Galway County Council will receive €3.6 million in funding for active travel and climate change adaptation measures on its road network.
Under its new package of measures announced in July, the Department for Transport, Tourism and Sport in Ireland has announced that 26 council will receive €14 million for climate change adaptation measures, and €33 million will go to 22 councils for active travel projects under the stimulus package.
These form part of an overall allocations of €115 million in the July stimulus package to encourage sustainable transport and the renewal of Ireland’s transport infrastructure
Galway County Council has been allocated €2.6 million for a total of 41 projects to encourage Active Travel.
These include €205,000 for the resurfacing and widening of the walkway at Corry’s Field in Loughrea, €150,000 to create cycle tracks on the R446 and R458 roads, and another €150,000 for the upgrading of footpaths at Castleblakeney Village. Galway will receive a further €1 million for 23 climate change adaptation measures.
Works to protect a number of roads across South Galway from frequent flooding by starting work on raising the level of the roads have been awarded €150,000. Another €110,000 will go towards upgrading the surface water drainage system on the Laurencetown to Eyrecourt road.
Galway Senator Aisling Dolan said: “The Active Travel grant scheme is a very positive initiative which will see communities across Co. Galway benefiting from improved and more accessible walking and cycling infrastructure as well as stimulating local employment.”
“The projects included in the scheme can make a real difference to our safety and encourage people to become more active with their families.”
Minister of State, Hildegarde Naughton said “Families and businesses in our villages, towns and cities right across the country will benefit from these important ‘shovel ready’ projects as soon as November this year.
“The funding being announced today will go a long way in facilitating a secure environment for our children in their daily commute to school as part of our work on the Safe Routes to School initiative.”
Following consideration of applications received from local authorities, grants totalling €33 million are now being allocated to 22 local authorities for 531 active travel projects. These projects, which will be implemented this year, include 263 related to the construction and improvement of footpaths, 75 involving cycleway works and 193 associated with improving accessibility.
Among the projects to be funded are:
• Provision of new cycle lanes and footpaths in the immediate area of Carlow IT.
• Design of an interconnected network of cycleway in Killarney town and the creation of a new cycleway connecting Muckross Road to Ross road.
• Installation of new footpaths in Oranmore, Athenry, Gort, Tuam, Headford, Co. Galway.
• Creation of ‘slow zones’ in Letterkenny, Co.Donegal.
• Reconstruction and renewal of defective footpaths in Dungarvan town, Co.Waterford.
• Improvement of crossing facilities in towns and villages across the country including raised surfaces, zebra crossings and signalised crossings.
This is in addition to the €55 million in grants recently announced by the National Transport Authority (NTA) for local authorities in the Greater Dublin Area and the four regional cities.
Minister for Climate Action, Communication Networks, Transport, Eamon Ryan TD, commented:
“The Active Travel grant scheme is a very positive initiative which will see communities across the country benefiting from improved and more accessible walking and cycling infrastructure as well as stimulating local employment. The projects included in the scheme can make a real difference to people – footpaths and cycle ways that allow children to walk/cycle to school and to local sport clubs; the dishing of footpaths and pedestrian crossings that improve access to local amenities and links to public transport, and improvements to town and village centres that will support our hard hit retail and hospitality sectors.
Grant applications for climate change adaptation measures were also sought from local authorities funded under the Department’s regional and local road maintenance and renewal grant programme. Funding totalling €14 million is being provided to 26 local authorities for 273 schemes. The projects approved for funding include 150 schemes aimed at alleviating flooding to roads and property, 37 involving works to improve embankment stability to prevent slippage, 41 relating to essential road repairs associated with severe weather and 45 to bridge strengthening and repairs.
