Approval granted for long-planned Athlone link road project

A long-planned link road at the Crescent junction in Athlone, which the council views as key to the town's future development, has been given the go-ahead by An Coimisiún Pleanála.

The decision, which was published by the planning authority last week, is not the first time that the controversial project known as the Railway Field Road has been granted planning approval.

But despite a litany of delays and false dawns over many years, the local authority is confident the 380-metre road connecting the Crescent junction with Coosan Point Road at St Vincent's Care Centre will now, finally, move to construction early next year.

At a meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District on Monday, Alan Kelly, senior executive engineer with the council, said funding of around €4.5 million would be required for the project to proceed to the construction stage.

He said final agreements still had to be signed off with landowner, CIE, but subject to these agreements and the provision of funding, he was hopeful the council would be in a position to go to tender for the building of the new road before the end of this year.

"The construction time for the project would be between eight and twelve months. So hopefully, if we started it early next year, we could get it completed by the end of (2027)," Mr Kelly said.

The Railway Field Road is regarded by the council as the missing piece of the 'Orange Loop', the contentious one-way westbound traffic system through the town which came into effect in 2018.

The new road is due to result in the western stretch of the Southern Station Road - from the Coosan Point Road junction to the train station - being restricted to bus and cyclist/pedestrian use only, while a new link from the Crescent junction to the bus and train station would also be introduced.

Westmeath County Council submitted a new planning application to An Coimisiún Pleanála for the project last July, after a previous approval for the road had expired.

The application drew ten submissions from the public, most of which were objections from nearby residents who highlighted concerns about issues such as air and traffic pollution arising from the development, and the proximity of the new road to their housing.

Former Athlone councillor Louise Heavin also made a submission arguing the new road was of "poor urban design", would not address the town's traffic congestion issues, would add to air pollution, and that the bus depot across from the station ought to be relocated to an alternative site outside the town centre.

An Coimisiún Pleanála requested detailed further information from the council on the plans, which was submitted in March.

The commission then signed off on is approval for the new Athlone road, subject to 11 conditions, on Monday of last week, June 29.

While briefing councillors on the planning decision at this week's Municipal District meeting, Alan Kelly said the planning conditions imposed by An Coimisiún Pleanála were all "fairly standard" and related to compliance with mitigation requirements.

"(The conditions) are things that we were committed to doing anyway. There are no showstoppers there," he said.

Cllr Aengus O'Rourke said he was glad the project had gotten "over the line" from a planning perspective, saying, "I think the sooner we can get at this thing, and get it underway, the better."

He said a "nagging concern" he had was around the fact that the land transfer agreement with CIE had still not been fully finalised.

"We have to cooperate, liaise, and work with CIE, but they, in the past, have proven difficult to deal with and slow to make decisions," said Cllr O'Rourke. "Any slowdown in momentum now would be a concern for me. It's such a complex piece of work and I'd be concerned that any one entity might derail things, if you'll forgive the pun."

However, Mr Kelly said he believed the CIE issue would also not be a "showstopper" for the project.

"There are heads of an agreement (in place), there's an agreement in principle for the acquisition of this land," he said.

"The detail of the accommodation works, the works that need to be done for CIE and Bus Éireann, just need to be thrashed out. But we're very close. We had a meeting in May with the CIE group, and it was a very positive meeting."

Cllr John Dolan noted that while the project was still "subject to funding" he didn't believe that would be a stumbling block.

"I assume if we have planning in hand it should be easy enough to get the funding for it. It's a vital piece of infrastructure, we've all been told," he said.

Cllr Frankie Keena, meanwhile, described the road project as "an old chestnut" and said he was glad to see progress being made on it.

He asked about the works that would be carried out on the existing Southern Station Road where, he noted, pedestrian railings along the footpath had long been in a "dilapidated" state.

Mr Kelly said that, when the Railway Field Road is in place, Southern Station Road "will be an access to the bus and train station" which would incorporate new cycling infrastructure.

"The footpath will be widened out and that road will be completely revamped," he said.

On the Bus Éireann depot works, he said: "Once the footprint of the (new) road is taken out of the equation, the land that's left over between Southern Station Road and the new road will all have a paved area and bus parking area for Bus Éireann.

"Part of the new road goes through some of the existing infrastructure there at the moment including, I think, a tyre shed and bus wash-down facility. They have to be relocated... They'll be pushed up towards the (St Vincent's Care Centre) end of their land, and the rest of that area, essentially, will be bus parking.

"I think there's a certain amount of electric vehicle bus charging in there at the moment that needs to be moved. The accommodation works require fairly high security wall fencing at the boundary of (the bus depot) site with the new road.

"There are various landscaping proposals and there's a drainage attenuation area there as well."

Mr Kelly said there would be a "triangle of land" on the town side of the new road, by the Crescent junction, which, he understood, was due to be given to the community for development "as a playground area".

While the council said €4.5m will be needed for the project to go to construction, that is far from the total cost of the Railway Field Road.

As previously reported in the Westmeath Independent, the council has already spent close to €7 million over the years on various aspects of planning and preparation for the road project.

The new link road was first mooted in 1998.