€100m Ringaskiddy expansion ‘not a recycled plan’

The Port of Cork’s new €100m Ringaskiddy terminal expansion plan has several key differences to the scheme which was shot down six years ago, the company insisted yesterday.

Its experts told An Bord Pleanála that the scale of the project has been reduced by 30%, that the volume of trade it will handle is lower, that less land will be reclaimed, and that it is using a new traffic management plan to minimise the impact of port-related trucks on the strategic N28 road.

But crucially, the company told senior Bord Pleanála inspectors, Conor McGrath and Stephen Kay, that while design work is advancing on the N28 upgrade, the port expansion plan is not reliant on upgrades to that road, or to the Dunkettle interchange — the inadequate road infrastructure was one of the key reasons the board shot down the port’s 2008 plans.