Completion of Athlone street works delayed to 'late May'

The ongoing streetscape work in the centre of Athlone is now not expected to be completed until "late May" a council meeting was told this week.

The €3.8 million project, which takes in Mardkye Street, Pump Lane, and a newly pedestrianised section of Sean Costello Street, began last March and was initially due to be finished by March of this year.

Late last year, however, the council indicated it would likely be April before the project was finished - and this week "late May" was given as the date when it would be "substantially completed".

The council added that "minor snagging works" would be carried out intermittently in the months after the main work on the project concluded.

At a meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District, Cllr Frankie Keena asked for a full update on the project, saying he was getting "a lot of queries" from local businesses in the area who were being affected by the works.

Cllr Keena was told the pedestrianised section of Sean Costello Street closed permanently to traffic on October 31 last. The installation of services on the street was "substantially complete" and the laying of "sandstone paving slabs" was in progress.

"Pedestrian access is still maintained along dedicated routes. Upon completion of the project, Sean Costello Street will be a pedestrian zone apart from intermittent delivery vehicle access," the council stated.

It said the streetscape work on Mardyke Street was "substantially complete apart from landscaping, erection of street lighting columns and other minor works".

At Pump Lane, in front of the derelict former O'Neill's pub site, laying of a "stone mastic asphalt surface" on the road is to be done "between late February and mid-March," and this will result in temporary lane closures on Pump Lane and John Broderick Street.

"Re-surfacing works will be done at night where possible," the council stated.

Attempts by the county council to sell the former O'Neill's pub site have so far been unsuccessful, which prompted Cllr Aengus O'Rourke to call for a 'Plan B' to be drawn up.

He said it was "now highly unlikely" that a buyer for the site would be found, and he asked the council to consider "returning it to the public" by using the space to "extend the public realm in the area" instead.

The reply he received from council management said it remained "committed to the sale and redevelopment of this site, to complete the street at this location".

The local authority said that, "in the absence of a private buyer," it would "proceed to design a building" for the site and would "seek planning permission for same".

The prominent O'Neill's site has long been considered an eyesore, as it has lain derelict since the pub and adjoining Finlay Auctioneering business were destroyed by fire in December 2010.