Construction on Mayo and Greenway road upgrade due to commence in the summer

Mayo County Council officials have confirmed that work on the redevelopment of the N59 outside Newport will commence in the summer.

The upgrade of 5km of the N59 from Newport to Derrada was suspended last summer after Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) requested the Mayo regional design office suspend the tendering process due to a 'funding issue'.

The TII allocated €5.5m last February for the redevelopment of the road and the original time frame was for the tender to be awarded in July with work due to begin later in September.

There were fears last year that the project would not go ahead after it was suspended and no new start date had been given for the project to commence.

However at yesterday's monthly meeting of the Westport/Belmullet Municipal District, Seamus Ó Mongáin, head of the municipal district confirmed that tenders for the project will soon be signed and expects work to commence in the summer.

“It has the green light and our intention to have contractors on site by Q2,” he said.

Mr Ó Mongáin was responding to Westport-based councillor Peter Flynn who told the meeting that progress on the upgrade of the N59 was good news for the region.

“It looks like the tender is very close to being rewarded and work commencing in the next couple of weeks. It is a really important part of the tourism product in terms of the Greenway from Newport down into Burrishoole. It is welcome news and it is positive that important news goes out,” he said.

The project is expected to take three years and will include the full reconstruction of the road including a bridge over the main road for the greenway, an upgrade of 1km of the greenway.

The realignment of the N59 from Newport to Mulranny will be completed in three stages with the Newport to Derrada section followed by a section to Newfield and the last section to be completed will be from Newfield to Mulranny. The whole project is expected to be completed by 2030.