Transport Minister announces major progress on plans for €18m Loughrea by-pass

Transport Minister announces major progress on plans for €18m Loughrea by-pass

galway.net , 31 October 2003

The Minister for Transport, Séamus Brennan T.D. today (Friday, 31st October) announced that major progress had been made on the plans to construct an €18 million By-pass of the town of Loughrea, Co. Galway.

Minister Brennan said the National Roads Authority had informed him of the publication today by Galway County Council of the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) for the Loughrea Bypass. The project consists of a 4km single carriageway bypass to be provided at an estimated cost of €17.8m. Subject to timely and favourable approval by An Bord Pleanala, tendering could commence in early 2004 with construction starting by next summer.

The Loughrea Bypass, which is expected to be completed by Q4 - 2005, will connect to the proposed N6 Athlone/Galway dual carriageway, which is currently at the statutory procedure stage. This high quality dual carriageway will substantially improve access to the West with reduced journey times and safer movement of traffic and goods. It will facilitate substantial growth in the industrial, commercial and tourist sectors.

Minister Brennan said, "Today's announcement represents an end to a 30 year campaign for a Bypass of Loughrea. The new Bypass will relieve traffic congestion at a key bottleneck on the N6 route removing around 10,500 vehicles per day from the streets of Loughrea. The good news for motorists is that this will see a time saving of 9 minutes for off peak journey times and much greater savings during peak times."

Mr. Peter Malone, Chairman of the NRA, said,"The Loughrea Bypass further demonstrates the NRA's commitment to improving infrastructure in the BMW Region in line with Government Policy for balanced regional development. Today's announcement comes on foot of earlier developments this year in the region -the commencement of construction of the N2 Carrickmacross Bypass in County Monaghan and the N4Hughestown/Meera scheme in County Roscommon. A total of €633m has been invested to date under the National Development Plan, 2000 - 2006, in the BMW Region for national road improvements. This underpins the Authority's commitment to redress the current imbalance in expenditure between the BMW Region and SE Region.

The Loughrea Bypass is being funded by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan 2000-2006 and the European Regional Development Fund.

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