Fingal county council announces ambitious €767m three-year Capital Programme.

Fingal Cycling Campaign welcomes the funding allocated for active travel such as cycling and walking. Some €146.69m has been allocated towards Active Travel and Greenway Infrastructure which will allow work continue on delivering key projects such as the Broadmeadow Greenway, the Sutton to Malahide Greenway, Fingal Coastal Way, Royal Canal Urban Greenway, Harry Reynolds Road Cycleway and the Damastown-Clonsilla Cycle Route Design. Other councils in Dublin have ambitious plans such as Dub Laoghaire-Rathdown (DLR) and are implementing trials and installing the coastal mobility route in Dun Loaghaire. Fingal will be catching up with DLR pretty soon with this latest announcement. Some of the projects have been announced before and we recently submitted a review of the Harry Reynolds road enhancement which wasn’t the highest quality of design and lots or poor standard cycling infrastructure. https://www.dublincycling.com/cycling/harry-reynolds-pedestrian-and-cycl…

The Royal canal greenway has been delayed numerous times and is going out to consultation again and we hope this will speed up the process. South Dublin County Council are making lots of progress with the Dodder greenway. Donabate is currently going through consultation on a masterplan which we also made a submission and included the plans for the new pedestrian and cycle bridge connecting to Newbridge demense. We don’t have much detail on the Damastown-Clonsilla greenway and we will get more details as soon as possible. It’s a positive and ambitious plan and we look forward to seeing these greenways coming online and increasing the cycle network across Fingal and the greater Dublin area.

Here are more details from Fingal County Council website:

Snugborough Interchange The Snugborough Interchange was procured in 2020 and will proceed to construction during 2021 and 2022. The nearby Ongar-Barnhill scheme will be procured in 2021 and site works will commence in late 2021. Planning permission was granted for the Church Fields Link Road and Cycle Scheme, the Donabate Pedestrian Bridge, Turvey Avenue footpath upgrade and Hearse Road bend removal; these schemes will now enter the procurement stage with a view to construction commencing in 2021. Construction commenced on the Park Road upgrade scheme in 2020 and will be finished in 2021. The overall planned multi-annual expenditure on these schemes is some €45m.

Church Fields Road and Cycle scheme consultation portal https://consult.fingal.ie/en/consultation/part-viii-church-fields-link-r…

Greenways This year saw the significant milestone of planning permission being granted for the Broadmeadow Way scheme, which will proceed to construction over 2021-2023 with a planned expenditure of some €12m. There was further progress on the Harry Reynolds Road cycle scheme which went through Part 8 planning, while design and consultation continues on the Fingal Coastal Way, Royal Canal Greenway and Sutton-Malahide Greenway all of which are earmarked to begin construction during the lifetime of this Capital Programme. • Broadmeadow Way Greenway • Sutton to Malahide Greenway • Fingal Coastal Way (Donabate to Balbriggan) • Royal Canal Urban Greenway • Harry Reynolds Road Cycleway • Damastown-Consilla Cycle Route Design https://www.independent.ie/regionals/fingalindependent/news/pedestrian-a… • 5 Year NTA Implementation Plan There is a planned expenditure in respect of the Greenway Projects of €146.69m over the period 2021 – 2023. Mayor of Fingal Cllr David Healy said: “This is a comprehensive investment programme from Fingal County Council which has a strong emphasis on housing and development of greenway infrastructure across the County.

FURTHER READING

See link on Fingal County Council website https://www.fingal.ie/news/council-announces-ambitious-eu767m-three-year…

Reading on Royal Canal from Irish Times. ( Photo was taken from the Irish times for this article. Credit to Lenny Antonell for the photograph) i https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/travel/ireland/cycling-the-roy…

Church Fields road and cycle network upgrade https://consult.fingal.ie/en/consultation/part-viii-church-fields-link-r…