‘We still haven’t delivered a major project’ – Frustration over delays to Louth Active Travel scheme
The Drogheda Independent‘Frustration’ over progress on Active Travel schemes in Louth emerged this week as a local councillor said: “We still haven’t delivered a major project,” despite some being in the pipeline “for many years.”
Cllr. Marianne Butler highlighted concerns with the pace of delivery, adding that local roads projects were deferred because of Active Travel schemes, which showed no signs of commencing.
Speaking at the September meeting of Dundalk Municipal District, Cllr. Butler said: “We are going back years here. We deferred work on the Dublin Road in Dundalk because of Active Travel, and we just seem to be no further on.”
Councillors heard that, despite the delays, a contractor is expected begin works on the Inner Relief project by late January 2026.
Cllr. Butler said the ‘Pathfinder’ project was intended to be central to’ Active Travel but a recent update from the council referred back to contractors and tenders.
"I can’t understand why, when we passed the Part 8 last year, that we are not further along on the tendering process.”
"It is just so frustrating.. it was frustrating during the last term of council,” said Cllr. Butler as she asked why more progress had not been made.
The Inner Relief Road is “a big project which will involve coordination with Irish Water on the junction there, but that is no reason to delay it,” said Cllr. Butler.
"At this stage we seem to be adding years onto these projects, can we not make some progress on them?”
The meeting heard that €15million will be invested in two major ‘Active Travel’ projects in Dundalk and Drogheda.
Senior Engineer, John O’Hagan said the local authority are reliant on funding from the NTA.
Councillors were told that upcoming projects, including the Inner Relief scheme in Dundalk and the R132 in Drogheda will involve substantial funding from the National Transport Authority..
He said there were a number of stages to go through in the funding process, including a “peer review” process on the Inner Relief Road, from which the council received documents that they “weren’t happy with.”
An update to the documents was completed by the council, and a contractor is expected to be appointed in the coming months, with on site work beginning by the end of January.
He said the council do make efforts to build Active Travel projects into planning permissions, if they are sought on roads which are earmarked for the schemes.
Mr. O’Hagan highlighted the investment in Active Travel overall, saying: “If we were to go to construction on all of the projects we have in the next year that would be over €120 million plus.”
But, he added. they had given the NTA a number of ‘priority projects’ which they intend to advance including the Pathfinder scheme and the junction at Greengates/Sexton’s along the Dublin Road.