PLANS FOR a “Central Park”-type project on the grounds of a former dump in Cork city were made public over the weekend at a special family open day.
A planned feature of the Tramore Valley Park, on the site of the former Kinsale Road landfill, is a “green bridge” over the multi-carriage South Ring road connecting city and county.
The master plan, by landscape architects Brady Shipman Martin for Cork City Council, says the new facility “has the potential to become Cork’s year-round active and energetic family leisure and recreation destination”, and will be of “national importance”.
The plan provides for the transformation of the 29 hectares of public and private land into a leisure and recreation facility, with a large multi-use area, playgrounds, wildlife and biodiversity areas.
The park is scheduled to be formally opened in two years and fully completed by 2018.
The Kinsale Road dump served as the city’s main landfill from the mid-1960s until three years ago.
Ger Lehane, spokesman for the residents’ group Grange Frankfield Partnership, said the Tramore Valley Park would “be a ‘Central Park’ of sorts for Cork”.