The three route corridor options will be on public display in the RPS Project Office in Belmullet from tomorrow, Wednesday 19th. The public is encouraged to view the corridors and make their views known to the consultants. The next step is to carry out further detailed studies on these three corridors to identify a preferred final pipeline route.
Speaking today PJ Rudden, Director RPS said “We believe that these three corridors offer the best prospect of satisfying the community, environmental and technical criteria. These three emerging preferred route corridors (A, B and C) will now be furtherinvestigated by a number of experts including archaeologists, ecologists, pipeline engineers, marine specialists, etc and we also want to hear further views of the community.”
Over the past three months, RPS has
- consulted with landowners and the local community to seek input on the eight indicative corridors;
- conducted on-site surveys with specialist input in areas such as terrestrial and marine ecology;
- conducted walk-over surveys to explore specific areas of interest;
- sought the views of engineering, planning, and environmental experts
The short-listed corridors are the result of a number of engineering and environmental studies conducted on each of the eight indicative corridors presented to the public on 12th June at a public information evening in the Broadhaven Bay Hotel, Belmullet, and by applying the route selection criteria to each. The selection criteria were devised with community input earlier this year and broadly cover Community, Environment, Technical and Project requirements.
Over the coming months further technical studies will be undertaken on the three preferred corridors, RPS will also continue to consult with landowners, keep the community up-dated on progress and provide a monthly ‘focus week’ whereby members of the project team (technical, environmental, consultation) will be available to discuss particular aspects of the project with the community.
For further information on the route corridors, or on any aspect of the project, call into the RPS Project Office, Seafield House, Belmullet, telephone 097 20720.
