The full Kilkenny Greenway is unlikely to open before Spring 2023.
The huge delay was revealed to local councillors at this morning’s (Wednesday’s) meeting of Piltown Municipal District.
The revised projection is a full year later than the opening date they had originally been promised, of early next year (2022).
Cllr Eamon Aylward says the news is hugely disappointing, but he’s hoping it’s only a worst-case scenario, and not set in stone;
“Unfortunately, Spring 2023 is the date now that’s being proposed for the opening of the Greenway,” he told KCLR News. “It’s disappointing to hear that, we’d hoped to have it sooner. I mean that’s a full two years away, and it’s a year later than we’d planned it would be opened. Construction delays obviously have added to that, but we’ll be pushing to get the work done as quickly as possible, and hopefully we can try and beat that opening date.”
Director of Services Seán Mc Keown delivered a full update on the project at today’s meeting.
He explained that while all of the rails and sleepers have now been lifted, the final site clearance work’s been halted until Level 5 restrictions are eased.
However, Cllr Aylward claims it’s not the ban on construction that’s causing such a holdup on opening the Greenway.
He says the delay actually lies behind the project’s design process;
“The Greenway is not essential work, so there has been a delay in that way” he admitted. “But the work that was going on there [pre-lockdown] was the clearing of the railway lines and the sleepers, which has been completed. The next phase then is detailed design and construction of the Greenway itself, but that’s only going out to tender at the moment. So the delays are on that side of it rather than getting feet on the ground with regards to construction.”
