Dismay has been expressed in the Dublin 15 area that the wider city is to remain disconnected for longer from the majority of the 130km Royal Canal Greenway to River Shannon.
The Dublin Inquirer newspaper reported today that Fingal County Council’s yet-to-be-started section of the route through Dublin 15 is delayed further.
The newspaper reports that, because of design changes, the council only expects to submit a planning application for the project to An Bord Pleanála in the second quarter of 2025.
Kildare County Council are currently expanding its section of the greenway from Maynooth to Leixlip at Louisa Bridge beside the train station with the same name. Once this section is finished, the council is expected to link from Leixlip to the Kildare/Dublin border.
At that stage, the connected sections of the greenway will stretch to just under 130km long.
Paul Corcoran, a daily user of the Royal Canal and a spokesperson for Fingal Cycling, a local branch of the Dublin Cycling Campaign, said that the delay was disappointing.
Corcoran said: “The delay is very disappointing, especially during a climate crisis. Lots of people have delayed using the bike as a potential commuting option due to sections of the canal being too dangerous to use and other sections very muddy during the winter months.”
“One only has to see the increased usage along the recently completed sections of the Royal Canal towards Leixlip and Maynooth and heading east from Ashtown into Phibsboro.
Corcoran added: “It’s unfortunate that the last sections of the Royal Canal to be completed may be in the density commuter belt, and the rest of the canal greenway is built to the River Shannon.”
Dublin City Council is currently building part of the route in its area between North Strand Road and Glasnevin/Phibsborough. The section of the route from Glasnevin to Ashtown at the city/Fingal border is currently being planned.
The Glasnevin to Ashtown section, the city council’s phrase 4, is subject to planning reviews. As IrishCycle.com reported earlier this year, the first part of which has already determined that the city council must submit a Stage 2 Appropriate Assessment and a Natura Impact Statement to An Bord Pleanála.
This could mean that the city council’s final section is built last but is more passable than the Fingal section, which is a mix of rocky and, for much of the year, mud.
When fully finished, the long-distance route along the canal will stretch to nearly 150km. While it was to form part of the cross-country Dublin to Galway Greenway, the route east of Athlone has not yet progressed beyond the pre-planning stages.
Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, while he was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, called for the Dublin-Galway route to be built in 2012. Later, in 2014, he said the much-delayed route could be finished in five years, but then in 2021, Varadkar objected to the Dublin 15 section of the route.
Same old story. I’ve been riding this route for 15 years with a very few others and the bike lane has always been 5 years away. But not a thing has been done, not even the uncontested section from the Kildare border to Porterstown has been touched. What could be an amazing amenity for commuters and cycle tourists is held back by the staggering incompetence and blatent cowardice of Fingal County Council in finding a viable solution to the Deep Sinking issue and just building the damn thing. No doubt the new design changes will lead to more complaints and more reviews and new plans and more setbacks. I don’t expect to see this completed for another decade and I really don’t care any more.
Just to clarify on Kildare CC sections – starting from the east:
– Dublin border to Cope Bridge (Confey) – no work and none planned as far as I know. Access at Cope Bridge has not been upgraded and can be tricky for buggies/cargo bikes/etc.
– Cope Bridge to Louisa Bridge – done and open
– Louisa Bridge to Deey Bridge – done and should be open soon
– Deey Bridge to Pike Bridge – canal bank not started, but work on hard shoulder cycle track started last month
– Pike Bridge to Maynooth – work started but months to go yet
The Section between HighBridge in Blanchardstown.& Coolmine only needs some Hardcore tamped down into the Mud some high roots Levelled.and a place where the Stone wall 2 patches of soil
Eating into the path could be Shoreditch up and filled in with some Concrete and topped up with Hardcore. Simple efficient Cheap.