Leinster Orbital route dropped from NTA strategy

ANN CASEY

Plans for the Leinster Orbital Route - a motorway linking Drogheda with Navan and Naas have been axed.

In the Greater Dublin Area strategy, published earlier this month, the National Transport Authority ditched plans for the route, which has been planned for more than 20 years.

The decision has been met with an angry reaction in Meath, with Cllr Tommy Reilly describing it as “despicable”.

The Leinster Orbital Route would have run from Drogheda to the Naas/Newbridge area, with intermediate links to Navan and other towns.

It was planned as a wider circular route around Dulin city to take pressure of the M50.

The current national transport policy seeks a reduction in the growth in car travel and an increase in the use of public transport, cycling and walking and the NTA has decided not to progress the motorway as planned.

Instead the plan is to improve existing road carriageways and provide localised schemes on national and regional roads, to cater for orbital traffic movement, where issues related to the safety and capacity of the network have been identified.

“This is a despicable decision. This road has been planned for almost 20 years. It would have nade a huge difference to Meath,” said Cllr Reilly.

“This road could have brought employment along the route – it would have allowed the building of factories, hospitals and universities.

“It would take traffic from the west and northwest, Leitrim, Fermanagh and Monaghan.

“At a time when we are concerned about emmisions it could have provided jobs locally and cut the amount of traffic going into the city centre.

“It is so disappointing.”

The proposal for the orbital route saw Meath County Council leave routes around Navan free of development to facilitate the construction of the proposed motorway.

Cllr Reilly recalls that as far back as 2003, a route south of Johntown had been proposed for the road, while more recently the route would have bypassed Navan to the north around Proudstown.

A corridor linking Drogheda to Navan to Naas had been identified as being “strategically beneficial for the region in terms of strengthening the links between key development centres, assisting the economic development of these centres and improving the overall regional transport network,” in previous transport strategies.