N22 - Farranfore to Killarney [route options published]

I don't agree with you Marno in that we can agree it's not a "bypass" in name, but it's absolutely not a distributer either. It's one of the earlier glut of "relief roads" which serves neither function properly as it tries to do both. We have these in Carrigaline, Midleton, Dungarvan, etc and we're talking about (and have built!) outer relief roads of the outer relief road in all of the above cases.

It has been very clearly been used as a development facilitator to open up the town to unplanned sprawl (same as in the other mentioned towns). There's empty fields in the middle of town and development on the "relief" road. That makes no sense from a planning perspective.

So I don't see the value in another road to relieve the relief road: it's absolutely certain that the Co Co will allow massive development at every junction of any such new road, until the point that it partly ceases to function again when traffic queues up (like the Oatencake interchange). The current "relief" road would serve no real purpose other than to encourage local people to use the car for every journey (it's in no way a distributor, it'd be a car-oriented development facilitator). And a 30-year lifespan for the original asset is reasonably poor. As others have said, I'd rather see an overall Killarney transport plan. And if another outer road is still warranted within that plan, then fair enough. But plugging another road onto the side is of little use.

N22-N71 is going to be a really difficult job but it could track from N71 across the flood plain (raised), then cross the river to the south, joining the Mill Road, then leaving it again to tie into N22 North of the Lislivigeen roundabout at an upgraded free-flow junction. It's be a massive project I'd say, loads of structures. I don't see any realistic route to the West of town. Another question is: would locals be happy with the Muckross tourist traffic not going directly through the town? You'd hope there wouldn't be huge pushback.

Yep I'd be strongly pushing for the N71-N22 link to get done, and for the northern part of the Muckross road to get an "urban realm" upgrade. I use it a bit (car and bike) and it's not awful just a bit haphazard. You'd hope that given less traffic to facilitate, they could do something coherent on it. Simple stuff like raising the footpath would make a big difference. It's Woodlawn road to Countess road really that's really poor.

On the outer relief road, as I say if it's warranted with a holistic view of town traffic then fine, but I hate the idea that "we've tried nothing else so we're going to do the same thing again". If they made any attempt at all to sort out the town you wouldn't mind it too much, but as it stands you just couldn't trust the Co Co at all. I'd say the second any outer road is completed, the NW section will be Kerry Co Co's new "devlopment" zone unfortunately. Without forcing a coherent town transport plan before the road is done, its existence will be factored into any transport plan they'll just abuse it completely.

Yep, slightly different era/age probably helped those two I suspect

https://www.radiokerry.ie/news/sufficient-funding-in-place-to-ensure-preferred-route-for-farranfore-to-killarney-bypass-will-be-selected-this-year-401162

If the preferred route is selected before year end, what does that necessarily mean for progressing to the next stage?

The Preferred Transport Solution now published and open for consultation;

Can't see it taking much traffic off the existing Killarney "bypass", most traffic is going to/from Killarney anyway and will continue to use that. Would be doing well to get it built from south of Killarney as far as where it crosses the existing N22 north of the town.

Not actually part of N22 Farranfore to Killarney but Kerry Co Co are planning to get rid of the Park Road Roundabout, to be replaced with protected signalised junction;

Part 8 - N22 MD O Shea Roundabout to Ballycasheen Road Upgrade and L3907 Ballycasheen Active Travel Project | Kerry County Council

Just offhand, some details stood out:

Killarney Heights retains two entrances and two exits 50m apart on an N road.

The Heights two entrances and exits are adjacent to two further car park entrances and exits approx. 50 metres apart, giving 4 private companies dedicated entrances and exits on a 160m stretch…all starting 40 metres from a roundabout…on an N road.

Two entrances/exits to Woodlands Road industrial estate on a 150m stretch, just 300m away from the first roundabout, and no raised or signalised crossings of either.

But nah, what they REALLY need is a bypass of the above really obvious urban road design mistakes.

I did notice the third entrance to the hotel yep! Mad stuff. There's no reason there can't be two entrances overall there on that stretch: just join the car parks and have one in/out near the roundabout, directly accessing Daly's and one further on accessing the hotel. They'd both end up with more parking!

I think there is space for the diverge/merge roads: what I superimposed over the map was actually at scale. But you'd need to CPO parts of car parks. And you're probably right about the long construction time. But it'd be a better solution in the town than a relief relief road.