Plans to encourage walking and cycling on Athlone's Dublin Road are published
By Rebekah O'Reilly
Preliminary draft plans for a new Active Travel Scheme on the Dublin Road in Athlone include proposals to widen footpaths and add a double-lane cycleway.
The Active Travel Scheme on the Dublin Road include a 2.7km stretch from the Ankers Bower area of the town to the Creggan Roundabout.
Draft designs displayed at a public consultation last week includes plans to upgrade footpaths by widening them, as well as adding a double cycle way on the northside of the road from Ankers Bower to the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), which will then diverge into two single lane cycle ways on either side of the road from TUS to the Creggan Roundabout.
Plans also map out the intention to add additional crossings with lights at the entrance to the IDA park to the Athlone Business Park on the opposite side of the road. This is to ensure the safe crossing of pedestrians and cyclists using the single-way cycle lanes. The road will remain two-way, and bus stops will be upgraded where possible.
The aim of the scheme is to provide people with the option to walk or cycle, as well as making it safer for people to do so along public roads. It is added that "carriageway narrowing can reduce traffic speeds while still catering for the same volume of vehicular traffic".
The estimated cost of the overall Athlone Active Travel Scheme is expected to come close to €13 million, with the Ankers Bower to the Creggan Roundabout Active Travel Scheme just one of a number planned projects in the town.
Westmeath County Council anticipates moving into the detailed design phase for the Athlone Active Travel Scheme by the end of 2025.
When asked whether the council had any plans to provide additional parking at the beginning of the Ankers Bower to Creggan Roundabout route to cut down on traffic, Pat Nally, Senior Executive Engineer with the council's Active Travel Department said that there is a separate Park And Ride scheme in the works.
"It's the egg and the chicken," Mr Nally said. "We hope that the Active Travel Scheme will interconnect with other schemes like the greenway, but all of these schemes fall under different headings. We have to see how things go first."
A public consultation for the early stage draft plans for the scheme took place in Athlone Civic Centre on Tuesday, February 11.
The plans will remain available to view and feedback will be accepted until the close of business on the Friday, February 21.
Mr Nally said the consultation is a chance for locals to give feedback on particular issues that planners may not have been aware of.
"We are in the very early stages of the planning here. The point of this consultation is to get informal feedback from people," he said.
"They might tell us about a particular issue along the road, which we can then review. This type of consultation is not the norm, and we just wanted to give the public a chance to see these early drafts.
"A more formal public consultation will be held further down the line, where people will be able to file their feedback and receive a written response."