EIB loan to help tackle airport traffic snarls
Move to counter prospect of congestion hindering development, writes Fearghal O’Connor
MAJOR improvements to the road network surrounding Dublin Airport is to be a key priority for investment plans stemming from a local authority loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB), it is understood.
Fingal County Council last week signed a €70m loan agreement with the EIB which will allow the local authority to pursue a €180m investment in strategic infrastructure projects within the county’s capital development plan.
The agreement with EIB will allow Fingal County Council to make progress on several major capital projects currently in the pipeline, including the development of industrial projects such as Stephenstown Industrial Park, the Snugborough interchange in Dublin 15 and the development of cycleways from Donabate to Howth, said the local authority.
But traffic problems around the airport are increasingly being seen as a threat to economic growth across Fingal, it is understood. The issue was highlighted last year when a company linked to Howard Holdings was refused permission for a major office development close to the junction of the M50 and M1 motorways in north Dublin.
The company had planned building three large office buildings as part of a 24,000 square metre development that would have had room to accommodate at least 400 workers.
But An Bord Pleanala ruled that the development would have increased traffic on both motorways, as well as on the local road network.
The National Transport Authority had raised specific concerns surrounding the development but also told the planners that it was the intention of the NTA, Fingal County Council, the DAA and Transport Infrastructure Ireland to instigate a transport study of the airport and its environs to establish the strategic and local transport requirements.
Fingal is earmarked for major population growth in the coming years and is seen as a key area for development if the country is to deal with the housing crisis.
The airport and Swords were both due to be served by a metro project, as well as an enhanced bus corridor. But both projects have been shelved by the Government.
The county council had also previously proposed an extensive network of greatly improved local roads around the airport and between the area’s two key population and business centres of Swords and Blanchardstown. Development of this network to date has been piecemeal, but the aim would be to try and take some local and commuting traffic off overburdened motorways such as the M50 and M1.
Fingal County Council chief executive Paul Reid said that the outlook for the Fingal economy was “very positive at present and we have major plans for development across each of the key sectors”.
“This funding will allow us to fast-track the delivery of our capital programme and safeguard the next phase of growth.”