Mallow’s future ‘reliant’ on bypass

Cork County Council and businesses in Mallow are to fund a consultants’ report aimed at showing the Government the economic necessity of creating a northern bypass of the town.

Tom Stritch, the council’s director of roads, said it would take about six weeks to compile the report, at which stage it will be handed to the Department of Transport, National Roads Authority (NRA), and the Department of Public Expenditure.

Mr Stritch said it was vitally important that a northern relief road be built so that Mallow could develop into the future.

A plan was drawn up in 2006 to build the road, but it was shelved by the NRA, which at the time expressed concern over the cost of acquiring the land that was needed to build it.

It is envisaged that the road would be built to hook-up the main roads on the eastern side of the town —which connect Mallow to Fermoy and Mitchelstown —and run onto the N20 (main Cork-Limerick road) approximately 1km north of Mallow General Hospital.

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Mr Stritch said the council had agreed to part-fund the report, with local business interests paying the rest.

While the council envisaged significant population growth in the Mallow area in the current county development plan, one of the main drivers for a new road is Dairygold’s massive plans for expansion at its plants in Mallow and Mitchelstown.

Deputy Tom Barry (FG) said a northern bypass of the town was vital to serve the company’s projected growth.

“Dairygold has invested €163m in its businesses in North Cork recently. Of this €83.5m has gone on constructing a new milk processing facility and new storage facilities. There’s also a new dairy plant for pasteurisation and a new automated bagging facility for milk powder,” said Mr Barry.

He said an improved road infrastructure was vital for the company to realise major potential from the recent axing of EU milk quotas and as the company grew it would have a major beneficial spin-off for the economy of the whole region.

“Last year Dairygold handled 975m litres of milk at its plants in Mitchelstown and Mallow.

“In a peak week, it handled 35.5m litres and that involved an enormous amount of tanker movements. That’s why it is vital for an economic perspective that we build a northern bypass in Mallow, otherwise the whole town will be choked up with traffic.”

He said Dairygold plans to expand its milk production at both the Mallow and Mitchelstown plants by 57% up to 2020.

Mitchelstown is well serviced by roads, having both a motorway and western relief road.

However, at present there is only one route into Mallow from the eastern side where the Fermoy and Mitchelstown roads join together, bringing the majority of traffic into the congested Spa Glen area.

The recession led to the mothballing of the proposed €800m M20 (Cork-Limerick) motorway which would have helped ease gridlock in Mallow. It was also envisaged that a northern relief road would be built around Mallow in conjunction with the M20 upgrade.

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