€65m road plan parked

A €65m scheme to radically widen and straighten a large section of a narrow road between Dingle and Tralee will have to go back to the drawing board, An Bord Pleanála has ruled.

The planned upgrade of 28km of the N86 between Dingle and Camp, including Annascaul and Gortbreagoge, was one of a handful of “type-three single carriageway” pilot projects planned for national secondary tourist routes along the western seaboard.

An oral hearing in Dingle in May heard objections from cyclists, conservationists, and tourist providers.

There were fears over the road being widened, in sections, between 16m and 28m. About 7,844m of hedgerow would be lost.

An Taisce said the hairpin bends on the Dingle road were “geological features”, while the lobby group cyclist.ie said cycle lanes alongside busy roads would be “noisy and dangerous”.

An Bord Pleanála told Kerry County Council it must remove the cycleways from the design and reduce the width of the alignment “in so far as possible” to minimise interference with hedgerows, landscape features, and tree lines.

The board said there the road needed upgrading and the provision of cycleways was in line with good policy, but would offer little recreational use along busy national secondary roads.

Shane Foran, a spokesman for cyclist.ie, said the group planned similar objections to road schemes in Galway and Donegal.