Cullen gives Waterford bypass the green light

CONSTRUCTION will begin next year on both the Waterford City bypass and the long-awaited Waterford to Dublin route, Transport Minister Martin Cullen has confirmed.

The National Roads Authority has been instructed to complete tendering for the city bypass by the end of 2005. Within the past fortnight, the NRA was ordered to resubmit plans for the route to an Bord Pleanála to allow for a Viking settlement at Woodstown to be preserved.

Last night, a spokesperson for An Bord Pleanála said that tendering has begun for the €400 million route. At the moment, the timescale for the route will not be delayed. But, if An Bord Pleanála orders a new Environmental Impact Statement has to be done, it will prolong the process.

“We should have the contracts ready by the end of the year and work is scheduled to begin in 2006. The local authority is looking at the minister’s direction from last week and the implications this has. These will be sent to An Bord Pleanála.

“They will then look at it and agree to it, or suggest changes. They might also make an order advising that another EIS takes place. Any delay that would cause would depend on the extent of the EIS. It’s very much up in the air until An Bord Pleanála comes back with its comments. Then we will be able to plan a precise timeline,” the spokesperson added.

It has also emerged that the Waterford to Dublin route will be completed ahead of schedule in 2010.

Mr Cullen described both the bypass and Dublin routes as crucial to Waterford and the future of the region as a hub of enterprise and employment.

“If we are going to get companies to locate here, we have to have the necessary infrastructure.

“We have to have good arteries of infrastructure,” said Mr Cullen. “Once the bypass and motorway are completed, we will be the best served region in the entire country.”

The city bypass will be a bloodline artery for the development of Waterford and the south-east.

“Our city is choking with traffic and we need to take a whole lot of it outside of the city. The bypass is an economic entity in achieving it.

“Apart from all of that in our daily life, it has a social benefit and an economic benefit. It will also benefit jobs.”