Work to begin on revamp of Galway’s pedestrian zone

Galway City Tribune – The multi-million euro ‘phased revamp’ of the city’s pedestrianised zone – due to begin early in the New Year – has the potential to transform the ‘centre of town’ into a 21st century urban showpiece.

That’s the pledge given by City Council Chief Executive, Brendan McGrath, to councillors this week after plans were unveiled for phase one of the pedestrian area rehabilitation project.

“This is a wonderfully exciting project that can transform the city centre into a 21st century urban showpiece. Once we get this job done, the potential is there, to put the pieces in place to further enhance this area.

“We will be looking at things like signage, street furniture, LED lighting that can change with the seasons, and solar-powered phone chargers,” said Mr McGrath.

The Shop Street section of the project is to start in late January 2019 and be completed by the following Easter (mid-April), but councillors did warn that mistakes of the past – such as the Eyre Square revamp – should not be repeated.

“Eyre Square started off at €3.2m in 2004 and ended up costing us €15.2m,” said Cllr Pádraig Conneely. The project is due to be completed in 2021.
This is a preview only. To read the rest of this article and extensive coverage of the revamp plans, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week’s paper here.