Preliminary work to start on by-pass

Date Published: 30-Jan-2009

PREPARATORY works are set to begin on the Galway City Outer Bypass, after the National Roads Authority allocated almost €3 million in funding for the project this year, despite a legal challenge being mounted against the project.

And the Chief Executive of the NRA will be urged at a meeting next week to use part of the funding to revisit the route selection process for the stretch of the outer bypass west of the Corrib that was rejected by An Bord Pleanála last month.

Meanwhile, three major Galway roads projects – which were feared to be shelved because of the worsening economic crisis – are back on the agenda after the NRA announced an allocation of more than €155million for the city and county for 2009.

Jack Eising, Senior Executive Engineer with the Galway National Road Design Office, confirmed to the Galway City Tribune that preliminary works on the outer bypass are to go ahead regardless of the legal action.

A company called Hands Across the Corrib Ltd. – which stems from a local residents’ action group – has sought a Judicial Review in the High Court, and could potentially force An Bord Pleanála to hold another oral hearing into the €340 million project.

“The €2.9m would be used for…