Over 500 attend Galway city bypass meeting

Planners are treading the tightrope of staying within European environment laws and minimising the number of properties that will be destroyed, when choosing the preferred route of the new Galway city outer bypass.
The end of the road for the doomed ‘old’ city bypass ultimately came following legal challenges to Europe, and environmental concerns over protected bogs and limestone pavement.
But the driver of the new ring-road project, Galway County Council, insists it will choose a new route that is, “robust enough to withstand whatever legal challenge it faces”.
Senior Engineer, Michael Timmins, told the Galway City Tribune: “Environmental habitats have the protection of European law. And you’re trying to strike the balance between that and property destruction that will result in the route having to stay out of environmentally sensitive areas.”
The six preferred bypass routes – five new routes and an upgrade of the existing N6 through the city – were unveiled to the public on Wednesday and Thursday at consultation meetings in the Westwood Hotel. The other avenue being explored is a public transport only option.
Over five hundred members of the public attended the consultations, which continue in the Menlo Park Hotel next Tuesday and Wednesday from 2pm-8pm.
It has been conceded that between 30 and 120 homes, and perhaps a dozen businesses, will be destroyed to make way for the road, depending on the route chosen.
Concerns and misgivings about the new routes were raised by the public at the meetings this week. Many voiced their concerns that planners and law-makers were prioritising limestone pavement and bogs ahead of people.

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For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.