The project is described as both an active travel and tourism and leisure route — including four trailheads with parking and visitor facilities, and direct connections to three primary schools.

The route is 31km long with 6.5km in links to villages and other locations along the route, totalling 37.5km. It will be mainly made up of a shared walking and cycling path of 3 metres wide with verges.

While the plans and environmental assessments submitted to An Coimisiún Pleanála include a draft Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) for lands for the route, the council stressed that its preference “remains to acquire lands by voluntary agreement”.

The project includes public lighting on the route near urban areas, 21 rest areas including facilities such as picnic tables, screening, fencing, three new road underpasses, one new road bridge, and five bridges over rivers and culverts, including a 170-metre-long six-span viaduct over the River Eske. The route will also incorporate existing structures, including 11 bridges and underpasses.

The route is described as being in three sections — with section one being nearly 15km along a largely greenfield construction from Donegal Town to southwest of Gap, section two being along the abandoned railway corridor alongside the mountain and bog from southwest of Gap to Lough Mourne, and section three being largely along the old railway corridor from Lough Mourne to Stranorlar.

Donegal County Council said: “The route was developed over a number of years through detailed engineering design, environmental assessment, and extensive consultation with landowners, local communities, elected representatives, statutory bodies, and other stakeholders.”

Throughout the development of the project, Donegal County Council has placed significant emphasis on engagement and collaboration. The Project Team has undertaken extensive consultation over a number of years with directly affected landowners and property owners, elected representatives, community organisations, statutory consultees and the wider public. This collaborative approach has resulted in numerous refinements to the scheme, helping to minimise impacts where practicable,” the council said.

Donegal County Council said its National Roads Office Project Team would remain available to meet with landowners throughout the statutory process to respond to questions about the application and land acquisition.

“While Donegal County Council’s preference remains to acquire lands by voluntary agreement wherever possible, the inclusion of a CPO forms an essential part of the statutory approval process for a large project of this nature. Issues necessitating the use of a CPO include, but are not restricted to, probate, land registration as well as ensuring all lands can be acquired and full access provided for construction,” the council said.

If the project is approved, the council said that it does not anticipate construction starting before 2028, with land acquisition, detailed design, advance works and procurement preceding the construction phase.

Public consultation for the project runs from tomorrow, August 17th to September 30th, 2026. You can submit submissions or observations directly to An Coimisiún Pleanála. Details are available at barnesmoregapgreenway.ie.#

As reported recently, the council is also planning nearly 200km of safe walking and cycling routes planned across four other greenways in Donegal.

A Limerick City councillor, Cllr Elisa O’Donovan (Social Democrats), has said, “No public consultation took place before the proposal was published”, after she and other councillors asked for progress on an active travel project to be delayed until September. Nationally, such plans are usually published when consultation starts.

The project in question is the Oakview Drive/Ballinacurra Gardens active travel scheme. The project aims to address a 60-metre, two-lane, one-way street that is out of place in a residential estate, but while Limerick City and County Council plans to make it safer and more attractive for people to cycle, some residents have reacted strongly to the proposals.

The one-way street is in place to stop rat running, and the plan is to allow people — including locals — to cycle both directions on a cycle lane or path; the details have yet to be published because of the request from councillors. A two-way link would connect existing and planned cycle routes in the area.

Local newspaper Limerick Leader reported on July 20th that residents at a residents’ association meeting were “left furious at the proposals”.

The Leader quoted Helen Barry, secretary of that Ballinacurra Gardens and Oakview Drive residents group, who said: “There is strong opposition and real trepidation about the impact it will have on the local people, and the local environment. People are nervous about what will happen.”

She was quoted as saying it was a “massive deal” for the people in the area because of undefined “safety concerns” and “concerns around anti-social behaviour”. She said there was a “health and safety issue” of residents of planned over-55s accommodation having to cross a cycle route where there is now a two-lane one-way street with left and right turning lanes at the end of the street.

It was also reported that Cllr O’Donovan has “serious concerns” over the proposal, and another local councillor, Cllr Joe Leddin (Labour), said there were “genuine concerns”. Cllr Leddin said there could be a “significant increase” in the number of people cycling through the estate, and there were also concerns regarding e-scooters and scramblers.

In that article and in another published before the end of July, the Leader covered how Cllr O’Donovan and other councillors had delayed consultation on the project. A spokesperson for the council also told the newspaper, confirming that the Section 38 consultation has been paused.

Section 38 is the standard process for most active travel projects, and it is when public consultation takes place.

However, at the start of this week, Cllr O’Donovan posted an update on her Facebook page, complaining that a Freedom of Information request she submitted to the council showed no public consultation before the planned Section 38 public consultation.

She said: “I recently asked Limerick Council for a timeline on the proposed Oakview Drive/Ballinacurra Gardens Section 38 active travel scheme. The initial response suggested a straightforward process. However, my subsequent Freedom of Information request shows: No public consultation took place before the proposal was published. [and] There are no records of ‘feedback’ [from] residents or elected members before publication — because that consultation simply did not happen.”

Cllr O’Donovan added: “As councillors, we should not have to submit Freedom of Information requests to find out how decisions affecting the communities we represent are being made. I think residents and elected representatives deserve a clear and transparent account of how these decisions are made.”

She also published a written response from council officials which outlined that the project was paused until September at the request of councillors.

Officials said: “The Oakview Drive/Ballinacurra Gardens proposal was developed by the Council’s Active Travel and Roads Teams to bridge local network gaps identified during a June 2024 cycling audit. The project aims to provide a safer, quieter alternative to the busy Ballinacurra Road, aligning with broader city-wide connectivity goals.”

“Following local feedback on an initial signage-based trial in summer 2025, the Council upgraded the proposal into a formal “quiet way” project,” they said.

Officials said: “This redesigned route will seamlessly link existing Childers Road cycle lanes with future infrastructure, ultimately improving the wider connection between the University of Limerick and Raheen. After finalising works and environmental screenings, the statutory Section 38 public consultation was prepared for launch.”

They added: “The process was paused until September at the request of local elected representatives, and the immediate next step is to brief these members before officially publishing the plans for public feedback.”

The Railway Accident Investigation Unit (RAIU) has issued a Safety Advice Notice after investigating what are called “trap-and-drag” incidents, where passengers or their clothing or other items are caught in closing doors and drivers move off while passengers are trapped, dragging them along.

The RAIU’s remit is mainly to find solutions to prevent problems from recurring rather than apportioning blame.

A male passenger whose fingertip was trapped between doors on a tram (pictured above) and who ran alongside the tram before the driver noticed at the Heuston Stop in April, a teenage schoolgirl who was injured after her coat was jammed between doors at the Stillorgan Stop in May, an incident with a bag at the Bus Áras Stop also in May and a dog getting trapped on board with its owner outside the tram in June.

The RAIU said it had identified opportunities to improve obstacle/anti-drag technology, upgrade CCTV on some trams, strengthen passenger warnings and education about closing doors, and place “greater emphasis on drivers checking platform cameras/mirrors immediately before departure”.

Luas trams have safety systems designed to detect trapped objects, but the RAIU highlight that the system is ineffective: it requires a 10 mm allowance for the doors to close, and that width allows items like coats, bag straps, and dog leads to be trapped.

Four cases

In the April incident, the RAIU report said that the person ran alongside the tram before the driver was alerted by commotion from passengers on the tram and stopped the tram, and the person was uninjured. Unlike the other cases, where the obstacle detection system was functioning normally but just did not detect the objects because of the size, the system failed a post-incident test on this tram.

In the case of the teenage schoolgirl with her coat trapped, the driver was unaware and did not stop. The report said: “The passenger attempted to dislodge their coat from the door and ran parallel to the departing tram… before releasing the coat at the end of the platform and falling (out of view of the CCTV) “. The teenager suffered deep lacerations to her face as well as grazing to her knee and hands.

At the Bus Áras Stop, after the doors were being closed, two passengers “ran to the doors and put a bag between the doors, with the tram doors closing on the bag, trapping it”. The passengers held onto the bag and ran beside the tram, and the driver was alerted by passengers on board and stopped.

At the Hospital Stop, the driver also initiated the door, and while the closing sequence was in progress, “a dog on a lead boarded the tram without the owner”, the report said. The driver “departed, unaware of the lead being trapped. The dog owner had the lead around her wrist and was dragged alongside the tram, eventually freeing herself from the lead and falling onto the platform.”

As with most of the other cases, passengers onboard alerted the driver. The report said that a passenger onboard assisted the dog as it was being pulled towards the doors. According to the report, “the dog owner sustained minor cuts but declined medical attention. The dog was uninjured”.

Recommendations

“All the obstructions in the four occurrences were less than 10 mm and therefore allowed the doors to close and lock, trapping the obstacles. Enhanced obstacle detection and dedicated drag detection technologies, if installed, would likely have prevented the incidents,” the RAIU report said.

The RAIU issued reminders to tram drivers to check the platform when departing and to warn passengers. It also said the tram operator — which is in the process of being changed — should review operating procedures to ensure the step “Check your platform cameras/mirror again before departing” is given greater emphasis.

Referring to a study on how passengers think tram and train doors work, the report said: “Passengers’ perceptions of the doors lead them to act in risky ways without knowing the full extent of the risk. Having this overall belief that the doors will behave like lift or shop doors despite previous experience can lead to passengers boarding/ alighting when it is not safe to do so.”

On this, the report concluded that “A study indicated that there is a widespread misunderstanding of how train doors function and that passengers’ [understanding of how the system works] is incomplete. The information stickers on trams are not sufficiently effective in clarifying the operation of the doors and informing passengers of the risk associated with the closing doors.”

The RAIU, in its report, said that the image quality on the camera displays “differs throughout the Luas fleets, with some of the older fleets having poor quality views” and “a more refined high-definition CCTV may have assisted the drivers in seeing the persons/ belongings trapped.”

Unrelated to the safety notice, the contract for operating the Luas transfers from Transdev Dublin Light Rail to Keolis Amey Light Rail Dublin Limited on September 1st. 2026.

The RAIU has asked Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the State body which manages the Luas contract, and the Keolis Amey, the new joint venture operators, to implement its recommendations, including looking at obstacle detection and anti-drag technology, to “see if it can be applied to new and existing tram fleets; consideration should be given to determining if the risk is as low as is reasonably practicable.”

It also called on the TII and Keolis Amey to look at upgrading to better CCTV systems and the possible introduction of “smart CCTV” which can automatically detect if someone is trapped in the doors and alert the driver.

New warning stickers — possibly with shark’s teeth on each door — to more bluntly illustrate the risk of closing doors should also be used, and a public information campaign should be designed to educate passengers of those risks.

The roads project is designed to modernise some of the junctions and roads in the town, but for active travel, large parts of the project include substandard shared paths and cycle paths which revert to shared paths at junctions.

The now-opened urban greenway is short, running for about 2km through parks in Glanmire, with shared paths and cycle paths linking to it as part of the roads scheme — it’s not to be confused with the Glanmire to Cork City Centre route, which is still largely a work in progress.

The council said that the road and active travel improvement works between Glanmire and the Dunkettle are “scheduled to finish in September-early October”, completing the connection between Glanmire Community College and the Glounthaune Greenway.

The council said that the greenway project was opened by Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Gary O’Brien, and local elected members of the Northeast Ward accompanied the chief executive of Cork City Council, Valerie O’Sullivan, on a walk along the new Glanmire Greenway, which opened to the public today.

In a press release, Cork City Council said: “The new greenway connects the recently completed link road at Dooley’s Lane, via the former John Barleycorn site. It includes two new pedestrian and cycle bridges, one across the Glashaboy River into John O’Callaghan Park, and the second across the Butlerstown River into the former Riverstown Soccer Club, onto East Cliff Road and connecting to the existing shared cycle facility at Glanmire Bridge.”

“The scheme is part of a suite of major infrastructure works, representing an estimated €50 million public investment in Glanmire over recent years. The schemes, in various stages of planning, construction and completion, include the delivery of the Glashaboy Flood Relief Scheme, new roads, enhanced pedestrian connections, cycle infrastructure, greenway routes, new river crossings, and community recreation facilities,” the council added.

Cork City Council said that construction on Hazelwood Road between Aldi and Crestfield Shopping Centre is due to start this month, with a 12-week construction programme, and the Glashaboy Flood Relief Scheme is also in its final stages of completion, providing a “one-in-one-hundred-year” flood protection for around 78 homes and 25 businesses in Glanmire.

Valerie O’Sullivan, chief executive of Cork City Council, said: “The investment in Glanmire will have an enormous impact in creating a key destination along the greenway and in strengthening connections between Glanmire Village, Riverstown, East Cliff, John O’Callaghan Park, local schools, residential areas and community facilities. It makes Glanmire a hugely attractive place to live, visit, and enjoy.”

“On behalf of Cork City Council, I’d like to thank the residents of Glanmire for the patience and support that they have shown while these works have been underway, in the understanding that they will ensure benefits in the area for generations to come,” she said.

O’Sullivan added: “I also want to pay tribute to the Council’s Infrastructure Directorate and all the team whose vision, work and dedication are transforming Glanmire and many other parts of Cork City for its people.”

Plans for enhancements to the park

Meanwhile, Cork City Council also highlighted that it unveiled what it called “ambitious plans” for a major new riverside park in Glanmire, which “will be the largest investment in public park infrastructure in the town in a generation.” The works will be around and complement the existing John O’Callaghan Park and the now-open greenway. These plans are out for public consultation.

PHOTO: By Brian Lougheed for Cork City Council.

Correction: The article originally started with the line “Cork County Council has opened…”, this should have stated “Cork City Council has opened…” and has been corrected to say so. All the other fove mentions of Cork City Council were in the orignal article.

The project was approved by a majority of councillors after a section of cycle path was removed from the plans and replaced with filtered permeability.

The 2.5km route will link Dooradoyle over the N18 dual carriageway to Limerick City via the South Circular Road, linking a number of schools along the route. The project follows the Dutch concept of using a mix of two-way cycle paths and low-traffic street designs — local access will be maintained, but through traffic is to be restricted.

The route was originally planned as an active travel project under the “Smarter Travel” brand of projects around 2015, but was not advanced until years later, and eventually approved in 2023 after a majority of councillors voted to amend the project to remove a section of cycle path to replace it with filtered permeability.

The redesign idea was developed by council officials after some councillors insisted on retaining a length of car parking. Automated bollards will now control access to the area where the parking is to be maintained; limiting through traffic is planned to allow for a low-traffic route for two-way cycling.

Limerick City and County Council said: “Active Travel infrastructure is delivered through individual schemes that together will create a connected network. The South Circular Road Active Travel Scheme is a key link in the strategic corridor connecting the communities of Dooradoyle and Raheen with Limerick City Centre.”

“The scheme builds on completed active travel infrastructure on Father Russell Road, St. Nessan’s Road and the R510 corridor, with another link between St Paul’s and Ballykeeffe roundabouts currently under construction. Through connections via Baggot Estate, Childers Road and Hyde Road, the wider network also provides links towards the University of Limerick, Colbert Station and other key destinations across the city,” the council said.

The council said that construction will be carried out in phases to “minimise disruption where possible.” Initial works have started at two locations — at South Circular Road between Fennessy’s and Scoil Mháthair Dé, and on Henry Street between its junctions with St Alphonsus Street and O’Curry Street.

The contractors have started works at the Ballinacurra Road junction and at Fennessy’s Roundabout.

The council is encouraging anybody who wants to keep updated to sign up to the construction email newsletter.

The greenway was built using “permissive access”, a system where landowners such as farmers retain ownership of the land, and similar closures have previously happened on other sections of the route.

As reported by IrishCycle.com last week, users of the Great Western Greenway were pushed out onto the N59, a national secondary road with a 100km/h speed limit, for around a 200-metre section of the greenway between Westport and Newport after a farmer closed a shorter section outside of his farm.

It is understood that the agreement reached between the council and the landowner includes the installation of swing gates at his farm and driveway access which crosses the greenway. Swing gates on greenways are problematic for disabled users of the routes, and bicycles used by parents, including cargo bikes and trailers.

The reported increase in conflicts at the farmer’s access point came after the council installed three new chicane barriers (pictured above) in short succession around the farmer’s land (see video below, taken earlier this year). These chicane barriers did not seem to follow national guidelines on having an over 10 metre safety distance between the barrier and any access point.

This afternoon, a spokesperson for Mayo County Council said: “Following discussions with the landowner, an agreement was reached, and the section of the Greenway reopened on the morning of 11th August. Mayo County Council acknowledges and appreciates the goodwill and cooperation shown by all landowners along Mayo Greenways.”

Cllr Peter Flynn, in a Facebook post, said: “Relieved to say the Great Western Greenway between Westport and Newport/Achill is fully reopened. A big thanks to the landowners and Council staff for reaching an agreement and allowing people to walk/cycle safely between Westport and Achill.”

He added: “The closure over the last 10 days really brings home the challenges of permissive access and critically constructing any sort of greenway or trail alongside a road where inevitably there will be a significant number of local roads, farm access points and driveways into houses.”

A Garda spokesperson said: “Gardaí continue to appeal for witnesses following a serious road traffic collision involving a truck and a bicycle, that occurred on the R414 (Rathangan Road) at Monasterevin, Co. Kildare, on Monday 10th August 2026. The collision occurred at approximately 9.50am.”

“The female cyclist (aged in her 80’s) was conveyed to the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Dublin, for treatment of serious injuries. She has since been pronounced deceased yesterday, Monday 10th August 2026,” a statement this morning from the Garda Press Office said.

Gardaí said that no other injuries were reported at the time and the road has since reopened.

The spokesperson repeated their appeal for witnesses made yesterday: “Gardaí are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed the collision to come forward. Road users who were travelling in the area of the R414 (Rathangan Road) – known locally as “Cow Pastures” – at Monasterevin, Co. Kildare, on Monday 10th August 2026 between 9:15am and 10.15am and who may have camera footage (including dash-cam), are asked to make this footage available to Gardaí.”

Anyone with information or footage is asked to contact Kildare Garda Station on (045) 527 730, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station.

A spokesperson at the Garda Press Office said: “Gardaí are appealing for witnesses following a serious road traffic collision involving a truck and a bicycle that occurred on the R414 (Rathangan Road) at Monasterevin, Co. Kildare, on Monday 10th August 2026. The collision occurred at approximately 9.50am.”

“The female cyclist (aged in her 80’s) was conveyed to the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Dublin, for treatment of serious injuries,” the spokperson said.

Gardaí said that no other injuries were reported at the time, and that the road is currently closed pending technical examination by Forensic Collision Investigators.

The spokesperson added: “Gardaí are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed the collision to come forward. Road users who were travelling in the area of the R414 (Rathangan Road) – known locally as “Cow Pastures” – at Monasterevin, Co. Kildare, on Monday 10th August 2026 between 9:15am and 10.15am and who may have camera footage (including dash-cam), are asked to make this footage available to Gardaí.”

Anyone with information or footage is asked to contact Kildare Garda Station on (045) 527 730, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station.

A planned 6-month trial cycle path was just about to be put in place on Dublin”s Strand Road in 2021 before it was blocked by a High Court injunction. But after Dublin City Council eventually won an appeal in 2025, and now six years from when it was first announced, the trial has still not been put in place.

In April, the council told this website that it was looking at options for the route. That is still the case, the council confirmed this week.

On Friday, a spokesperson for Dublin City Council said: “Options for a cycle route on Strand Road are being considered. An update, once available, will be presented to the south east area councillors.”

The Strand Road trail was to include making Beach Road and Strand Road one-way for motorists to make way for a two-way cycle path, and the city council also planned to continue the two-way path onto Merrion Road, with a reduction of an outbound traffic lane where the road is wider. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s Coastal Mobility Route was extended to the border with the city council, where the route currently ends.

In the Court of Appeal case, the judges seemed to be very clear that they viewed the case as a ‘live’ issue to deliberate on because the council intended to go ahead with the trial. IrishCycle.com asked the council whether it is moving away from trialling the cycle route and, if so, why, but the council did not directly answer this question.

The Strand Road Cycle Route would fill in the largest section of the S2S Dublin Bay route, with the city council having most of the northside section of the route open and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s Coastal Mobility Route in place with improvements planned. Dublin Port is also building a project at the western boundary of the port, with cycle paths which will help link the north and southside route.

Residents living around Dublin’s Richmond Road are planning to “escalate” their campaign for action on road safety on the street with a planned protest which may involve closing the road to traffic on August 12th, the Richmond Road and Grace Park Avenue Residents Association has said.

“Richmond Road has great potential and a wonderful community spirit, but decades of neglect have pushed us to breaking point. It’s a place where people live, not a shortcut for traffic. We need bold decisions and a ‘people first, always’ approach,” the Richmond Road and Grace Park Avenue Residents Association.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the group said: “Following years of inadequate engagement by Dublin City Council (DCC) and its failure to address longstanding safety concerns, this escalation comes as 5 August marks one year of weekly peaceful footpath protests. Residents say that while DCC has implemented isolated measures, these piecemeal interventions often address one issue while inadvertently worsening another.”

The group said that their key concerns include years of unenforced weight restrictions resulting in larger trucks using the road as an illegal rat run, the council approving the road as an access route for the Land Development Agency’s Richmond Village development on the road, and what the group called “broken promises on consultation.”

“Following a meeting on 1 April 2026, Dublin City Council promised a collaborative interim traffic-calming proposal and on-site visits. Instead, contractors were sent to survey parking relocation before any community input took place,” the group said.

The group also claimed that there is a “lack of transparency”, outlining that “Residents report a pattern of poor process, where official meetings remain unminuted, and decisions have been forced back to a second vote until Dublin City Council achieves its desired result, overriding the mandate of local residents and councillors.”

The Richmond Road and Grace Park Avenue Residents Association said that some of the measures put in place by the council, such as bollards, have been “counterproductive” as they have “narrowed already substandard footpaths, increased speeding, and pushed cyclists onto the footpaths.”

“Residents strongly oppose Dublin City Council’s proposal to remove on-street parking solely to widen the carriageway. With deaths on Irish roads increasing, existing parking provides a vital buffer for pedestrians and helps slow traffic. Removing it to improve traffic flow prioritises vehicle movement, directly contradicting the principles of DMURS and the Road User Hierarchy. With 1.35 million cars using the road each year, it is already over capacity,” the group said.

They added: “Rather than reactive fixes, the Association is advocating for a holistic solution built around health and safety. Residents call for an immediate trial of filtered permeability under Section 38 of the Road Traffic Act, a proven, low-cost way to create a calm, safe environment for vulnerable road users.”

On Friday afternoon, a spokesperson for Dublin City Council said they recently met with the residents and there’s an agreed plan to progress a traffic study for the wider area.

The spokesperson said: “DCC have been working collaboratively with residents of Richmond Road to make this Road safer for all. There have been numerous meetings with residents, including one as recently as the 29th of July 2026, and DCC have committed to preparing an area-wide traffic study to assess the impact of any changes to existing traffic arrangements.”

“It was agreed at this meeting on the 29th of July 2026 that the tender brief for the Area Wide Study would be ready for comment by the Councillors and members of the Richmond Road and Grace Park Avenue Residents Association, by the end of August 2026,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said: “The necessity for an area-wide traffic study to assess likely impacts and mitigations required is because the section of Richmond Road which residents want to have filtered permeability on does not have a suitable parallel route where traffic could be easily diverted to. Instead, diverting traffic from this section would likely lead to an increase on the parallel road of Ormond Road and Church Avenue. Church Avenue is a very narrow road and passes directly in front of a primary school, and any increase in volume here would be very undesirable and require intervention.”

“In addition, Grace Park Road between Griffith Avenue and Richmond Road has a primary school, a secondary school and St Joseph’s School for children with visual impairment,” the council said.

The Dublin City Council spokesperson added: “Therefore, changes to this area of Richmond Road have to consider the wider area impact. To that end, DCC had agreed to undertake this study and had also agreed within the last fortnight to share the tender brief for this study with Councillors and local residents prior to going to tender.”