MacCurtain Street revamp given €4.5m boost as part of €290m active travel package 

How McCurtain Streetwill appear following the redevelopment. Picture: Cork City Council

A €4.5m grant for the long-pledged bridge for cyclists and walkers connecting to Cork's Tramore Valley Park and a further €4.5m for improvements to MacCurtain Street in Cork city are major elements of a new €290m active travel package.

The funding will be given to local authorities across the country for around 1,200 walking and cycling projects, Environment and Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said.

A spokesperson for the National Transport Authority confirmed the €290m announced for 2023 is new and is not a repurposing of previously allocated funds.

Cork City Council has been allocated some €34.8m of the total, with Cork County Council receiving more than €22m.

The NTA funds will go toward more than 1,000 kilometres of so-called "active travel" infrastructure, with almost 400 Dublin projects earmarked, as well as 250 in cities like Cork, and more than 500 in rural areas.

Cork projects

The new pedestrian and cycle link from the Grange Road to Tramore Valley Park, which includes a bridge over the N40, began preparation last summer and works are expected to go on until at least the end of this year.

Some €1.9m has been given over for the Passage greenway to the centre of Cork city. The money will be spent on the section of the project from the N40 to the Docklands. MacCurtain Street has been given €4.5m towards its planned revamp.

A further €1.6m has been allocated to upgrade facilities in the Marina, which has enhanced its status as a local amenity since the Covid-19 pandemic, while €800,000 will go to the Glanmire cycle route to the city centre.

In the county, some €3.4m has been given for works from Dunkettle to Fitzpatrick's store in Glounthaune, and a further €1.5m towards the Dunkettle to Carrigwhohill "pathfinder" which is aimed at establishing cycling routes.

Elsewhere in Munster, the acclaimed 46-kilometre Waterford Greenway will be given €4m to extend from Bilberry into the city centre. The greenway has become one of the county's biggest tourism boons in recent years, with families across the province descending upon Dungarvan to take advantage of traffic-free walking and cycling in the heart of Waterford.

Among the projects in Limerick are almost €5m for active travel improvements and €1.4m for the Dooradoyle to city centre cycle route.

In Dublin, some €27m will be put towards the Fairview to Amiens Street cycle route, while €5m will be given towards the third phase of the Royal Canal Greenway.