Inner relief road start a huge help to Thurles case

The €24million Thurles Business Innovation Centre and new Lidl superstore which has been submitted for planning permission for the heart of Thurles, comes with a less obvious hidden advantage for the Cathedral Town.

As part of the pre-planning process and the design of the entire project, the developers will be required to establish a roadway into the site which will, in time, form the first section of the much sought after Thurles inner relief road, linking Slievenamon Road with the Mill Road, over the River Suir.

This proposal has been in the pipeline for many years now and the former Thurles Town Council, and then the Templemore Thurles Municipal District have advanced the project as far as they can take it, with preliminery drawings and designs having been laid out.

Indeed, much of the background legal work has also been concluded, but there is one final outstanding legal matter with a property owner which is taking some time to tie up - it is not known at this stage how long this process will take.

The road project is now dependant on funding from the Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and to approval from the ministerial desk. This has been actively sought by members of the local authority as well as members of the Oireachtas from the area. But, as of yet it remains unsigned-off on and is therefore lying in a limbo of sorts.

The fact that the first section of this roadway would be completed by a private concern, should the Erin Foods project get the approval of the planning authority, would be a major fillip to the inner relief road plan. Suddenly, the relief road has a start to boast and public representatives will have a better bargaining chip when it comes to twisting arms to seek approval for the funding - it is estimated that the bridge over the river will cost in the region of €2million and the rest of the roadway to Mill Road will cost in the region of €2.4million.

When the impact of the Jimmy Doyle road is taken into account and remember it is not located as close to the town centre as this new roadway would be, it is quite clear that the latest inner relief road, will make a massive difference to the traffic flow in Thurles. There will be an alternative route to crossing the town without having to go right through Liberty Square and of course a second River Suir crossing has been a pipedream of locals for many years - the ailing Suir Bridge at Cathedral Street was out of full commission for a time last year and the traffic disruption was unprecendented. Had the second crossing been in place at that stage, it would have greatly reduced the impact back then.

Of course, if and when the relief road is constructed and open, the dynamic of the area will change. Lands that were previously closed in will suddenly be opened up and will have greater access possibilities. These lands could greatly increase in value as well.

There will be greater through traffic in the Slievenamon Road /Clongour districts and people coming from the west side of the town will most certainly seek to avoid Liberty Square en route to the Dublin Road/ Two-Mile-Borris direction by using the likes of Matthew, Castle, Butler, Iona and Inisfallen Avenues, Sarsfields Street and Clongour to get onto the relief road. There will be an impact on these roads too but many are already being used as part of a 'rat run' which sees traffic going out as far as Turtulla and Archerstown in order to reach the Mill Road.

The planning application shows a new junction layout at Slievenamon Road/Clongour leading onto the inner relief road and this junction will be signalled controlled. In other words traffic lights will be introduced to help regulate the flow of traffic in this location - currently it is very difficult to get off Clongour and onto Slievenamon Road at busy times, such is the frequency of traffic on Slievenamon Road.

The landscaping of the River Walk will also be a great side benefit of the entire development and will bring back into play a vital, but under utilised amenity in the River Suir. It will open up the section behind the Erin Foods site bringing pedestrians along a safe, open route to the rear of Thurles Shopping Centre.

All told, let's hope that it will be “a win win for all,” as Deputy Michael Lowry described it, when making the announcement of the proposal and plans.