On the 28th of january it was announced that the government has given the go ahead for the castleisland bypass. As it is a short 5km bypass it would be descibed as a very small project. But to the people of Kerry it will complete the missing link of our road network and will be a great boost to our economy of the county.
I have decided to start a thread on this as it is a very important piece of infrastucture the county has been crying out for the last 10 years and will also give people info on the progress to date.
From the kerrys eye:
Castleisland bypass to start this year
€30m announced for Kerry roads for 2009
by Owen O’Shea
There were countywide celebrations on Wednesday afternoon following the announcement that €10m has been allocated to the Castleisland bypass project, which will allow it to get underway this year.
The Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, allocated the money for the work as part of the €18.5m roads funding programme for the county for 2009.
The project, the only national primary road to begin this year, is seen as a crucial piece of infrastructure for the entire county. It is expected to begin construction as early as June.
Last week, it emerged that five contractors who applied to carry out the work were believed to have undercut the €27m cost envisaged for the scheme.
The chairman of the Castleisland Bypass Action Group, Cormac O’Mahony said the announcement was a vindication of the hard work of campaigners over the last few years.
There is added relief at the news, given that the bypass was not included for funding in last October’s budget.
“When we set up the campaign two years ago, we lobbied politicians hard and held a lot of public meetings to put the pressure on.
“A lot of people spent a lot of winter’s nights sitting at meetings to lobby for this, so it is great news for them,” said Cormac.
He said the construction phase of the project would also be a welcome boost to businesses in Castleisland.
“I understand that the NRA intend to have work completed in 15 to 18 months. This is great news, not only for Castleisland, but for the whole county, he said.
North Kerry Fine Gael TD, Jimmy Deenihan, said that he hoped the funding for the bypass would help start the fight back by the local economy.