Connacht Tribune
CONFIRMED: Map of the new Galway Bypass
Up to 400 home and landowners along the route for the new city bypass will receive letters in the post today informing them they live along the ‘emerging preferred corridor’ for the scheme – which has been touted as the solution to Galway’s traffic woes.
While hundreds will receive letters, the route will affect 41 homes along the route (while a further 10 will have an option to ‘sell up’) which includes a tunnel running from Coolagh near the end of the M6 motorway to the entrance of Galway Racecourse.
You can download a high resolution PDF here of the Bypass map
Details of the route were exclusively revealed on our website last Saturday morning.
Details published by a national newspaper on the same day were incorrect and caused much concern amongst homeowners who incorrectly believed their properties were at risk.
The selected route is not specifically one of the existing six ‘coloured’ routes which were previously published, although it does incorporate significant parts of the blue route.
The three main areas affected in terms of homeowners will be on the city side of Castlegar, on the N84 (near Clada Minerals) and at the Dangan/Circular Road.
At the end of the Dublin motorway at Coolagh, new junction arrangements will be put in place, and a tunnel will run from two derelict houses at Briarhill to Racecourse Road (commonly referred to as ‘the avenue’).
It’s understood a number of stables at the Racecourse will have to be demolished, but the course itself will be unaffected.
The tunnel runs to ‘the avenue’ (where Brooks and a number of other businesses are based), before going above ground again for a run down the hill behind the Racecourse (adjacent to the An Post depot) and across to the N84 near Clada Minerals.
That will be a ‘cut and cover’ tunnel, where the ground will be excavated, and pre-cast concrete beams laid, allowing the roadway to be reinstated overhead.
A second small tunnel will be built through the Menlo area – to avoid limitations imposes by the EU Habitats’ Directive on protected limestone in the area, part of the problem with the original Galway City Outer Bypass route.
A fifth bridge across the Corrib will be built, and the route then runs through NUI Galway lands at Dangan, through a point on the Dangan side of Bushypark (near Circular Road) and to a point west of Barna.
The route does not traverse the existing Sportsground at NUIG, but will be through a green area close to a GAA pitch.
However, the route corridor chosen is 150 metres wide, and this will have to be narrowed to an actual route of 25 to 50 metres wide, and it’s understood there has been some flexibility built into its journey through NUIG lands and at Barna.
It ties into the exisiting R336 at a roundabout junction approx 2km to the west of Barna village and then proceeds towards Letteragh.
Roundabouts are also proposed at the Barna to Moycullen road and at the Ballymoneen Road which provides connectivity to Knocknacarra.
Letters to landowners were posted yesterday and are expected to be delivered to between 300 and 400 home, land and business owners today, and a briefing will take place for local councillors this morning.
Those affected will then be invited to consultations with the designers Arup and the National Road Design Office over the coming fortnight, before the route open up to a wider public consultation process.
The route will then be narrowed down to a corridor of up to 50m wide, before it can be progressed to final design and Compulsory Purchase Order process.
It is expected to cost in the region of €600 million.