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Eirgrid now planning to bury cables underground By Cianan Brennan
Plans for a controversial new underground north-south energy highway may see the western parts of County Wicklow affected. State energy company Eirgrid is to evaluate all possibilities for the underground powerlines and will announce their findings later in the year the Wicklow Voice has learned. Until now the plans for the new energy links between Cork and Kildare, otherwise known as the Grid Link project, had been based around a series of overhead pylons which had garnered much criticism across the country. These planned routes would see parts of Wicklow affected, in particular Baltinglass but also Blessington and Tinahely. However Eirgrid has announced that, in common with the Grid West initiative
between Mayo and Leitrim, underground solutions are now on the table. An Eirgrid spokesman confirmed to the Wicklow Voice that the mooted underground lines will not necessarily affect the same areas as the overhead pylons. “An underground route has many different factors that need to be considered when evaluating its viability,” he said. “Things that would affect the construction of overhead lines do not necessarily apply to underground pipelines, and vice versa, so really you’re talking about a whole new ball game,” he added. However, he did confirm that such underground pipelines may well follow the network of roads that are already in place, as is the case with the Grid West Mayo pipeline. “That is certainly a factor, and we will be consulting in
depth with the National Roads Authority (NRA) in relation to this,” he said. In January the power operator, which took charge of the country’s energy concerns in 2006, announced potential routes for the series of pylons that would be erected as part of their revamp of Ireland’s energy networks. In April of this year almost 7,000 people marched through Dublin city centre to Leinster House in protest at the states’s energy policies. The demonstrators, who included volunteers from Wicklow organisation Wicklow Against Pylons, accused the Government of failing to listen and engage sincerely with the communities affected by “flawed energy policies” which, they said, had the potential to damage both the tourist economy as well as people’s health.
DADDY’S ICE COOL:GIRL A reveller : Craigenjoys Brittonthe with sunny his daughter weather and Molly an(2) icecream at the opening during the of the Groove new Wood Festival Floor in Killruddery Gallery @ Matt House Britton and Gardens. Kilcoole.Pic More bypictures Lorna O’Brien inside page 22. »»Lots Lotsmore morepictures picturesfrom fromaround aroundthe thecounty countyinside inside