Omission of outer relief road at Clonmel on major road project in Tipperary is criticised

The major omission of a bypass around the town of Clonmel in the proposed N24 Waterford to Cahir Transport Solution must be looked at again, Cllr Pat English stated at a meeting of Clonmel Borough District.

Because of the future 30 percent expansion estimates for the town in the Local Development Plan, the Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) Project Appraisal Team needs to reexamine its preferred transport solution for the Clonmel section, he said.

It made no sense that you would have a dual carriageway on either side of the town before driving onto a single lane carriageway through the town. An outer relief road or bypass was the only solution to cater for the traffic, he added.

Cllr Siobhán Ambrose said that everybody was singing from the same hymn sheet about this and she had requested a meeting with Transport Minister Eamon Ryan.

While thrilled for Carrick-on-Suir and Mooncoin, she said it was quite incredible and quite shocking to think that you would have a dual carriageway either side of Clonmel before driving onto an inner relief road in the town.

Cllr Ambrose said she would like to know how the figures that stated that 83 percent of the traffic on Clonmel’s existing inner relief road was driving into the town, with the other 17 percent going elsewhere, were collated.

She said it was just a question of looking at the Clonmel section with the minister and the team at the Department of Transport, and it wasn’t like they wanted to go back to scratch again on the entire project.

District Mayor Richie Molloy said it was a big disappointment that a motorway wasn’t included in the plans for Clonmel. Huge volumes of traffic came from the Abbott Vascular and Boston Scientific plants onto the inner relief road every evening.

Cllr Michael Murphy said that the planned inclusion of link roads was positive and they should get behind what had been proposed.

He didn’t believe that the motorway would be delivered in his lifetime, because a motorway between Cork and Limerick was first proposed 30 years ago and it still hadn’t happened.