‘The benefits are immense’: €57m allocated to Cork for major walking and cycling projects

The National Transport Authority (NTA) has announced that funding of €57m will be made available this year towards the delivery of over 130 Active Travel schemes across Cork city and county.

Nationally, €290m will be made available to local authorities across the country for walking and cycling infrastructure projects in 2023.

The national investment will fund approximately 1,200 active travel projects, contributing to the development of almost 1,000km of new and improved walking and cycling infrastructure across the country by 2025.

This includes the development of segregated cycle lanes and widened footpaths, new walking and cycling bridges, and new pedestrian crossings.

In Cork, projects to benefit from the funding include €4.5m for a new pedestrian and cycle link from the Grange Road to Tramore Valley Park, which includes a bridge over the N40; €1.6m for upgrade works to the Marina Promenade and €3.4m for works on the Ballinacurra to Midleton pedestrian and cycle route.

Commenting on the funding, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said the benefits will be “immense” on a local and national scale.

“People very often think that greenways, cycle-ways or walkways are primarily tourism amenities.

“Of course, they serve that purpose really well, but first and foremost they are about local people and improving local life, connecting suburbs, local villages or townlands that have often become disconnected from one another because of busy and dangerous roads.

“The benefits of this investment are immense, locally and nationally.

“Not only are we making our cities, towns and villages greener and more livable, we are also helping to reduce Ireland’s carbon emissions,” he said.

“In transport, we have a significant challenge to reduce our emissions by 50 percent by 2030.

“To achieve this, we have to encourage more people to choose sustainable ways of travelling.

“However, as we have seen already with the greenways, walk and cycle ways, once we build them, they become instantly popular and we don’t really have to do much to encourage people to make the sustainable switch,” Mr Ryan continued.

Minister of State at the Department of Transport Jack Chambers said that part of this funding will be allocated to the Safe Routes to School Programme.

“€20m was recently announced for round two of the programme which will see over 37,000 students across Ireland benefit from safer infrastructure and encourage them to cycle, walk and wheel to school.

“In conjunction with Safe Routes to School, funding will also be committed to continuing the good work of the Cycle Right Training programme, which in 2022 saw over 30,000 students trained in cycle safety,” he said.

Meanwhile, CEO of the NTA Anne Graham, said 2023 will be an “important year for active travel”.

“With a growing number of active travel schemes moving from design into construction and delivery, we can encourage more people across the country to walk or cycle within and beyond their local community,” she said.

“The funding being announced today will allow the NTA to continue to work alongside local authorities as we accelerate the delivery of improved cycling and walking infrastructure."