Galway Bay fm newsroom – The operator of a planned service station at Kiltullagh could face competition from a new service station which is being planned for the M6 between Athenry and Galway.
At a meeting of the Athenry/Oranmore Municipal District today (10/11), members were given a presentation of the plans by Halcrow Barry Limited.
The plans for a service station off the M6 between Rathmorrisey and Galway came as news to members of the Athenry/Oranmore Municipal District.
They were told that 6 sites are being assessed for the service station, with a final one to be identified in the next 6 weeks.
It’s the policy of Transport Infrastructure Ireland to locate motorway service areas at regular intervals.
Two of the potential sites are located close to Oranmore, two more are between Junctions 18 and 19 and two are at what will be the new Rathmorissey Interchange.
Chairperson of the Municipal District Martina Kinnane said that the priority for any such plans has to be safety.
Councillor James Charity said he welcomes the plans for a service station but questioned whether it would be in competition with a service station which is planned for Kiltullagh.
That development is being progressed by Supermacs owners Pat and Una McDonagh.
Councillor Peter Feeney said he couldn’t understand what logic there is to build a service station within kilometres of the end of the motorway.
He argued that the impact on local business in places such as Athenry, Oranmore and Briarhill could be major.
Peter Morehan of Halcrow Barry responded by saying that a fifth of crashes are related to fatigue and that there are large sections of motorway which are not serviced.
He said the M6 service station would have parking, a picnic area, fuel, food, toilets and showers serving all road users including freight.
They plan to meet with landowners on a one-to-one basis followed by a public consultation at the Oranmore Lodge Hotel, on Wednesday November 18th.
It’s expected that the service station would employ up to 80 people when built and result in hundreds more construction jobs.
Peter Morehan said Kiltullagh service station is a private development which would be ‘off-line’, accessed by local roads but would not be a comparable project.
Councillor Jim Cuddy said that the M6 service station would compromise business at Kiltullagh and the operator of that station probably wouldn’t have gone ahead with it had he known about the TII plans.
The Athenry Oranmore councillors agreed that they’d like to meet with the consulting engineers again to garner more information about the plans.