More than half of cycling and walking infrastructure funding unspent — NTA

More than half of the funding provided to rural local authorities last year for active cycling and walking infrastructure was unspent, according to the National Transport Authority (NTA).

A total of 340 sustainable transport projects in 19 local authorities were allocated funding of €72.8 million by the NTA, of which €31.9 million was spent by the end of the year.

The NTA said while not all of the Active Travel funding was spent in 2021, it did not mean any of the projects were “halted”.

“Projects that were approved in 2021 are continuing to progress in 2022, and some have already been completed,” it said.

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“While ideally a higher proportion of the funding would have been spent within the calendar year, it did not come as a surprise that this did not happen in 2021.

“Although local authorities within the Great Dublin area and in regional cities had access to ‘Active Travel’ funding for some years, the other 19 local authorities did not, and 2021 was the first time such funding was being made available to them.”

The NTA said the process of “gearing up” to be able manage and progress these sustainable transport projects was “itself time consuming”, particularly in terms of recruiting qualified engineers, planners and project managers.

“By way of mitigation, NTA provided additional advice and guidance into the design and delivery for active travel modes throughout 2021 to ensure that as much progress as possible was made during the year,” it added.

“It’s worth noting that the local authorities at the time were also dealing with the impacts of the Covid pandemic both in terms of the impact it had on internal resources and national focus on improving public realm environments from the point of view of Covid safety.”

Meanwhile, over a third of funding allocated to the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) and regional cities for active cycling and walking infrastructure was also not spent at the end of last year.

A total of €152.3 million out of the €241 million allocated was spent during 2021.

“As with the rural authorities the funding of projects is multiannual and most projects will continue over a number of years,” the NTA said.

“While the GDA and regional cities spent a greater proportion of their allocation in 2021 than the rural local authorities, they still faced challenges.”

The NTA said the “massive increase” in spending, up from €40 million in 2019, necessitated a rapid expansion by the local authorities in terms of their capacity, capability, expertise and skills, “which was challenging in an employment market where there was a shortage of experienced professionals”.

“The engineering consultancy and contractor market is at capacity which is resulting in some delays in progressing projects at design and delivery stage,” it said.

“Planning delays resulted in some projects that were expected to start construction in 2021 not starting until 2022.”

Projects are being commenced and in the vast majority of cases, the design process is well under way, the NTA added.

“It is however, taking longer to get them to construction stage where most of the expenditure is.”