Plans to create a hard surface route on existing grassy towpaths along canal and river banks are being resisted.
The explosion in cycling over the last decade has resulted in ambitious plans for greenways all over Ireland, north and south. However, opposition is mounting to a proposed new Blueway of about 115km in a scenic area of Leinster.
The Blueway – which involves laying a hard surface suitable for cyclists to share with walkers - is being planned by Waterways Ireland. But those who want the Barrow Way left untouched are strongly objecting to the plan.
They say the current grassy surface should stay because cyclists will go too fast on a harder surface.
The Barrow Way runs about 115km from Lowtown in Co Kildare to St Mullins in neighbouring Co Carlow. It winds its way along river and canal paths.
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Carlow County Council is about to apply for planning permission to turn the grassy surface into an unbound hard surface as it wants walkers to continue using the route but for cyclists to also use it.
However, journalist and broadcaster Olivia O’Leary is leading one of the opposition groups and she says a harder surface for cyclists will encourage them to ride fast and that would be dangerous for everyone else.
Fuelling much of the opposition is an engineer’s report that has been obtained by the Carlow Barrow Users Group.
It is written by Kildare County Council’s civil engineer Gerry Dornan and questions the suitability of replacing the current natural grassy surface along the route with an unbound hard core surface rolled in crushed limestone.
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He concludes that surface would be 50 per cent more expensive than a bound surface in the longer term. And his report also says stretches of the current towpath structure are not wide enough for a two-way cycling route, as planned.
Dornan’s report points to Dutch research which states a four-metre wide track is need for a two-way cycling route that was also intended for use by walkers.
He notes of the international experience when mixed cycleways-walkways were narrower: “The most serious conflicts were observed on recreational cycling paths during the weekend, which is the type of use envisaged by the proponents of this scheme.”
Dornan also points out that in order for cycling on such a facility to be sociable - and to encourage cyclists to return - it must be wide enough for them to ride two abreast.
However, it has emerged that his report reviewed an earlier version of the plans when they were based solely on creating a cycling trail rather than the Blueway plan which is intended for use by cyclists, walkers and a range of others.
Despite this, the Carlow Barrow Users Group say the criticisms in Dornan’s report are still relevant to plans for the Blueway because the widths of the path under each plan are almost exactly the same.
Journalist and broadcaster O’Leary is committee chairperson of the Save the Barrow Line group opposed to the new plan.
O’Leary says replacing the grassy surface with a hard unbound surface intended to make the route suitable for cyclists would interfere with the area’s ecosystem.
“The existing grass surface, which is so beautiful, accommodates cyclists, walkers, anglers and joggers alike as it is,” she said.
“But we are against the putting down of a hard unbound surface on the narrow towpath which will encourage speed which raises major safety issues beside a waterway.”
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