The provision of a bypass for Claregalway will take a significant step forward next month when the route options will be presented to the four local area Councillors and a public meeting will be held in the village to coincide with this.
Members of the public will get an opportunity to examine the proposed routes after which an emerging preferred route will emerge and it is hoped that it will go to the compulsory purchase stage by late autumn.
The public meeting is scheduled to take place on June 15th at which four possible routes for the inner relief will be put on display and the public will be encouraged to make submissions on what they see to Galway County Council.
It is viewed as a very significant step forward in the provision of the much delayed bypass for the village-and also because of the fact that local business community were told by the previous Governent that an inner relief road would never be provided.
Residents were told that the proposed Gort–Tuam Motorway would effectively be the Claregalway bypass and this caused a lot of local anger at the time.
But there have been considerable delays to the M17/M18 project which has, over the past six months, put the Claregalway bypass back on the agenda.
Galway West TD Noel Grealish has welcomed the news that a presentation of the suggested routes is to be made to the four councillors in the Oranmore Electoral Area and believes that the route selection process could be concluded by the end of the summer.
“This is part of the procedure for getting the road ready to the compulsory purchase order stage and it is another step in the right direction for this project”, Deputy Grealish added.
The Independent TD said that the consulting engineers along with Galway County Council were also preparing to give a public presentation to the residents and the business community in Claregalway.
“I have fought long and hard to have this relief road built around Claregalway, which has more than 30,000 vehicles passing through on a daily basis, and I am delighted that the project continues to make progress”, Deputy Grealish added.
“I am also calling on RPS Consulting Engineers to give a public presentation to the residents and business owners in Claregalway on the route selection and I am hoping that this will take place in early June.
“I have fought a long campaign to have this Relief Road built around Claregalway and I am delighted that the project continues to progress,” he said.
“This road is even more crucial now that the company selected to construct the new M17 has run into difficulty in securing finance to construct the new motorway.
“Given that the new M17 is unlikely to be built for many years, it is vitally important that the Claregalway Inner Relief Road is constructed to give some relief to commuters, residents and business people within the village of Claregalway, which is one of the main bottlenecks along the N17,” Deputy Grealish concluded.
