M6 - Galway City Ring Road [planning decision pending]

Can't have by-pass and public transport system
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Dear Editor,
In the light of the financial crisis that faces this country, it is hard to see just how the High Court decision to throw out the environmental concerns many people have over the construction of a €340 million by-pass of Galway city will allay those genuine concerns and lead to its construction.

This proposed road simply will never be built. It makes no environmental sense to destroy our protected landscapes, neither does it make economic sense to put the construction of such an environmentally damaging road ahead of spending money on decent public transport alternatives, which are now being used as an alternative to building more roads in many other European cities.

The proposal for a by-pass of Galway first appeared over 20 years ago, as soon as it was realised that the current by-pass and bridge crossing at Terryland was going to be unable to deal with the unsustainable growth of car traffic. The current delay and costs of over €12 million due to planning, CPO processes and environmental concerns has become a cause celebre for the pro-development lobby led by Frank Fahey TD.

The use of the humble, but protected, bog cotton has replicated the outcry over the snail in the delays experienced in building the Kildare by-pass (N7) in 2004. FF Senator Martin Mansergh, in 2004, made the following statement to the Irish Times during the debate over that road, "There was the ridiculous delay to the N7 bypass at Kildare because of a supposedly threatened species of snail. I am deeply suspicious of an expertise that cannot be verified. Common sense and experience tells us that snails are virtually ineradicable and the miniscule risk of a marginal change in the biodiversity of this particular species is surely a tolerable one."

For Senator Mansergh then in Kildare, and Frank Fahey now in Galway, to suggest that a small snail, or in our case bog cotton, and it alone were the reason for environmentalists objections is an attempt to trivialise the issue and to ridicule the views of those opposed to the plans in an effort to gain public support for the road as originally designed.

As independent transport campaigner, Brian Guckian has said, "You simply cannot have both an outer by-pass and a fully functioning public transport system in Galway" since the money for both is simply not there. If you get the road, you will never see public transport improvements in Galway and we will be consigned to seeing traffic gridlock in Galway continue for decades to come.

Yours faithfully,
Derrick Hambleton,
Chairman,
An Taisce – Galway Association, Kingston, Galway

This person does not represent me .
written by Cathal O Meara, October 14, 2009

This is the sort of Luddite twaddle that angers me .

You cannot have a Tram System without first having a Bypass , there is no ROOM.

There is no need for a Tram Network that can take 70 persons per carriage , run in train units of 3 carriages = 210 persons per train and at 4 minute intervals = 210x15 per hour OR 3050 persons per direction per hour save for a 20 min morning peak and a 20 min evening peak .

Having brought these drivers in in the morning for the 20 minute peak you then need to move at most 1050 persons per hour per direction for the rest of the day. That means you need to send two out of 3 drivers home after 20 minutes work or 30 minutes work in teh morning .

This tram network is complete overkill for Galway.

Trams are typically deployed nowadays in cities with 150000 persons and undergrounds in cities of 500000 persons .

Anyway , where are we supposed to get the space to build this without a Bypass to take the bloody cars out of the way first ???? if you build it on Galway streets, as is, you will completely gridlock the city and you will completely bankrupts the entore central business district whose rates will in part pay for this thing.

The Chamber of Commerce look like complete prats in giving this scheme their backing.


Are An Taisce now on drugs?
written by Brendan Quinn, October 15, 2009

If you google this Brian Guckian guy and do some research about him in various internet forums - for example Boards.ie you will soon see the kind of transport planning expert he purports to be - Find any scheme with a sniff of so called environmental opposition and his name is likely to crop up. Galway needs a by pass built so it is a by pass and not a hop in and out the city road - it is desperately needed to get the city moving again - Now you can have a bypass and still have good public transport - by simply doing stuff like - good bus lanes in and out of the city, possibly a congestion charge with some exemptions for those permanently resident in the city (not students though to discourage students using cars in the city) good safe segregated cycle lanes, first class and over serviced park and ride schemes on the edge of the city in terms of numbers of buses available 247 in and out of the city, take these steps and you will get the city moving again - Mr Guckian goes around the country pickng up pet projects and then declaring some kind of credibility as an independent transport planning consultant - most of his ideas are completely pie in the sky fantasy land stuff, people like this should not be allowed to take some kind of highground and label themselves self appointed experts and spokespeople. Check Mr. Guckians various pet projects out and see for yourself. The Gluas is a joke idea for Galway, Get real not only does this idea have to be thrown into the Corrib, the people who espouse it need to be silenced by the majority of us who do want the bypass because we know without it Galway will strangle itself.

serfboard wrote: »

It's all very well having Bus Lanes - you must provide the service if you want to encourage people to switch from using their cars. What we definitely do not need are Bus Lanes with the West of Ireland equivalent of tumbleweed blowing along them.

Galway News wrote:

Funding for bypass is 'rock solid' says minister

Fri 23rd October 2009
Governement is 100% committed


THE Government’s funding guarantee for the city’s outer by pass – estimated to cost more than €320m – remains “absolutely rock solid”, Minister Éamon Ó Cuív, has told the Galway City Tribune.
The Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Minister, told this newspaper yesterday that there was no deviation at Cabinet level as to the top priority status which the outer bypass enjoyed, despite the current financial climate.
“While the issue may currently be bogged down on legal and planning issues, the Government is committed 100% to the construction of the city’s outer bypass.
“The case for it is irrefutable. How can businesses from Knocknacarra and Barna, back to Clifden, continue to survive when they have to, on a daily basis, survive an hour long journey through the city?
“Someone leaving the eastern fringe of the city would be more than half way to Dublin by the time another commuter would have made it from Knocknacarra to Oranmore.
“This has to change – Galway has to move on. We cannot be left behind. Just look this week at the difference that the new bypass has made to the South-East. The city is being clogged up with traffic, much of which doesn’t need to be going through the urban centre,” said Minister Ó Cuív.
He also told the Galway City Tribune that the Government was working very diligently behind the scenes to ensure that the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) would be involved at a very early planning stage in new road development.
“We just cannot have the NPWS coming in at a very late stage and saying ‘this’ is what they don’t want. I, and the Government, want the NPWS to be involved from the start and say what they do want.
“They must engage far earlier in the process in a positive fashion and bring their views forwards through a negotiation process rather than a confrontational one. This system needs to be put in place,” said Minister Ó Cuív.
He also said that he wanted to make it clear that the function of the Attorney General in any current cases before the High Court was purely on the basis of providing the best legal advice for the Government.
But Minister Ó Cuív indicated that his “gut feeling” on the overall legal wrangles surrounding the project was that it might take a ruling at European level to lay down a “once-and- for-all precedent”.
What had to be resolved, he added, was whether the process could be taken directly at this stage to the European Justice or Commission level, or whether it would have go through the Irish Supreme
Court first.
“While I welcome the latest High Court decision clearing the way for the eastern section of the bypass to go ahead, this looks as if it will go further,” said Minister Ó Cuív.
The €600m Waterford bypass was opened last week by Minister Martin Cullen, while the €800m Limerick Tunnel project is due for completion early next year – backers of the Galway bypass are adamant that this project could also have been happening at the same time, only for the objections and legal wrangles.
The 22km bypass is proposed to run from the M6 between Doughiska and Briar Hill to the Spiddal Road between Barna and Furbo, with a new fifth bridge over the Corrib.

churchview wrote: »

What he failed to mention was that the snails in Kildare were accomodated by building a culvert which allows them to pass under the road, a simple solution that was implemented in a very short time once the econuts were appeased.

churchview wrote: »

This has really cheered me up on a Friday.....:D

veryangryman wrote: »

Just been lookin at the plans for the bypass

No N17 junction? What the flip? :eek:

Someone enlighten me?

kiwipower wrote: »

Also wondering is there any plan to increase the size of the Seamus Quirke Road to DC standard as far as the Western Distributor? I would think if they done this with a overbridge were it crosses the Newcastle Road and an upgrade of the Terrylands and Headford roundabout you could easy Galway traffic considerable.

Would personally remove lights on Terryland or replace with orange and red arrows only at the enterence to the roundabout. Not physically within the roundabout!

Also think the lanes on and off the roundabout could be better designed for ease of use!

kiwipower wrote: »

Well thats pure narrow mindedness for your! would there not be enough room for DC and a single bus lane? They could always be very cleaver and bring busess around the back of the westside shopping centre. It would be closer to the estates as well that way!