Athlone Railway Field Road project set to be lodged with planning board

Two decades after plans were first mooted for a project to address the growing problem of traffic gridlock in Athlone, Westmeath County Council is set to lodge a planning application for the scheme with An Bord Pleanála by the end of next month.

The February meeting of Athlone Moate Municipal District was told this week that a design of the scheme for the Railway Field Road has been developed, with the council planning to lodge the planning application for the project with An Bord Pleanala “by the end of March 2025.”

The council's Railway Field Road development is due to create a new route for traffic in Athlone, between the Crescent Junction and the St Vincent's Care Centre, but the project has been beset by endless delays over many years.

The current plans can be traced back to 2005, when planning permission for the Railway Field Road development, which was, at that stage, devised as a four-lane relief road, was approved through the council's 'part 8' planning process.

However, the project was then delayed for over a decade while discussions were taking place between the council and CIE over the transfer of land for the Railway Field Road.

A deal was finally announced in 2018, but finalising the land deal took another two years.

In 2021, it emerged that that the initial 'part 8' planning approval for the road was out of date, and that the council would need to prepare a new planning application for the project which would have to be submitted to An Bord Pleanála.

Cllr Paul Hogan, who tabled a question on the Railway Field road at the February municipal district meeting, said he was “a bit taken aback” by the response from the council that a planning application was due to be lodged with An Bord Pleanála next month.

“This project has been discussed here for the best part of 20 years and I would like to see us, as elected representatives, having some say in what is being planned,” he said.

Director of Services Jackie Finney told the meeting that she would liaise with the Transportation Section of the council to see if members could “get sight of the plans” before they are submitted.

This prompted Cllr Hogan to call for the Railway Field project to be placed on the agenda for the March meeting of the district.

“I know this used to be a standing item on our agenda for years,” he said, “but I want to see it back on the agenda next month so we can have a full discussion on what's being planned.”