March 09, 2003
U-turns
Most drivers know the Galway town of Loughrea as one of the
bottlenecks on the Dublin to Galway road that must be negotiated at walking
pace. A bypass has been planned for decades. It's worth remembering that
there was a time that towns such as Loughrea and Kinnegad actively
campaigned against bypasses on the basis that passing trade would be
affected. That was in pre-Celtic Tiger days, when the roads were not chock full
of fine examples of Japanese and German automotive engineering, and passing
trade was the only business going.
The Loughrea bypass was originally planned to be part of the Dublin-Galway
autobahn currently stalled just beyond Maynooth. With all the budget cutbacks,
we may well be driving hovercars before this dream is fulfilled. The National
Roads Authority (NRA) changed its plan for a more limited bypass for the town
(that could be eventually connected to the motorway) and began surveying and
the land required for purchase. The land around Loughrea is agricultural, and
the NRA were presumably negotiating the purchase price with farmers on that
basis.
So what did the local town council do? Just as the NRA were about to issue
Compulsory Purchase Orders for the required land, the Fianna Fail-led council
rezoned a large swathe of surrounding farmland for industrial and house-
building, including land that would be used for the road.. It's hard to see what
the rush to rezone was, since
a) the decision would have a knock-on effect on the purchase price of the land
needed for the bypass, probably stalling the project for another decade. The
NRA immediately suspended the project, claiming the decision would add
another 5 million euro to the project (already estimated at 19 million)
b) there is already a load of disused space in the middle of the town around the
disused railway station (and there is more chance of pigs flying around in
hovercars before the railway line from Loughrea is reopened)
In the time it took to say Did you hear the one about the local councillors and
the rezoning decision? the local outcry hastened a rethink. In an impressive
display of speed and efficiency, the council met again and rescinded their
original decision.
As for the bypass itself, pictured in the Irish Times and the Connacht Tribune,
it will hopefully be more useful than the Enfield one, which is roundly ignored by
most motorists (hint: a shortcut should not have a bloody traffic light on a short timer).