Irish Examiner view: Citizens can reclaim town as bypass opens

The €280m project will make the journey between Cork and Killarney easier and also liberate the historic town of Macroom

A section of the new Macroom Bypass looking West of Macroom near the new roundabout at Carrigaphooca. Picture: Dan Linehan

In an era when it can seem unfashionable and off message to celebrate anything to do with the motor car, it might be provocative to welcome the long-awaited, and frustratingly delayed, arrival of the Macroom bypass. 

But we will anyway, and not only because of the relief it brings to an area which was a byword for traffic delay and frustration.

The road, opened officially yesterday, will shave around 20 minutes off the Cork-Killarney journey time, which will be important for those people who are always in a hurry to get somewhere else, but this is by no means its major value to citizens. 

Its great appeal is that it will reduce traffic by 40% in the historic centre of Macroom. More than 12,000 cars and 1,000 HGVs go through the town daily, and most of these will now route along the bypass.

The Macroom Bypass finally opened to dtraffic yesterday, Friday. File picture

This allows meaningful and sympathetic urban development to be contemplated in the old market town. While there is barely a modern town planner and architect who can close their eyes without dreaming of palazzos, rialtos, pedestrianisation, and cafe society, Macroom’s heritage was once of attractive and small retail outlets and a thriving hinterland based on agriculture and tourism. 

Work on the other sections is continuing — the bypass of Baile Bhuirne and Baile Mhic Íre, running from Slievereagh to Coolnacaheragh, and the middle section from Coolnacaheragh to Carrigaphooca. Engineers hope to have the entire scheme complete by 2024.

The work, which started in January 2020 and continued throughout the Covid pandemic with a workforce of 250 construction staff, has been a triumph of engineering within a total budget of €280m. In one of its most remarkable achievements, seven 49.9-metre long 155-tonne precast concrete bridge beams, the longest ever for Ireland and Britain, were transported to Macroom with the help of a Garda escort. 

Those beams had a clearance of just 200mm — just less than eight inches — as they passed through the Jack Lynch tunnel.

Now this 8.1km phase, in which 48 principal structures were built, is complete. There are three river bridges, three overbridges, and four underbridges. 132,000 sq m of pavement have been laid.

The statistics and delivery is impressive. While many people like to fantasise about a future without cars, the fact is that we have to find ways to co-exist with them, while reducing their environmental impact, for many years to come. 

Sensible road investment will continue to be part of that solution.