Public meeting to take place after major setback for long-awaited Ardfinnan bridge project

The community of Ardfinnan is in a state of shock after a major project for Ardfinnan bridge was knocked back.
After spending years tolerating a single lane traffic system on the busy bridge the community will have to suffer on indefinitely.

The National Transport Authority has removed Ardfinnan bridge from the list of projects for their Active Travel Programme allocations for 2023.

It means that a return to a two-way system and the provision of a pedestrian footbridge at the location will not proceed for the moment.

Ardfinnan Community Council was shocked to be informed that the NTA said it was not in a position to support or fund an independent walkway at Ardfinnan bridge and has removed it from its 2023 list of projects.

Ardfinnan Community Council said it would continue to engage with Tipperary County Council and public representatives to try to find a satisfactory solution.

Ardfinnan Community Council are holding a meeting on Monday, June 12 at 8pm in the Community Center to discuss the issues.

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Public representatives have been invited to the meeting and the meetings are open to the public.
Tipperary Sinn Féin TD Martin Browne and Cahir representative Cathal O’hÉanna have expressed their disappointment upon the news that the National Transport Authority has removed Ardfinnan bridge from the list of projects for their Active Travel Programme allocations for 2023.

“While the options expressed to the NTA in the Options Assessments Report carried out on behalf of Tipperary County Council may have not met with everyone’s approval, it did contain the inclusion of the cantilever bridge or pedestrian footbridge.
“The fact that the NTA has dismissed this will come as a disappointment to many.
“It must be similarly disappointing that despite the presence of two political figures – Taoiseach of the time, Micheál Martin and Minister Jack Chambers - who were well aware of how much the return of a two-way system, plus the addition of a cantilever footbridge meant to the community, that it has failed to materialise,” said Deputy Browne.
“It appears that the National Transport Authority’s system of determining suitability of projects through a rigid “hierarchy of intervention” has proved to be inflexible as its attitude to the assessment report which, allocated €70,000, had its recommendations overturned.

“We must now engage further with Tipperary County Council and the NTA to find an alternative way to address the decision outlined in the NTA’s letter, given that the recent high-profile visits of two Government figures did nothing to benefit the campaign.

“Whatever about the decision, we must now focus on what happens next, and how to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of the people of Ardfinnan,” said Sinn Féin Cahir representative Cathal O’hÉanna.