Over €350,000 spent on planning shelved Liffey cycle route

Olivia Kelly Dublin Correspondent

More than €360,000 was spent on the development of proposed routes for a cyclepath along the River Liffey before the project was shelved, according to the National Transport Authority.

Dublin City councillors were this week told that the NTA had decided to stop all funding of the development of the route following their failure to select a route following five years of planning.

The council’s transportation department has presented eight different “preferred routes” for the 6km path from Heuston Station to the East Link bridge since 2012, but has failed to secure the sanction of councillors for any of the options.

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The most recent option, proposed last May, involved the construction of a boardwalk over the river on Ellis and Arran Quay, which would have added up to €3 million to the €20 million cost, and required the scheme to be submitted to An Bord Pleanála.

Councillors asked in May that the option be subject to further assessment before any decision was made.

Brendan O’Brien of the council’s traffic department told councillors on Wednesday that the NTA subsequently suspended funding for the project pending an independent evaluation of the routes.

“We have had discussions with the project funders, the NTA, and the NTA came back and said they are suspending funding for the project, and for any design work, until such time as they commission a third party independent review of all the options,” Mr O’Brien said.

The routes were designed for the council by consultancy firm Aecom. The NTA said it had funded in full "design team and the associated ancillary costs" for the project. The total cost was approximately €366,000, it said.

The NTA said it intended to commence the review of the scheme “shortly”. It is not yet known who will undertake the independent review.