Plans to extend Carlingford Greenway submitted by Louth County Council

Louth County Council have this week submitted plans for two greenways that will connect to "existing and future sections of the overall cross-border Carlingford Lough Greenway network".

In its first application, Louth County Council intends to develop a greenway from the "Station House in Carlingford Town to Carlingford Marina along the shore of Carlingford Lough/the R173 and under the bridge of King John’s Castle in the townland of the Liberties."

The proposed greenway, Louth County Council say, measuring approximately 2.65 km in length, will be predominantly located in the town realm of Carlingford and it will mainly traverse hard surfaced areas.

The proposal will utilise existing hard surfaces where available comprising separate pedestrian and cyclist routes and a shared walking and cycling greenway which will incorporate the following components:

• a shared use vehicle and cycle facility along Back Lane, Dundalk Street, Church Road and Newry Street and a segregated cycle lane from Back Lane along the land side of the R173 to the entrance of Carlingford Marina
• a new pedestrian asphalt footpath along the R173 and associated kerbing and fencing from King John’s Bridge to the Carlingford Marina access junction
• new traffic calming measures and road crossings along the R173 including road cushions, traffic calming gateway , anti-skid surfacing, road markings and signage
• new street lighting along the section of greenway from King John’s Bridge to the Carlingford Marina access junction;
  all necessary site works including trail head improvements, informative boards, directional signage and relocation of existing picnic benches and recycling facilities.

The second section of the proposed greenway, according to Louth County Council's application will be from Omeath Pier to the County Bridge along the R173 Fathom Line at the national border between NI & the RoI in the townlands of Cornamucklagh, Drummullagh, Knocknagoran & Lislea.

This proposed greenway, measuring approximately 4.2km in length, will mainly traverse agricultural land and woodland belonging to a number of landowners and generally be situated between/along the old rail line embankment and the shore/coastline of Carlingford Lough.

The proposal will comprise a shared walking and cycling greenway ranging in width from 2m to 3m that will be constructed mainly with an unbound granular surface course. It will also incorporate the following components:

• 1.2m high post and rail timber fence or other appropriate boundary fencing on each side of the greenway including the installation of stock proof fencing, security fencing, privacy screening, planting and boundary walls where required;
  an adjacent 0.5 - 1m wide over the edge ‘v-ditch’ drainage channel or french drain and a 0.5m buffer strip along the Greenway.;
• a new box culvert as extension of existing culverted private accesses at L70541 (locally known as Shore Road) and installation of safety barriers where required and a 140m section of asphalt surface providing a shared surface along a private access;
• additional cycle parking facilities and new trail head signage at Omeath Pier;
• traffic and transport improvements such as new signage and road markings where the greenway interacts with public roads, access controls (pedestrian/cycle friendly gates), road markings and traffic calming measures;
• all necessary site works such as tree felling, route clearance, sea wall repairs and fencing. 

A decision is due on both applications by November 4, with observations due by October 14.