Mooted cycleway linking city to suburbs and beyond applauded as ‘a win-win’

CORK City Council is expected to announce plans to connect Kent Station to Glanmire and Little Island with a new cycling route in the coming weeks.

The proposal will be part of the accelerated Pathfinder project to connect Cork and Waterford by a continuous greenway by 2025.

A section from Penrose Quay to Silver Springs will be delivered in an interim fashion and completed under BusConnects.

The plans were confirmed by City Hall and they will be put forward for public consultation in the next few weeks.

Cork City North-East Green Party councillor Oliver Moran said there will be many benefits for Lower Glanmire Rd residents.

“It will open up the area behind the Harbour Commissioner’s building for a new public space,” he said, adding that there is a need to improve access to water for amenities and transport along the developments, and that is “something that will be worked into plans for regeneration of the North Docks”.

The plan will contain “a bridge over the patent slip in the North Docks and the creation of a new pedestrian and cycling street between Horgan’s Quay and the Lower Glanmire Rd”.

The new pedestrian and cycle street will eventually join the boardwalk along the riverside. The section from Silver Springs to Dunkettle will pass through the Port of Cork Millennium Gardens and continue inside the Port of Cork at Tivoli.

This section will connect with new and planned cycling infrastructure at Dunkettle using a second bridge to pass over the railway line.

“The ultimate plan is that a boardwalk will connect this area to the Millennium Gardens,” said Mr Moran.

“Initially, that connection will be developed in an interim fashion for speed of delivery and the boardwalk will be completed as part of BusConnects.

“Plans for a linear park along Horgan’s Quay that are currently part of BusConnects will be developed in this way too. In the first stage, it will be an interim measure followed by the eventual delivery under BusConnects.”

Labour councillor for the North-East ward, John Maher, welcomed the news and believes it can only be good for the people of Cork. “It is another piece in the jigsaw relating to alternative travel,” he said. “It is going to connect the city to the city suburbs and further afield down near Glounthaune and to Youghal Greenway and the Waterford Greenway.

“I think it is a win-win. I think the plan is good and welcome the developments.”

The first phase of an ambitious scheme to provide a continuous cycle route from Glanmire to the city centre went to public consultation last July.

The proposal includes the provision of segregated footpaths on both sides of the road along the entire length of the scheme, approximately 1.4km, and the provision of a two-way segregated cycle track on the eastern side of the road from the Dunkettle/Tivoli roundabout to the Church Hill junction in Glanmire village.