January 4 - Adare bypass and motorway to Foynes

I write in response to the Limerick Leader’s recent reports on local TD’s announcing that as much as €2m is to be spent on consultants to investigate “possible options” for the future of the N69 between Foynes and Limerick city, one option being to build a brand new motorway parallel to the N69 without including an Adare Bypass as part of it.

Being representative of some landowners who may be affected by the construction of any motorways through the county, we in the Limerick branch of the Irish Cattle & Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) have been closely following developments regarding the Adare bypass/Foynes motorway issue since 2009 when a previously proposed northern routed bypass of Adare was curiously dropped by the newly elected Limerick County Council in favour of a southern routed bypass option called the “blue” route.

Last week’s Limerick Leader reported that Cllr Patrick C. Fitzgerald of Croom revealed that the design team for the Foynes 35km motorway will be appointed early in 2014, Mr. Fitzgerald reportedly saying that “tenders have been submitted and this is very positive news with the proposed development of the road structure.” The Limerick Leader reported that “there was not such positive news for Adare regarding the proposed bypass of the County Limerick village.”

Limerick ICSA is disappointed by Cllr. Fitzgerald’s comments as they appear to fail to demonstrate an understanding of the opportunity that is now presenting itself to properly bypass Adare as part of a properly routed Foynes motorway.

Limerick ICSA submitted a policy paper to the Department of Transport in 2010 regarding the Department’s Ports’ Policy Review at the time; the paper outlined that a properly routed Foynes motorway should run alongside the existing rail line from Foynes to Limerick city, a rail line which already runs through Adare’s northern hinterland and which provides the ideal route for the shortest bypass of Adare. Such a bypass would connect to the existing motorway just east of Adare near Patrickswell and would connect to the N21 by spur road at any suitable point just west of Adare. Indeed this was the original preferred route for the Adare bypass as per Limerick County Council’s own 2005 Route Selection Report until it was summarily and inexplicably dropped by the county councillors currently holding office when they were elected in 2009.

The Limerick Leader reported that on December 18 last that, in his ministerial office in Dail Eireann, Transport Minister Leo Varadkar assembled three Limerick TDs - Niall Collins, Dan Neville and Patrick O’Donovan - to discuss the long-running saga of the much needed Adare bypass.

The Leader reported that it was revealed at this meeting that expenditure of in excess of €5m was paid by Limerick County Council to consultants on a southern routed bypass option of Adare, an option which was refused planning permission by An Bord Pleanala. The Bord’s refusal was vindication of ICSA policy on the matter, a policy which states that the proposed southern bypass was an option that was wrong for the county, wrong for Adare, wrong for Foynes traffic seeking efficient and effective connectivity to the national road network, and wrong for the national and local traffic that competes to get through the town daily.

The bypass that was proposed by the newly elected Limerick County Councillors in 2009 to go south of Adare would have taken traffic southwards towards Croom before turning westwards and then northwestwards again to rejoin the N21 west of Adare. If constructed as planned the southern routed bypass would have been more like a U-shaped detour than a straight bypass, being approximately 5.5km longer than the northern bypass option.

Indeed, in its rejection of the proposal An Bord Pleanala described the southern routed option as “isolated infrastructure” and advised that more optimal options should be examined. This is what the politicians are failing to explain to the commuters that Niall Collins reportedly said “are completely frustrated and at a total loss to understand the recent decision by An Bord Pleanala”. We in Limerick ICSA are disappointed by these remarks, in that it appears that Mr Collins is deflecting blame onto the Bord instead of focusing his energies into trying to understand the Bord’s recently perfectly clear decision.

In conclusion, if the current opportunity is missed to plan a properly routed bypass of Adare as part of a properly routed Foynes motorway, then the relevant political accountability and failure will have to fall squarely at the doors of Limerick TDs, Messrs Collins, Neville and O’Donovan unless they can show stronger political leadership on this issue without further delay.

Michael Moore

Chairman, Limerick ICSA