Over €4.3m for cycling and walking projects in Maynooth

Three major projects for Maynooth have been funded by the National Transport Authority for this year to the tune of €4.3m.

These are Mill Street, the Royal Canal Greenway (Maynooth to Leixlip) and the design for safety improvements to the Celbridge Road.

Green Party councillor Peter Hamilton said the addition of the Mill Street active travel scheme completes the Maynooth north-south corridor from the M4 exit to the new Maynooth Education Campus, Moyglare Road. 

He said the initial plan for 2024 did not include this “but work with the Department of Transport and NTA has led to it being funded for this year.”

The finished north-south route will be a 3.5km high quality route for bikes and pedestrian traffic, which is already being heavily used particularly by students at Maynooth Post Primary and Maynooth Community College.

Additionally, Celbridge Road  has been allocated €75,000 to allow a design project to be completed to resolve the “very serious safety problems on this road, particularly for the two schools in the mornings and at pick-up time.”

Cllr Hamilton said improved traffic calming and road markings were put in place there as an interim measure and the €75,000 will allow the completion of the design process “for a proper active travel solution in this very tight junction and busy road.”

Cllr Peter Hamilton

He also said the RCG project is currently being retendered and work is expected to restart there before summer. This project was halted last year but the retendering is now coming to a close. 

“Two of the large Maynooth projects are shovel ready and construction will start before the end of this year. These will provide two excellent active travel improvements after several years of hard work in planning, designing and securing the funding.”

The tendering process for Mill Street project will finish by the end of June with the objective of starting construction between July-September.

“This will be a significant improvement to the Mill Street area and town centre. The street suffers from very poor, uneven and mixed footpaths with a very busy pinch point at the bridge over the Lyreen River at  Manor Mills shopping centre. A new pedestrian and cycling bridge will be built there,” he added.