The only protesters in sight yesterday were locals seeking a wall to protect their homes, writes Tim O'Brien.
Some 16 years after it was first planned the Glen o' the Downs dual carriageway in Co Wicklow was formally opened by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, yesterday.
Work on the carriageway, which so far is €40 million over budget, began four years ago.
Controversial from its earliest stages, the 5.5 km road sparked a three-year "eco-warrior" campaign in the glen in the late 1990s.
Some locals waved placards as Mr Brennan emerged from his Mercedes yesterday, but this time the protesters were concerned with the installation of a wall to protect their homes.
The Minister said that he for one "will learn lessons" from the experience, and confirmed that he has "issues" with the council over the 50 m.p.h. speed limit on the road.
But for all the criticism and the continuing correspondence between the contractors, Ascon, and the council over the final cost, the State may have taken possession of its most environmentally friendly dual carriageway.
It was as far back as 1990 that a local botanist, Mr Alex Perkins, discovered that Wicklow County Council planned to run a dual carriageway through the Glen o' the Downs nature reserve, culverting a stream and eliminating up to 40 per cent of the native ash trees.
Mr Perkins, who later served as a Green Party councillor, wrote to the road engineers responsible for the route and suggested a few amendments.
Yesterday as a guest at the launch of the road, he smiled wryly when he recalled the amendments.
They included moving the dual carriageway to the west at the southern end of the glen, to the east at the northern end, moving a proposed bridge a quarter of a mile to the north, taking measures to protect a marsh, and a new technique called "soil nailing" to avoid building a large wall against the western glenside.
The original plan would also have seen the loss of about 1,700 sessile oak trees, a figure which Mr Perkins insisted could be reduced to 75 with the suggested amendments. He also claimed the land-take would be reduced by about five acres in the most sensitive area of the river.
To his delight and a little surprise, the amendments were accepted by the council planners.
But they were not accepted by the eco-warriors who called him a splitter, a compromiser and worse, before settling into their three-year protest from 1997.
After the eco-warriors lost a Supreme Court challenge and when the tree cutters came in early 2000, the tree houses were discovered to be mostly in the wrong trees.
However, the council's problems continued with the construction and modifications which had to be undertaken, including building underpasses with lighting for fish, moving two large water mains serving Dublin, removing a marsh by hand, and keeping 30,000 vehicles a day moving through the site.
Fours years after construction started, which accounts for about one mile a year, the cost is €85 million - up from an initial estimate of less than €50 million.
It may rise even higher as the council deals with final claims.