N17 Tuam to Claremorris Road Scheme

fergal1969

Anyone any experience of dealing with the NRA/County Council on the selection of routes. It's looking like the preferred option for this road is running beside & in front of our family home, through natural habitat of lots of flora & fauna and through national heritage site. I'm looking for any input on how the selection process happens and if there are any practical ideas on how the route selection process can be changed from the current preferred route. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks

dec25532

In a few months time there will be an oral hearing conducted by An Bord Pleanala into the preferred route. At this hearing you can voice your concerns either personally or through an agent. It is most likely that because of the amount of land owners involved in this process, it will take a number of days to complete but every affected land owner will be notified of the oral hearing. It is possible (and has been done in the past) to have the route altered slightly if you have a good case for this happening. Hope this helps.

Interceptor

The whole country is a flipping heritage site - there is stuff in Mayo that predates the pyramids ffs. AND its all full of flora and fauna (trans: weeds and slugs) so the road will have to go up in the sky or through Co. Roscommon....

You should so complain about all this 'progress'.

'cptr

fergal1969

Thanks for the info Dec, it's good to hear there will be a consultation process of some sort. But I fear at that stage there minds are already made up. If there is anything that we can be doing now to 'mould' opinion I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks

fergal1969

Interceptor wrote: »

The whole country is a flipping heritage site - there is stuff in Mayo that predates the pyramids ffs. AND its all full of flora and fauna (trans: weeds and slugs) so the road will have to go up in the sky or through Co. Roscommon....

You should so complain about all this 'progress'.

'cptr

I am all for progress, but not at all cost and if you know the area in question you would knnow that this progress is completely unnecessary as I have travelled through the 2 villages being bypassed for 20 years and never once experience 'traffic congestion'-which is the supposed reason for the road in the first instance???

Interceptor

Don't mind me, I was just baiting you - I had a bet on with myself that you would never have more than one post. I lost...

I drive all over the county as part of my job, and anything that can be done to improve things is a) too late and b) never enough (as can be seen with the Claregalway bus lane disaster). We should have borrowed a stack of money from the EEC in 1970 and built motorways all over the country, the flora would have grown back by now..

'cptr

Sponge Bob

dec25532 wrote: »

In a few months time there will be an oral hearing conducted by An Bord Pleanala into the preferred route.

Months :eek: Make that 3 or 4 years .

The next step will be to confirm the emerging preferred route , it may be moved a few yards hither and thither around then .

Thereafter EIS and CPO stages and then a Bord Pleanala hearing .

Finally the fun part, getting money to build the road .

fergal1969

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Months :eek: Make that 3 or 4 years .

The next step will be to confirm the emerging preferred route , it may be moved a few yards hither and thither around then .

Thereafter EIS and CPO stages and then a Bord Pleanala hearing .

Finally the fun part, getting money to build the road .

Thanks for the reply. From what we have been told the process may move a little quicker -2 years to commencement. It's what to do in the meantime to ensure the least impact on the local community and to hopefully re-route?

Sponge Bob

This is the 'emerging' preferred route , route C .

http://www.galway.ie/en/media/Media,10689,en.pdf

This is how it 'scored' . It will be hard to make anything other than minor changes to it, a few metres here and there and a few sightlines and overbridges instead of long local reroutes around it.

http://www.galway.ie/en/media/Media,10688,en.pdf

[B][FONT=Arial-BoldMT][SIZE=3][FONT=Arial-BoldMT][SIZE=3]
[LEFT]Route A B C C1 D D1 E[/LEFT]
[/B][/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=ArialMT][SIZE=3][FONT=ArialMT][SIZE=3][LEFT]Economy 6 5 1 3 2 4 7
Safety 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Environment 5 7 1 1 1 1 6
Accessibility and
Social Inclusion 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Integration 1 1 1 1 1 1 1[/LEFT]
[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT][B][FONT=Arial-BoldMT][SIZE=3][FONT=Arial-BoldMT][SIZE=3]Preferred Option 5 6 1 3 2 4 7

[/B][/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT]

fergal1969

Thanks for the links, have the hard copies of these and yes it's looking pretty grim for everyone/thing living along the emerging preferred route C and preferred alignment J. We had been given reassurances by the council that the road would come nowhere near us but you know what they say about 'verbal' agreements...not worth the paper they're not written on. Looks like we're doomed!

dec25532

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Months :eek: Make that 3 or 4 years .

The next step will be to confirm the emerging preferred route , it may be moved a few yards hither and thither around then .

Thereafter EIS and CPO stages and then a Bord Pleanala hearing .

Finally the fun part, getting money to build the road .

Sponge Bob, it will as Fergal suggested move a little quicker than you might think even if the road will not be completed for many years. Once the preferred route has been confirmed then the consultation process will then take place before the CPOs can be confirmed. The oral hearing will take place first at which land owners can have their spake and then An Bord Pleanala will give a decision whether or not to approve the compulsory purchase orders. It is at this stage that people like Fergal will know if their arguments have been listened to. As regards finance for the project, it will probably be done on a public private partnership which means that the NRA will pay for the CPOs and the private sector will build the road and will be paid back over a 30 year period with them earning a profit after around year 12.

fergal1969

dec25532 wrote: »

Sponge Bob, it will as Fergal suggested move a little quicker than you might think even if the road will not be completed for many years. Once the preferred route has been confirmed then the consultation process will then take place before the CPOs can be confirmed. The oral hearing will take place first at which land owners can have their spake and then An Bord Pleanala will give a decision whether or not to approve the compulsory purchase orders. It is at this stage that people like Fergal will know if their arguments have been listened to. As regards finance for the project, it will probably be done on a public private partnership which means that the NRA will pay for the CPOs and the private sector will build the road and will be paid back over a 30 year period with them earning a profit after around year 12.

Dec I think that sums the situation up in a nutshell. It is a PPP project and is earmarked as priority so the time scale is potentially somewhat shorter than other road projects. I think at this stage their is little than can be done to influence the preferred route & alignment but if anyone has any successful re-routing information I would be very interested to hear what works? There is also the issue of flyover location does anyone know if the routing of the flyover would be set in stone at this stage? Thanks in advance

Sponge Bob

dec25532 wrote: »

Sponge Bob, it will as Fergal suggested move a little quicker than you might think even if the road will not be completed for many years. Once the preferred route has been confirmed then the consultation process will then take place before the CPOs can be confirmed.

Well the emerging preferred route is usually open to further consultation . Fergal is strongly advised to go to the NRA in Ballybrit about this .

HOWEVER they would be looking at small variances ( up to max 500 metres if the case is very very good ) in the route of the road . More typically 20 or 30 metres .

The EIS will be next . The entire route will be walked a few times , this will take until 2011 to complete in my opinion . Some time afterwards, perhaps as late as 2013 the Bord Pleanala will consider that evidence and NRA evidence and will also listen to Fergal . They may possibly vary the road by up to 500m as well if the case is good. But you are looking at variances here not restarting the process.

What they are most unlikely to do is to drop this route and 'prefer' another instead .

So all is not lost but he had better make a strong case

1. About the emerging preferred route
2. About flora and fauna and national heritage direct to the EIS consultants who will be appointed over the next year most likely , by tender.
3. To an Bord Pleanala at the oral hearing .

The oral hearing will take place first at which land owners can have their spake and then An Bord Pleanala will give a decision whether or not to approve the compulsory purchase orders. It is at this stage that people like Fergal will know if their arguments have been listened to. As regards finance for the project, it will probably be done on a public private partnership which means that the NRA will pay for the CPOs and the private sector will build the road and will be paid back over a 30 year period with them earning a profit after around year 12.

The oral hearing is years away, otherwise you are right . I recommend he makes his case at each stage and not just wait for an Bord Pleanala.

Protected Flora is in the Red Book , see

http://www.botanicgardens.ie/gspc/pdfs/rdboct2005.xls

Fauna?? , I am not a schnail man :cool:

Also engage the national museum and an taisce about national monuments etc .

greengreen

Too late i'd say, the consultation process was on going last year. Representations from now on will fix things up like walls etc. but the route is probably set in stone.