A new 14kms stretch of dual-carriageway on the N4 and a new bridge in the eastern part of Sligo town could both be in place within five years.
Their inclusion as “key priorities” in the €10 billion Transportation Investment Plan announced this week is a huge step forward as it means the government is commited to providing funding for them. But it is how quickly the money is provided that holds the key to how quickly these major projects will be completed.
At a national level both are well ahead of many other projects in terms of having gone through the planning process and preliminary design.
In the case of the €100m dual-carriageway on the N4 between Collooney and Castlebaldwin, Sligo County Council’s Director of Services Tom Kilfeather said that work is already underway on fencing of the land needed and archaelogical surveys.
The next step will be detailed design of the scheme before it goes out to tender for a contractor.
“In the best case scenario, if funding was lined up, we could be on site in 2017,” Mr Kilfeather told the Sligo Weekender, although he stressed that would be everything running smoothly.
Once a contractor is on site construction would take about two years so traffic could be using the road in five years time.
And the council is in a position to move on the new €20 million Eastern Bridge even faster. “Detailed design is almost complete so if funding was available we could go to construction on elements of that scheme next year”, Mr Kilfeather said.
He pointed out that the project could be divided into three elements. “We would do the approach roads on the southern side first, then the roads on the northern side and then the bridge”, he said.
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