A €65 million scenic road scheme which would radically widen and straighten a large section of the narrow fuschia lined road between Dingle and Tralee will have to go back to the drawing board, An Bord Pleanála has ruled.
The upgrade of 28 km of the N86 between Dingle, Annascaul and Gortbreagoge to Camp is one of a handful of “type-3 single carriageway” pilot projects planned for national secondary tourist routes along the western seaboard. The design allows for constructed cycle ways as well as overtaking .
An oral hearing in Dingle last May heard objections from cyclists, conservations and tourist providers.
An Bord Pleanála has now told Kerry County Council it must remove the cycleways from the design and reduce the width of the alignment in order to minimise interference with hedgerows, landscape features and tree lines.
Shane Foran, a spokesman for Cyclist.ie, welcomed the decision and said it planned similar objections to other such schemes in Galway and Donegal.