A new Shannon river crossing for a Tipperary town will make it easier to enjoy the local amenities.
That’s according to Councillor Phyll Bugler who says that the new bridge linking Tipp and Clare will make a huge difference to the town Ballina.
The project has been in the works for a number of years, with the sod finally turned on the site in November.
Cllr Bugler says that having less traffic congestion around the twin-towns will make the area easier to get around for residents and tourists alike:
“We have traffic jams here every weekend coming into Ballina, it’s a very popular area, a good tourist location and we hope then to develop the tourism potential of this location, which is a stunning location on the river Shannon.
“We’ll also have a dedicated pedestrian and cycle network all along the new R494 and we hope then to promote cycling to school and to work. We hope that we’ll have much less congestion between the twin towns of Ballina and Killaloe.”
The new crossing is expected to take three years to complete, and will be located 1km down river from the current bridge.
Cllr Bugler says that the sod turning in November was a welcome development and that plans for the extra river crossing had been in the pipeline for many years:
“I’m on this council since 2004, we’ve had many, many meetings between 2004 and 2010, meeting all the residents, they were very worried about it, you know if some parts of their gardens were going to be taken and we had to allay all those fears.
“The work that has gone in in the last 18 years has been unreal. The council has met with all those residents, we allayed all their fears, we kept focused, and I must say Tipperary County Council were outstanding.”
