Planning approval has been granted for the N6 Galway ring road after several decades of false starts for the project.
Galway County Council, Galway City Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) said they welcomed the decision of An Coimisiún Pleanála to grant approval for the project, known as N6 GCRR.
However, environmental campaigners have not ruled out appealing the decision.
Friends of the Irish Environment, which successfully challenged a previous application for the ring road, had submitted that the latest plan failed to comply with statutory obligations under Ireland’s climate legislation.
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Rather than supporting climate and environmental goals, the N6 GCRR “facilitates continued growth in private car use and urban sprawl, locking in long-term carbon emissions”, the organisation said.
The councils and TII said they would now proceed to the next phase of the project, which includes the progression of detailed design, preparation of contract documentation and the procurement process.
“Galway County Council, Galway City Council and TII recognise that the prolonged planning process associated with the N6 GCRR has been very difficult for home and property owners affected by the proposed route,” they said in a joint statement.
“The N6 GCRR is a core component of the wider transport solution for Galway City and County, complementing BusConnects, ongoing rail enhancements, active travel and the continued delivery of other major transport initiatives under the Galway Transport Strategy”.
Galway city has had severe traffic problems for more than 30 years, and various proposals for a ring road have been advanced in that time.
High Court challenges to a previous grant of permission for the 18km ring road project, estimated in 2016 to cost €600 million, led to An Coimisiún Pleanála’s predecessor conceding its decision contained legal flaws, so the planning application was considered afresh.
Other plans for the city include the BusConnects Galway project, which promises a complete redesign of the bus network, and the “Gluas”, or Galway Luas, a light rail project that is projected to remove some 13 million car journeys annually from Galway city.
However, the light rail proposal cannot be advanced until the Galway ring road is built, according to its main backers.
A 2024 study commissioned by the National Transport Authority put a price tag on the Gluas at between €1.23 billion and €1.34 billion in 2023 prices.
“The costs of the project will inevitably rise with future construction price inflation,” it said.
Reacting to the grant of planning permission for the N6 GCRR, Friends of the Irish Environment said it was concerned that its ability to object to the road in the courts, on climate grounds, could be hampered by the new Critical Infrastructure Bill.
Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers published the Bill on Wednesday with the expectation it would become law by July.
Under the terms of the Bill, legal challenges to critical infrastructure projects on climate grounds will no longer be possible.
Friends of the Irish Environment spokesman Tony Lowes said the Bill allows the State to “designate major projects as exempt from the key requirements of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act”. He said: “the [proposed] new Act specifically cites ‘transport infrastructure including roads’ as qualifying for this gutting of our Climate Act by the back door.”
President Catherine Connolly has in the past been a vocal critic of plans for a ring road bypassing Galway City. The former Galway West TD argued the scheme would cause significant environmental damage, lacked sufficient focus on sustainable transport solutions, and represented a missed opportunity for alternative traffic management solutions.
The President’s office was contacted for comment.
