No train service in Athlone over Easter weekend
No trains will be running in Athlone this Easter weekend, as services will be suspended to allow for the installation of the Greenway underpass beside Dunnes Stores in Montree.
The underpass work is the most complicated and costly aspect of the Greenway's extension from the White Gates on the Ballymahon Road to the banks of the River Shannon at Athlone Marina.
Diggers moved on site at Montree earlier this month to begin preparatory work for the installation of the €4m passageway beneath the busy Dublin to Galway line.
The foundations are to be laid and the construction of the underpass itself is to take place before Easter. The new structure is then due to be lifted into position over the bank holiday weekend (April 20-22).
As a result of this work, railway services through Athlone will temporarily grind to a halt.
Westmeath County Council official Barry Kehoe said it was likely that the railway line in Athlone would close on the Friday night of the bank holiday weekend (April 19) and then re-open on the Monday night.
He said Irish Rail would be putting bus transfers in place over the weekend to bring its passengers between Tullamore and Ballinasloe by road that weekend.
CIE is in charge of constructing the underpass, and it appointed a contractor, Jons Civil Engineering Ltd, to carry out the work.
Mr Kehoe welcomed the start of the work this month. “It's a big investment and a very positive sign,” he told the Westmeath Independent.
It represents the first construction work on the Greenway locally since the end of 2016, when the section from Garrycastle to the White Gates opened to the public.
Mr Kehoe said that so far Westmeath County Council has only been granted funding for the underpass itself, but he hoped funding would be provided to allow the remainder of the work between the White Gates and the Marina be completed before the end of 2019.
“We're hopeful that we can get it done before the end of the year. The rest of this section will only be a fraction of the cost of the underpass itself.”
He said the local authority was also hoping to appoint a consultant to carry out a detailed design of the Greenway bridge over the Shannon, from the Marina to the Luan Gallery, this year.
“We would then hope to go to tender on the bridge, probably in early 2020,” he stated.
He also said Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the Department of Transport, and the county councils between Athlone and Galway had resumed their work on choosing a route to ultimately bring the Greenway westwards as far as the City of Tribes.
A route which was previously earmarked between Athlone to Galway attracted vocal opposition from some landowners, and the process of developing it was “paused” in 2015.
Mr Kehoe said a new “route selection exercise” had now started and it would involve fresh consultation with communities to the west of the Shannon.