Louth County Council awarded over €5million Active Travel Funding

There’s good news fo Louth’s walkers and cyclists with the allocation of €5.285million in funding for walking and cycling infrastructure under the Active Travel scheme.

The funding will allow Louth County Council to advance twenty-five projects mainly in Dundalk, Drogheda, Ardee and Termonfeckin.

A number of long-awaited projects have been included in the scheme with €550,000 allocated for the Dundalk Inner Relief Road, €464,000 for the Dundalk Inner Relief Road to Riverside Walk, Dublin Road, €400,000 for Ard Easmuinn Road/train station/Friary school/Dundalk bus station to train station, and €250,000 for Mill Street.

In Drogheda, €415,000 has been allocated for the R132  route from the Bridge of Peace to the train station, including Marsh Road, and €400,000 for design work for the Rathmullan Road from Marley’s Lane junction,  and €250,000 for the Boyne Business Park link road.

Funding has also been made available for works outside St Louis Secondary School, Dundalk, Scoil Aoghhusa, and St Patrick’s and St Brigid’s schools, Drogheda, and Rehabcare Mill Street.

The funding has been welcomed by Cllr Fergus O’Dowd who said  “This will be a key year in developing the active travel projects as a number of projects will be moving from the design phase to construction.

“We need to continue to frontload investment in our walking and cycling infrastructure, the government has today announced over €290m to develop our national active travel options which will see the development of almost 1,000km of new and improved walking and cycling infrastructure across the country by 2025.

 “Many of the local projects announcedwill provide greater connectivity, reduce carbon footprints and provide more sustainable transport options into the future to local residents whilst greatly improving road safety at many of our schools,” he said. “Reducing unnecessary traffic from our roads is key to providing a better future for all.”