Final bypass route is unveiled by designers

The full-route of the proposed new city bypass has now been selected and is available for inspection.

The design route for the section of the planned new road through Ballindooley, Castlegar and Ballybrit was unveiled last week.

It will include east-facing slip-roads onto the N17 junction; and now avoids a ‘mass path’, which locals say was of cultural and historical significance, and was traversed in the original route.

The chosen design route for the section from the Ballymoneen Road in Knocknacarra to the N59 was also unveiled over the weekend.

The design team has ‘tweaked’ the original route and made some changes following consultations with landowners and submissions from the public.

The N59 link road between Letteragh Road and Rahoon Road will be moved east to be parallel to Bóthar Diarmuida.

The new design allows for the existing entrance to Bun a’ Chnoic and Rosán Glas housing estates will be altered to exit onto the N59 link road, with traffic lights. This N59 link road will join the Rahoon Road at the existing entrance to Bun a Chnoic and Rosán Glas estates at a traffic light junction.

The Gort na Bró Road will be realigned to join the Rahoon Road at the proposed meeting point of the N59 link road with Rahoon Road. The existing road to the Rahoon Road will be decommissioned.

The road connecting the Galway Retail Park roundabout to Gort na Bró roundabout will be realigned to connect directly east onto Gort na Bró Road at traffic lights and the existing road will be decommissioned, reducing the Gort na Bró roundabout to four arms.

Galway County Council, lead agent in the N6 Galway City Transport Project, also last Friday released the route of the proposed road from the R336 Coast Road to the N59. Earlier in November, the route design option between Forthaí Maola in Barna to Cappagh was released. The detailed maps of the design routes are available from the N6 project office and on its website.

Michael Timmins, senior engineer with the Council, said the design team is on course to publish the final route by the second quarter of 2016, when it will be ready to forward to An Bórd Pleanála.

Until it is published, changes can be made along the route, however, Mr Timmins said: “Changes are more and more minimal as the design is progressed.”

The design team is currently carrying out drilling and testing of land along the route and this might throw up something, such as hard rock or cavities, which might necessitate a change in the route.

Land and property owners affected by the proposed route are continuing to engage with the design team and will do right up until the route is published, added Mr Timmins.