Salthill cycle lane WILL mean partial one-way system for cars

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – The Chief Executive of Galway City Council has vowed that a temporary cycle lane ‘will go ahead’ next year in Salthill.

Brendan McGrath told a local authority meeting this week that he was pushing ahead to implement a motion, passed by a majority of city councillors, to install a segregated cycle lane along the Prom, and onwards to Bearna Road.

He said “unless councillors make a different decision”, he was “doing my level best to implement” the decision..

Engineers at City Hall have designed two options that will now go out on public display.

Senior Engineer Uinsinn Finn said the “do nothing” option presented to councillors at the meeting was only a “benchmark”; and doing nothing was “not an option in this scenario”.

Mr McGrath said councillors had already voted in favour of it going ahead; the Council had now provided two options that were both feasible and implementable and would fulfil the motion a majority of councillors had previously supported by 17 votes to one.

Mr Finn said the public consultation was not about “asking the public if this is a good idea or not”. It was about “tweaking it to meet certain needs of stakeholders, businesses, residents” he said.

Councillors were presented with two options to provide a two-way, temporary cycle-track along the Prom in Salthill from Grattan Road to Blackrock; and a one-way cycleway between Blackrock and Bearna Road.

Mr Finn explained that under both options the stretch of road from Blackrock to Bearna Road would have to become one-way to general traffic from West to East, due to legal constraints, keeping with the spirit of the motion, and physical constraints on the route.

This means that buses – and all other traffic – heading west towards Knocknacarra and Conamara would re-route up Threadneedle Road, left onto Kingston Road and onwards to the Bearna Road.

It also has implications for users of Galway Golf Club at Blackrock (no right-turn would be allowed out of the club), other businesses such as Salthill Caravan Park, the filling station, and local residents.

(Photo: Blackrock to the Bearna Road will be one-way (inbound only) for vehicular traffic under both options presented to councillors this week).

This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read extensive coverage of this week’s Council debate and full details of the two options, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.