Wicklow Town Port Access Road

Roryhy

Just came across this project, hadn't heard mention of it before.
Wicklow County Council (WCC) are constructing a Port Access and Town Relief Route on the outskirts of Wicklow Town.
The scheme includes two new sections of single carriageway roadway with cyclepaths and walkways - a Port Access Road (1.6 km) and a Town Relief Road (3.0 km). Both roads start from the R750 Rathnew Road, the Port Access Road heading eastwards towards the Murrough, and the Town Relief Road heading southwards to the Marlton Road. The scheme also involves the realignment of 0.8km of the R750 Rathnew Road.
There are four bridges along the scheme, two of which cross the main Dublin/Rosslare railway line. A third 140m long 3 span bridge crosses the Broadlough estuary and a precast concrete arch takes the road over the Ashtown stream.
The Scheme also includes four signal controlled junctions and two roundabouts linking into the existing road network.

Construction update- http://www.wicklow.ie/Apps/WicklowBeta/RoadsTransInfrast/WPAATRR/Update.aspx


Some good pictures also at http://www.smmorris.ie/wicklow-port-access.html

nordydan

This may be of some interest to you, there's a few photos in the gallery as well:

http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21954

spank_inferno

Predictably its taking an age though.

One thing going for it though is the cycle lanes
When completed I reckon it will be quite a scenic cycle in safety around (half) of the town.

Chris_533976

One has to wonder why a relief road like this got built before the Claregalway one.

L1011

Chris_533976 wrote: »

One has to wonder why a relief road like this got built before the Claregalway one.

County council vs. NRA. Same reason that places like Clane and Graiguenamanagh have managed to get relief roads / town bypasses...

Judgement Day

One has to wonder why this God awful road ever got the go-ahead at all, bulldozed as it is is into an area of significant heritage/ecological value. I posted previously on it under Wicklow Shops of all things. See below, sorry I have not figured out how to link threads.

Papachango I don't think you could compare Wicklow with Kinsale in terms of beauty but I agree with your other points. I pass through Wicklow on the train quite often and am staggered by the new bridge and road bulldozed onto the Murrough and the gradual sprawl of the horrible industrial estate northwards along the coast - ever closer to Broad Lough! While local authorities allow this type of 'development' there is no hope for towns like Wicklow.

spank_inferno

But it isnt disturbing any ecological area, or at least not to any real extent

Your probably refering to the Broadlough estuary.
This is an important wetland area for birds but the new bridge is only about 100 metres or less from the existing railway bridge.
The vast majority of the wetland area is upstream and untouched.

An extensive archaeological survey was also done on the area before the work commenced.... and by and large the road (which isnt huge just cut through some fields.

It is a necessity for the town but as i said my only prob is how long its taking.

BigMoose

The road is taking a ridiculous time to complete. It's badly needed though as currently to get anywhere you have to go through the middle of town which isn't build for the traffic, certainly not going in both directions down the main st where there are parked cars! Not that the relief road will solve having to go down main st to get to half of the town. We live right near it at the Rathnew end and have been told every time we ask a workman when it'll be complete that it'll be done before Christmas, except in the last couple of weeks they're now saying March. WTF?! It's disgraceful!:mad:

nordydan

According to the Wicklow County Council website this opened today

BigMoose

We were told it would be open today, and while the bit down to the port might well be, the other bit isn't (as of this afternoon when I went for a walk). No idea what's taking so long, they've done next to sod all for months now.

BigMoose

It is all open now.

Tech3

If anyone is around the area could they take a few photos and post them on here please

BigMoose

Here you go! Sorry the quality is poor, used my phone as my wife had our decent camera! Will get out down to the more interesting end of the port road soon with the 2 bridges over the river and railway line.

nordydan

R999??

spank_inferno

So. we now have R999 in our town!

nordydan

An overview of the scheme is posted here on the Wicklow CC website