€34m Kilpedder interchange to open today

A COMPLEX saga of road-building, in which a dual-carriageway ended in a field and the National Roads Authority (NRA) refused to fund a link to the N11, comes to an end today with the opening of the €34.6 million Kilpedder interchange in north Co Wicklow.

The Kilpedder interchange, which includes an underpass of the N11 and the reorganisation of a number of local roads, will replace a temporary link between the N11 and a dual-carriageway serving the new town of Charlesland.

It was initially to have been built in tandem with the dual-carriageway to Charlesland, but in 2004 the NRA refused funding over concerns that part of the site was on an old landfill.

While the dual-carriageway went ahead the interchange was stalled, so that when the road was completed it ended in a field.

In 2005 the situation was described by then minister for environment Dick Roche as "ridiculous". He dubbed the dual-carriageway "the road to nowhere".

A compromise single-carriageway link road was then put in place pending the construction of the full interchange, which got under way in October 2006.

The temporary link involved residents on the western side of the N11 driving several miles north to the Glenview interchange at the Glen o' the Downs, and south again on the N11 to access schools and shops on the other side of the road.

Late last year scheduling indicated the interchange would be completed by the end of November, but a Wicklow County Council engineer later said this might be the first week in December.

However, sources told The Irish Timesthat "an exchange of views" then took place between the contractor and Wicklow County Council and the NRA on the availability of accelerated payments for early completion, "in which no common ground was found".

The situation was further complicated this year by a landslide in the area of a pedestrian bridge and on-going work on a southbound off-ramp.

Spokesman for the NRA Seán O'Neill confirmed there were "contractual and physical difficulties" over the last three months.

The proposed interchange has already led to the development of large tracts of land in the Delgany and Greystones areas for housing and will also facilitate a new shopping centre on a 100-acre site at Charlesland.