Greenways [greenway map of Ireland in post 1]

how many people are going to be cycling from Athlone all the way to Galway or vice-versa, and how many of those are going to be in any sort of hurry? It's primarily a leisure/tourist facility as well as providing local connections between the towns along the way.

You would get people commuting longer than that. Probably not very many in that or any specific area though.

I assume taking it that way is also to link up to the muted Greenway up the Shannon from Limerick.

Its frustrating its taken so long for SDCC to get this done. The next section (90% in Kildare) has been done for AAAAAAAGES. If they'd completed it already you could join in Inchicore, fly down to Ponsonby Bridge then wing it north to Sallins for a burger in Lock 13. Perfect for the casual daytripper.

Elsewhere in their purview the contractors on the Dodder Greenway are taking forever to finish a small section between Tesco and Rathfarnham Cross. Seems like they either do nothing or have 1/10th the staff that would be reasonable. The bits that are done are swarmed, people want them. Need to get a move on.

Why are councils in control of building these cross county projects.

Is there no other way ?

When I say done I mean its usable on a bike. https://goo.gl/maps/3fSWjTA6j2LkeLvC6

The Sallins to Ponsonby bit is under construction but the diversion to get around that isnt too bad to ride. Diverting at Peamount is a dog though, not one you'd want to do with novice riders.

Why would want someone else "in control" of it?

Because work varies too much between councils. Some sections get finished which other parts take years because of a useless council.

Intercounty projects should have intercounty management.

The only "greenways" completed in donegal to date are a <10km section of extremely steep incline between letterkenny and kilmacrenan, just 2m from the road, and a 2km section cross border at Muff.

Truly woeful stuff.

In planning is the muff-quigleys point roadside "greenway", and a similarly speced roadside path between lifford and castlefinn.

They had a chance to make an interesting routing alongside the river Finn, and instead routed it 2m away from a main road. Thats CCs for ya.

Isn’t Aylmers to Ponsonby Bridge of pretty good surface already? What works are needed on that section isn’t that much I would have thought.

The worst part and the section that needed doing was Ponsonby to Sallins.

Glad this has started and that it is finally actually happening. This will be the best of the greenways - it will be amazing on a lovely summers day walking around Mountain Stage through the viaducts and little tunnels with the views over towards Inch.

It'll all be brought up to a common standard, suitable for families with buggies, kids bikes and loads of things I can't even think of now as well as the folk who use it currently.

It's been an eyeopener for me to see the use the Blueway through my local town gets even though it's not complete yet or promoted anywhere.

Way to take it up the wrong way.

The long term plan is to get it all up to a Deise style grade but in the meantime there's no reason not do a small bit that unlocks use for many.

A long old stretch is this gravel that a 5yo can easily ride on (you don't need to go near the water).

Maybe I'm missing something here but the planning is in place as is the funding, the contractor seems to be working and the suggestion seems to be not to complete it to plan?

KCC have been very slow on the Gtrand canal Greenway compared to Offaly where most of the work is complete and a credit to the people involved, until recently KCC had no works done on the mainline and work on the Barrow line is much slower to finish than promised, even taking into account Covid delays.

I'm much more familiar with West of Sallins but have ridden as far as the bridge past Killeen GC and that wasn't a great surface, it's not far from there to the Dublin border, I can't see why a proper job wouldn't be done all the way to there.