Athy cycle bridge proposal gets shot down

THE idea for cycleway and footbridge across the Barrow proposed at last month’s Athy Municipal District meeting has been unceremoniously shot down by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).

“The cycleway and footbridge across the Barrow in Athy are not included amongst the projects that are identified in the National Development Plan (NDP).

"The advancement of such a scheme cannot, therefore, be accommodated in the national roads programme at present,” said Suzanne Cahill for the TII.

She was replying to a query from The Kildare Nationalist if the proposal by Cllr Mark Leigh for the Council to apply for feasibility funds for such a bridge at Rathstewart, between K Leisure and St Michael’s Church, was on any national agenda.

“The NDP has been developed by Government to underpin the implementation of the National Planning Framework and provides the strategic framework for TII’s national roads programme for the period from 2021 to 2030,” said Ms Cahill.

“The focus of TII’s national road activities over the coming years is, accordingly, being directed towards the national road improvement schemes that are included in the NDP,” she said, before declaring: “such a scheme cannot be accommodated”.

Cllr Leigh believes that such a bridge could remove up to 500 cars a day from central Athy, as an estimation of how many school runs are done from the west side of town to the four schools on the Monasterevin Road.

He might have been given a fair clue as to Kildare County Council’s position, when told that the “cumulative cost for existing projects is in excess of €130m, the programme for the next 10 years consists of existing schemes being designed and constructed”.

This is the sixth time Cllr Leigh has raised this issue since he was first elected.