Planning application for Mallow relief road expected to be lodged before end of year

The proposed relief road is designed to ease traffic congestion in Mallow town centre, which has experienced increased gridlock in recent years. File Picture: Denis Scannell

A planning application for the proposed Mallow relief road in north Cork is expected to be lodged before the end of the year.

Cork County Council's application to An Bórd Pleanála for the 5.1km road, which will run just north of the busy town, is due in the final quarter of the year and will include a raft of compulsory purchase orders for the land required for the scheme.

The timeline was confirmed in a response to a parliamentary question to the Transport Minister Eamon Ryan from local Labour TD Sean Sherlock.

The response also details how Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has spent just over €1.4m on the project to date.

The road's proposed route

The proposed relief road is designed to ease traffic congestion in Mallow town centre, which has experienced increased gridlock in recent years.

But it also includes an “offline” active travel corridor running from close to the town’s railway station, in a north easterly direction along a disused rail line, taking cyclists behind the Spaglen area, to join the proposed new relief road in the Ballyviniter Lower area.

Following an examination of various potential routes for the road, a preferred route corridor was been identified late last year.

The corridor runs from a point on the N20 just north of the town, close to Mallow General Hospital, in an easterly direction to a point on the N72, just east of the town, close to Oliver’s Cross.

In its response to Mr Sherlock, TII confirmed that Cork County Council recently completed phase two, the options selection stage, of a process set down by TII for the management of such road projects, and that it has given its approval to the council to progress to phase three, the design and environmental evaluation phase.

“Following this, the statutory planning process (phase four) will be undertaken, which includes the submission to An Bord Pleanála. Cork County Council anticipates that the application to An Bord Pleanála will be made in fourth quarter of 2023,” TII said.

Mr Sherlock welcomed the timeline update.

“I am encouraged. I do believe that this project is moving on and the next phase is coming up," he said.