CITY TRIBUNE
Planning your route to the Galway Races in Ballybrit
Gardaí and the city’s CCTV centre for traffic management will be monitoring the flow of traffic across Galway throughout the Races next week.
A colour-coded route system for traffic management – which includes temporary road closures – will be implemented by Gardaí from Monday afternoon.
Galway City Council’s Urban Traffic Management Centre will be monitoring CCTV for traffic backlogs and will consult with Gardaí on whether traffic lights need to be switched off.
The ‘blue’, ‘red’ and ‘green’ routes are designed to prevent any cross-flow of traffic making its way to and from Ballybrit, while also leaving the roads open for non-race traffic.
Signage has been erected on the approach roads to indicate the relevant entrances for each colour route. The blue entrance is at Racecourse Avenue, the red represents the tunnel entrance and green the Tuam Road entrance.
Gardaí have advised motorists to plan their routes in advance, and to bear in mind that the Monivea Road/Racecourse Avenue only be accessed from the N83 (formerly called the N17) during peak hours, particularly on the Galway Plate and Galway Hurdle days.
There is no access to the Monivea Road eastbound by the lights at the Briarhill junction (Western Motors) during road closure times (Monday and Tuesday 4pm to 6pm; Wednesday 12.30pm to 4pm; Thursday 11.30am to 3.30pm and Friday 3.30pm to 5.30pm).
Traffic for Monivea will be directed onto the M6 and can exit at Exit 19 (Glenascaul) and proceed to Carnmore Cross.
All traffic from city reaching the Briarhill junction will be directed towards the Coolough roundabout (entrance to M6).
Traffic reaching the Briarhill junction from all other routes will be directed towards the city.
BLUE ROUTE (Avenue Entrance):
From the Carrowmoneash roundabout (Maldron Hotel) in Oranmore. Take third exit and travel via Carnmore Cross to the Avenue Entrance.
Motorway traffic should take Exit 19 and follow the signage through Carnmore Cross, where traffic from the Monivea Road will join the route. There will be Garda controls in place at the Briarhill junction and at the Avenue Entrance.
Traffic on the N83 (former N17) should turn up the hill at Killeen Cross (Garda control). No access to the Avenue from the N6 eastbound during road closed times.
RED ROUTE (Tunnel Entrance):
From the Carrowmoneash Roundabout, take the second exit along the old N6 to the Martin (Galway Clinic) roundabout. Then take the first exist at the Coolough M6 roundabout (end of the motorway).
At the Briarhill junction, there is no right turn to the Monivea Road or Avenue Entrance. All traffic will be directed to Tunnel entrance and Galway City direction. Race traffic should remain in the right lane, city traffic in the left lane.
From the motorway, race traffic should stay in the right lane and city traffic in the left lane. Gardai will be in place so Race traffic can cross the N6 (dual carriageway) to the course.
There is no access to the Tunnel Entrance from the N83 (former N17).
GREEN ROUTE (Tuam Road):
Access to the course via the hill at Twomileditch (near Kenny Motors). There is no access from the N6, M6, N18 or R339 roads.
Traffic from the Headford Road can join the Blue Route at the hill at Twomileditch or use the Green Route Entrance there.
Galway City and West:
Traffic from these areas can access any of the entrances. For the Tunnel Entrance, stay in the left lane along Bóthar na dTreabh. For the Avenue, there is no access from Bóthar na dTreabh during the road closed times. Access will be from the Tuam Road only.
The Green Entrance can be access from the Tuam Road only by turning right at Twomileditch.
Bus services:
Special Bus Éireann Races services will operate every 15 minutes from Eyre Square to the Racecourse from Eyre Square West (The Skeff) on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday starting at 2pm, up until 7pm. Buses will depart from the Racecourse on demand up until 11pm. On Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, shuttles will depart Eyre Square West from 11am until 4.45pm every 15 minutes or as required, and will return immediately after the Races, up until 9pm. All buses will be directed through the tunnel entrance, dropping customers off within 50 yards of the course. Tickets are €6 single (€3 kids) and €10 return (€5 kids).
Taxis:
The designated taxi entrance is along the Green Route. A taxi-only lane is located at the top of the Hill allowing taxis to proceed to the ‘B’ entrance. Taxis then exit back along the designated taxi route to the Tuam Road at Kenny Motors.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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