N22 - Farranfore to Killarney [route options published]

I was actually thinking the same, that the one section that really does need a bypass is N71 (Muckross) to N22. There is some traffic on the "bypass" that's not local but it's mostly local by far.

Preferred route will be published before the year end:

N22 Preferred Route to be revealed by year end - Killarney Advertiser

Nobody is saying it's too costly, we're saying it's an absolute waste of money. What will you do when the next bypass of the bypass clogs up because the Kerry Co Co allowed more development than all of Belgium?

I don't want my tax money spent on sops to one-off unsustainable development thanks. So spend a billion euro fixing the bypass by all means, but not another bypass of the bypass.

The Preferred Route hasn't even been published yet, there are several years worth of surveys and design work ro be done before it can start its two year stint with ABP. Tendering and construction will take another few years. This type of "just build the road and forget about anything else" attitude is tantamount to saying "just do nothing for the next decade".

The flip side of that is if took the opposite approach (doing the other things now while the road project trundles along), we could have something which would ease the problems in a few years. Killarney is not too badly set up, the N22 practically touches the rail line on both sides of the town. A P&R on each side along with changes to encourage visitors to use them would be quite easy. You would have one set running back and forth all day. Instead a lot of people would rather fantasise about a €0.5bn road possibly opening sometime in the 2030s.

You're the other poster that brought cost into the discussion as if you were personally going to be billed extra for it.

Where in the name of God are you getting the impression my post means do nothing for the next decade?

There you go again with your "we can't afford it baloney".

You haven't a clue what you're talking about.

It's an investment that will pay dividends and it needs to be done sooner rather than later.

The government have practically a blank cheque for every bill, a blind man could see that.

Have you noticed how much we have spent on the Childrens Hospital we are still waiting on?

Have you thought about how much it is costing us taxpayers to supplement the recent wave of new arrivals?

The country is awash with money, a road from Cork to Tralee should have been done decades ago.

Have you ever thought of the cost of the Jack Lynch Tunnel, the Macroom Bypass or the cost of the Dunkettle Roundabout?

Did you ever wonder about the cost of those concrete barriers on the main Cork to Dublin road?

Money is not an object, the money is there. It's all about convincing the people who control the purse strings that it needs to be spent in Kerry.

Talk about all over the place. You're lost.

Are you now speaking on behalf of the other poster as well?

Who are you referring to when you say "We"?

How exactly do you conclude that building a direct road from Cork to Tralee is basically a pointless project?

Fixing the road is exactly what needs to happen. You have this thing in your head that upgrading what you think is a bypass is the answer.

It's not. That's not a bypass, it's a little rat run.

People travelling to the Airport, Tralee and beyond don't want to be caught up by f*cking horses and carts in the middle of the busiest roundabout in Killarney.

Nobody wants to be caught behind the endless tour bus drivers or God forbid be innocently driving in the opposite direction to them.

The place is a nightmare, the powers that be need to give decent tax payers the option of not getting caught up in it when we have no interest or time for it.

I didn't say "we can't afford it baloney" so why are you putting it in quotation marks? You seem to ignore what is actually said and instead make up something to suit yourself. Bringing "the recent wave of new arrivals" is very telling. Clearly there is no worthwhile discussion to be had with you.

Not sure if already reported here but Eamon Ryan had emailed KCC councillors advising that funding will not been be considered for this road until 2030 at least. It really is a travesty for daily users of the existing congested network!

https://www.radiokerry.ie/news/minister-for-transport-receives-heavy-criticism-at-todays-special-killarney-md-meeting-398302

I have no idea why you put any of those words in quotation marks, it wasn't a quote. The inclusion of the word baloney was strange but none of it made sense anyway. And you haven't offered any facts and figures so no fear of anyone being offended by them.

I never mentioned anything about ability to pay for the road, that's something you made up for yourself to argue with. You also took that as an opportunity to shoehorn in "new arrivals".

I questioned the value of the project. The traffic counter at Killarney has double the AADT of the counters either side on the N22. When you consider the traffic joining the N22 either side of Killarney, it is clear that a huge amount of traffic will remain on the current N22 around Killarney even if another road was provided.

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?