Work on new N55 may not begin for eight years

AS deadline for submissions for the N55 Athlone to Ballymahon realignment approaches, the council said this week that it may be eight years before construction gets underway.

Five options are being explored, in addition to six possible links that would tie in with some of those options. The deadline for submissions is tomorrow, Friday, June 8.
According to Westmeath County Council, there has been a considerable amount of submissions lodged from people living close to the routes which are under consideration. There have been individual and group submissions and various meetings have been set up by people living, farming and running businesses in the areas which are being considered.
Anne-Marie Corroon of Westmeath County Council's National Roads Office told the Westmeath Independent that there has been considerable interest in the realignment and the routes which are under consideration.
“There has been a lot of interest. It's a large area affecting a lot of people,” she said.
After the deadline for submissions has passed, the consultants working on the project will consider the submissions and will also carry out investigations including traffic surveys, ecology surveys and archaeological examinations. Following this, one of the options will be selected for the road. This is expected to be in the autumn.
“We would be looking at the end of September for the emerging preferred route option,” she said.
It will then be put on public display and comments will be invited.
“At that stage we are satisfied that's the best route option,” she said. “It will be minor tweaks at that stage.”
There is “no indication” yet as to when the construction will go ahead, she added, as budgets will have to be taken into consideration. The route selection process will be followed by the preliminary design stage.
“We have funding at the moment for the route selection process. We work on a year to year basis for funding. It depends on government funding and how that's allocated. We will get our budget early next year. A major project like this can take eight to 13 years. It could be eight years before we get to construction,” she added.