NDP: Roads, rail and ports

Limerick’s infrastructure: Road, rail, and ports

The renewed National Development Plan (NDP) set out a series of significant infrastructure priorities out to 2030.

In October 2021, the Government launched the renewed National Development Plan to 2030, a planned €165 billion investment, recognised as the largest in the State’s history. Outlining a focus on priority solutions to target challenges in housing, healthcare, and the climate; the plan also seeks to secure job growth in every region and deliver economic renewal for the decade ahead.

Although many of the initiatives aimed at Limerick are retained from the previous iteration of the plan, a review of priority projects has seen changes to those initial ambitions, as well as fresh impetus on other projects of note.

An outline of significant NDP projects affecting Limerick include:

Roads

N/M20

Initially touted as a potential motorway between the State’s second and third largest cities, Cork and Limerick, the N/M20 Cork has been a long-standing proposal to better connect the two cities by improving the transport network and improving safety above the existing N20 route.

The renewed NDP has marked the project as “subject to further approvals”, with the project still being shaped through consultation. Rather than a motorway, most recent plans suggest 80km of new and improved dual carriageway road between Cork city and Patrickswell that will provide bypasses of Mallow, Buttevant, and Charleville, with an estimated cost of between €1 and 1.5 billion.

Other proposed national road projects, which were part of the previous NDP and are now subject to further approvals include: The N21/N69 Limerick to Foynes road (Adare bypass); the N21 Newcastle West Bypass and the N21 Abbeyfeale Bypass.

Ports

The N21/N69 Limerick to Foynes road (Adare bypass) in particular is featured as part of a commitment to improve access to the Port of Foynes. A jetty expansion program at Shannon Foynes Port was outlined for completion this year, however, in March 2022, Shannon Foynes Port announced its intention to invest €28 million in new infrastructure as part of a plan to turn the Shannon Estuary into an international hub for floating offshore wind generation.

Alongside plans to expand jetty infrastructure, the project is set to include the development of one of the country’s largest logistics buildings.

Rail

Funding over the 10 years is set to support the further development of commuter rail in both Limerick and Galway, including the development of a new Limerick commuter rail network, including new stations on each of the historical rail lines.

The revised draft Limerick Shannon Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy (LSMATS) was published in April 2022, launching a second round of public consultation for LSMATS, having originally been consulted on in 2020. The strategy proposed the examination of a dual track between Limerick Colbert and Limerick Junction stations, alongside:

• a new rail station at Moyross as demand for travel increases in line with the regeneration of this area;

• a new rail station at Ballysimon, including park and ride;

• complete the redevelopment of Colbert rail and bus station; and

• an investigation into the potential for rail freight in support of the proposed Regional Freight

Strategy, including the reinstatement of the line between Limerick and the Port of Foynes.

Outside of rail, the LSMATS also boasts a new vision for transport in the area, including a greater focus on sustainable land use planning and specific transport measures to support Limerick regeneration.

Included in the suggestions is a 184km cycling network linking all major origins and destinations within the area and an inter-urban network connecting Limerick city and metropolitan town centres and a detailed BusConnects proposal.

Flood relief

The NDP committed to €1 billion in flood risk management, including funding through the OPW for the Limerick City and Environs Flood Relief Scheme. Limerick City and County Council commissioned the scheme in May 2021, with ground investigation works commencing in April 2022 and expected to last until September 2022. Construction of the project is not expected to start until 2026, with handover expected in 2031.

Limerick 2030: Planning for the future

In the decades ahead, as we continue to advance our mission to become not just Ireland’s but one of Europe’s most exciting sustainable living environments, the past decade will very much be seen as the period when the seeds for the future harvest were sown, writes Pat Daly, Chief Executive of Limerick City and County Council.

If, as the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, then you could argue, based on the key barometer of economic growth, Limerick is half-way there already. Yet in Limerick today, we believe our journey is only just beginning.

Nevertheless, the past decade or so has been about planting the seed, about planning for the future. For Limerick, that happened just short of 10 years ago when we launched our vision and strategy, ‘Limerick 2030: An Economic and Spatial Plan for Limerick’. It was a once in a generation plan – the first of its kind in the country - developed to guide the economic, social, and physical renaissance of Limerick city centre and the wider county/mid-west region.

It was published with a top-line target of €1 billion in enterprise and investment infrastructure and 12,000 new jobs. Such has been the success of the plan that these targets were already surpassed five years into the plan and the trajectory since has continued upwards. Employment levels in the region were at 191,000 in March 2012 and had reached 238,000 by the end of Q3 last year, with nearly 23,000 people joining the workforce during 2021.

Job announcements have been coming thick and fast over the past six months; 130 R&D jobs by med-tech giant BD; Legato Health Technologies announcing 200; Indigo Telecom Group pitching in with 100, Vitalograph with 200 in Limerick and Ennis and Eli Lilly giving the dream start to 2022 with 300 jobs for a €400 million new manufacturing facility. These are on top of ongoing investments by the likes of J&J, Regeneron, and Analog Devices. Job creation has not only been confined to the larger firms; local enterprise office clients have created a net total of 179 jobs in 2021.

The momentum is strong, but our focus is on keeping it maintained, and while strategic planning has been essential, so too has collaboration. For sure there have been challenges along the way, differences of opinion, but there is a stakeholder collective in Limerick today that is underpinning its success; key players with the common Limerick and regional interest working hand in glove in making sure we get there.

For example, we now have at the table two universities, UL and TUS, as well as Mary Immaculate College, which have a collective student population of over 35,000 – critical in terms of graduate supply to support economic growth. Extend the catchment to a 90-minute radius of Limerick and student numbers reach over 100,000. We’re also working closely with Shannon Airport, which – uniquely apart from Dublin – gives our region direct connectivity to all three key global markets, the UK, Europe, and the US.

The plan has spawned catalytic initiatives like the Limerick Twenty Thirty designated activity company (DAC), a special purpose vehicle created by Limerick City and County Council to act as a de facto public interest developer, at a time when they were thin on the ground, to build out disused sites in the city and stimulate economic growth. There’s also the €9 million investment in the O’Connell Street revitalisation plan and €116 million of URDF Grant Funding recently secured from Government, which is set to transform our city centre. The Opera Project is now well under way to redevelop a key city centre site of 1.62 hectares providing much needed new commercial office space for new jobs in our city centre, with loan finance secured from the European Investment Bank and the Council of Europe Development Bank. Limerick was also the first city in Ireland to develop its own Digital Strategy. Its green credentials are such that it is one of only two lighthouse cities, selected for a major climate change programme focused on dramatically reducing the carbon footprint of urban areas. From a lifestyle perspective, the Discover Limerick DAC was born from the plan, Limerick has become a festival city through arts and social programmes and the biggest of all awaits in five years’ time when the Ryder Cup is staged at the prestigious Adare Manor. We’ve also seen initiatives like the Limerick Greenway developed. The list goes on.

Green is, indeed, synonymous with Limerick from a sporting perspective on a national scale but is very much going to be our international calling card as well, with Limerick and the Shannon Estuary set to become the supply-chain hub for the global-scale floating offshore wind industry revolution off the west coast, largely thanks to the efforts of Shannon Foynes Port Company and other key stakeholders.

These initiatives will place Limerick at a critical intersection globally, where the best nations and regions will lead in the fight against climate change, in ridding future generations of the environmental and social uncertainty that this and previous ones have created.

Ultimately, that’s where we want to be. A city region at the edge of innovation, embracing inclusivity and a champion of sustainability.

T: +353 61 556000 E: customerservices@limerick.ie W: Limerick.ie