Public consultation starts this week on N56 project
By Carolyn Farrar
Public consultation began this week on what is planned to be a new single carriageway for the N56 from Dungloe to Glenties.
Donegal County Council engineers were in Dungloe on Tuesday night and in Glenties on Wednesday night with maps showing the 27 kilometres of road affected, and the early public response was good, Brendan O’Donnell, senior executive engineer, said on Tuesday evening.
The N56 between Dungloe and Glenties is considered to be of a low standard, though light traffic volumes on the road have made it difficult to make an economic case for major improvements. But earlier this year the National Roads Authority (NRA) announced that it had sanctioned 950,000 euro for the N56 project for 2010, which will enable planning to move ahead this year.
The roadway proposed for the N56 is a pilot programme, an alternative option for improvements to roads that take into account low traffic volume and a highly scenic environment. Following an application by the county council, the NRA selected the road to be one of four pilot sites in the country.
Much of the road from Dungloe to Glenties is characterised by tight bends, sharp crests and dips, with no hard shoulders or grass margins. The Meenacarn Bends (2km) and Gweebarra bends (5.2 km) are particularly poor, according to an assessment on the county council web site.
The overall project involves the design and construction of about 27 kilometres of new single carriageway road from Dungloe to the Kilraine junction south of Glenties. Most of the existing road is 5.5 to 6 metres wide, but the new road will be up to 15 metres wide, including grass margins, a hard strip on each side, and a cycleway-footpath over the full length of the scheme.
“This is not a bit of widening here and there,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “It is much bigger than that.”
Property owners
Mr. O’Donnell said there are almost 400 property owners along the route, but not all will be affected.
Early environmental assessments of the route are now under way, and once council engineers have that information the design team will refine the design to avoid areas of particular environmental concerns. Mr. O’Donnell said the design should be “fairly well tied down” by the end of the year, when the council will hold further public consultation and present a more detailed design to the department for next year’s funding.
Asked whether there will be funding to continue and complete the project, Mr. O’Donnell said, “I’m as confident as I can be in these times.”
Even if everything goes smoothly, it will be years before the new road is completed. The senior executive engineer said that construction alone will take up to two and a half years, and before that happens the project must successfully negotiate the planning process.
Mr. O'Donnell said the council also plans to be back before the public next year with the project’s environmental impact statement and compulsory purchase order, which are subject to approvals and must be submitted to An Bord Pleanla for its consideration.
Independent Cllr. Pdraig Doherty, one of several Glenties Electoral Area councillors who attended Tuesday night’s consultation, welcomed the plan, calling the current road “very dangerous.” He said it was good for people “to look to the future” at plans for a road that is very important to west Donegal.
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Weather for Donegal
Wednesday 08 February 2012
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