New €30 m bypass for Athy a relief for Laois people

The new Athy bypass looks set to ease traffic through the Kildare town that is used by many people in east Laois communities for shopping and other reasons.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was on hand on Tuesday, October 23 to cut the ribbon on the Athy Distributor Road which open to traffic at 7pm that day. 

The new multi-million euro route is 3.4km road stretch that commences to east of Athy bypassing the town to the south.

The scheme includes walking and cycling infrastructure, new roundabouts, junctions as well as an 80m single-span steel bridge over the River Barrow and a new railway bridge over the Dublin to Waterford railway line.

The scheme also provides a new link to the train station.

The new road original cost of €27 million, is funded by the Department of Transport under Project Ireland 2040.

Roughan & O’Donovan-AECOM was appointed to provide technical consultancy services for the project designed to alleviate significant congestion in the historic core of Athy.

They said the project involves the route followes the line of the disused Athy-Wolfhill railway crossing the River Barrow which requires the construction of the 80m steel bridge across the River Barrow and a two-span bridge over the railway line.