Concern over Little Island traffic plan
Fears have been expressed that plans to ease gridlock in one of the country’s industrial hubs will not work properly unless a €15m junction is built to serve it.
Plans for improving traffic flow in Little Island, Co Cork, have been unveiled by Cork County Council.
However, the council has discounted opening a third road into Little Island on the eastern approaches because it does not believe funding for the junction would be met by agencies such as Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).
The council’s engineers and consultants say their current plan will help ease traffic flow up to 2040 and acknowledged that after that they may need to build the junction.
Engineers said even if they started work on designing the junction today, it could take up to 10 years before it is opened. And there is uncertainty over whether it would even be granted planning permission as a large proportion of it would be built in special areas of conservation.
However, business groups, local residents, and public representatives fear that the speed of industrial and commercial development in Little Island will quickly outstrip the anti-congestion plans unveiled yesterday.
Thomas McHugh, director of public affairs at Cork Chamber, said his members are concerned that there’s no eastern access point in the plan and will be lobbying for it because of growth projections in the area.
Fianna Fáil councillor Padraig O’Sullivan and Fine Gael councillor Anthony Barry urged the council to start planning for the new junction now.
Mr Barry said that there are more than 10,000 workers coming into Little Island every day along with thousands of shoppers.
There are three major office blocks in for planning at the moment and we have 250 acres there already zoned for industrial development. We can’t wait that length of time for a new entrance,” said Mr O’Sullivan.
Getting workers to leave their cars at home in favour of using better public transport links is one of the key components of this plan. It makes a number of recommendations, including re-routing current Bus Éireann services operating out of East Cork into Little Island and creating bus priority corridors.
The council intends to invest in walking and cycling infrastructure. This will involve a walking/cycling bridge over the N25, dedicated cycle routes, junction upgrades, and cycle parking.
Peter O’Donoghue, senior engineer in the council’s traffic and transportation section, said they propose the creation in the medium term of a new train station and park-and-ride facility at nearby Dunkettle, in line with Irish Rail’s Cork Suburban Rail Strategy.
They also want to introduce a shuttle bus service to major employers in Little Island, to cut down the number of cars accessing the area. In the short term, it is hoped to reduce rush hour traffic by at least 10%.
As part of the €100m Jack Lynch Tunnel/Dunkettle interchange upgrade a new entrance will be created into Little Island on its western side. The flyover into Little Island will also have its traffic lanes increased from three to four.
Council engineers said the creation of another interchange on the N25 directly contradicts national policy.
