Dockland proposals - A grand vision

Proposals for the redevelopment of Cork City’s Tivoli Docklands are on a grand scale and represent a vote of confidence in the region’s people and future.

Plans, drawn up by the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland, with the support of the Port of Cork, envisage 4,000 housing units, shopping centres, offices, and a railway station just downstream, but on the opposite bank from the refurbished Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

The plans will breathe new life into the Lee estuary area, as will proposals to import natural gas from Texas, through a floating terminal in Cork harbour, and the multi-million euro extension of the deep-water quay in Ringaskiddy and at the former IFI plant at Marino Point.

They may reignite discussions about a bridge over the Lee, from the Marina to Tivoli.

It is reassuring, too, that a railway station is planned, as climate change obligations make an ever-more efficient public transport system essential. If the initiative also encourages the owners of undeveloped dockland sites to follow suit, then they will be doubly welcome.