Plans for a controversial four-lane road-widening scheme between the east and west of Galway city have got the go-ahead from An Bord Pleanála.
The widening of the Bishop O'Donnell and Seamus Quirke roads to four lanes is designed to ease traffic flow from the newly developed suburbs on the western side of the city to the major shopping areas to the north and the business parks on the east.
The decision to give Galway City Council's scheme the go-ahead has been criticised by An Taisce which said any road widening should have been done to facilitate public transport.
In approving the route, the board has deleted two large roundabouts in favour of providing traffic lights at the junctions of the Circular and Rahoon roads and at the Old Seamus Quirke Road, near the Aldi supermarket.
There is also to be some realignment of the widened road opposite the Glenoaks Hotel. The Galway branch of An Taisce welcomed the decision to rule out roundabouts but said Bord Pleanála had "failed to take notice that this road could, and should, have been made the site of Galway's first dedicated bus corridor".
In its submission, An Taisce had called for the introduction of a Galway version of Dublin's quality bus corridors, so that the widened road would give preference to public transport, over the continued use of the private car.
The proposal was for a bus corridor running from the Cappagh Road via the Western Distributor Road to Parkmore, Briarhill, Castlegar and on to Oranmore. According to Mr Derrick Hambleton, the chairman of An Taisce in Galway, the group is disappointed that "an opportunity has been lost for Galway to become the first provincial city in Ireland to develop a proper commuter bus route".
"In many other European cities commuters now have the opportunity to leave their cars at home, while they travel to work on efficient public transport systems. Galway's hard pressed drivers now will have no viable alternative to the car, since it is An Taisce's belief that this road widening project will make little if any difference to reducing congestion on Galway's roads," he said.
According to Galway City Council's County Borough Development Plan 1999 its policy is to "facilitate and encourage the use of transport modes other than the private car including public transport. However, to be effective, public transport by road needs to be given further advantages by means of the provision of bus lanes and priority of traffic controls where possible".
An Taisce now says the council's printed words "ring hollow", and claims it has opted for a visionless and lazy approach.
"An Taisce in Galway will be looking for ways to expose the lack of any plan to improve the possibility of Galway ever having an effective and efficient public transport system that serves the public. The communities who live in Knocknacarra, and more especially, those who live in the westside of the city, have been let down by this poor decision and the lack of vision displayed by city council officials," said Mr Hambleton.
