450-metre stretch of road to be finished by Shannon Group seven years later in Clare

A ‘road to nowhere’ built at a cost of €3.7m that has lain idle for the past seven years is to be finally completed.

This follows the Shannon Group yesterday confirming that it is shortly to lodge a planning application to finish the remaining 200 metres of the road that leads out of the group’s Ennis Information Age Park.

The 450-metre stretch of road was abandoned after being completed by Clare County Council in 2009.

The council completed its portion of the road seven years ago.

However, no cars or trucks have ever been driven on it due to the now defunct Shannon Development having no money to complete the remaining 200 metres.

Now, Clare county engineer Tom Tiernan has confirmed that Shannon Development’s successor, Shannon Commercial Property Enterprises, part of the Shannon Group, is to complete the road.

The work is expected to provide a boost to the adjoining Information Age Park that has failed to deliver on Shannon Development’s initial promise of 4,000 jobs at the park.

Mr Tiernan said the work will be accompanied by completion works on a relief road by Clare County Council.

This will result in the availability of access to the Information Age Park “via its originally intended route for the first time”.

A spokesperon for the Shannon Group said that it hopes to complete the route this year.

Local Fine Gael councillor, Johnny Flynn said that the completion of the route will make the Information Age Park more attractive to business and help with its job creation potential.

The spend on the road includes €2.78m on costs associated with the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) of the lands.

In 2008, Barefield farmer, Oliver Clune was jailed after being found in contempt of a court order in relation to the compulsory purchase of 1.7 acres of land to facilitate the road development.

Figures show that Clare County Council spent €936,181 on costs connected with constructing the road: €481,735 on material and contract works; €207,978 on machinery works; €182,933 on payroll costs and €63,535 on miscellaneous costs.