 2024? So everything running smoothly it will be, minimum, end of 2025 before it's open

Do you have that available anywhere to share, please?

I’d agree with you @beggars_bush , it’s not designed as a cycling “motorway”, more a scenic route!

How so?

The last time they tried to design this route, they did exactly as you are referring to there @[Deleted User], planned to plough straight through the middle of land/ farms without much consultation, and that is why I believe it ultimately failed, as no farmer is going to voluntarily sell “the land”

I do hope that the drawing above is not an actual plan of what they intend, but can’t help think it’s a way of mitigating/ allaying some fears/ backlash from land owners when the route corridor is still quite wide. I’d agree that drawing would be stupid and a pointless waste of money if that turns out to be the case though.

That drawing is to allay fears as ratracer states - it's to show the flexibility there can be with Greenways. Only the preferred route corridor is determined not the exact route so there are no specific examples yet to be concerned about. To be honest, the Mullingar - Athlone section is boring and seems longer because it's so straight, a few bends and turns will make for a much more interesting and enjoyable route.

The tweet with the very windy route, from Citizen Wolf I think, was just moronic and shows total ignorance of the difficulties this route has faced in getting this far. No one is going to commute from Athlone to Galway, yes some will commute from Athenry and that's likely to be connected to the route in the coming years but some of the commentary from so-called cycling advocates is so far removed from reality as to be joke. It's taken 6 years to get to this space since the last effort failed!

I understand that people want a useable route, but I can also understand that land owners might not want to have their land cut in two pieces, as was suggested for landowner B above. Is it farm land? Dairy? Tillage? How do they access the section cut off? Will they have an access point on either side of the Greenway? Will they be allowed to temporarily block the Greenway to move cattle/machinery from one part of the land to another?

That's easy to say when it's not your land they're CPO'ing 😁

I'm aware of that, I just think that it's things like "sure it's just a few CPO's, what the big deal" is why things like this get held up. If the people who are under the CPO feel inconsequential in the process, of course they'll push back.

Anyway, I don't own any land, and I don't live in Galway, so I've no real skin in the game

Not sure why you wouldn't want bends on it. It is a greenway not a cycle speedway.

It looks like they will follow boundaries between farms. This was done on a section of the Limerick greenway and it is no issue. I'd prefer a meandering route. The Athlone greenway is very straight in sections and can be a bit boring as a result.

People have mentioned Coole Park and other places. Will the greenways go straight through these places or will there be spurs onto it?

With the route going down to Portumna this could link up with the Lough Derg trail and onwards down to Limerick City (via UL) and potentially onto the Limerick greenway if they connect Rathkeale to the city.

We could have a fantastic set of trails in 10 years and it will be a huge boost for rural tourism.