Tramore Valley Park to Open in 2018!!

At last some good news about the Tramore Valley Park! Cork City Council announced at the end of last week that it will open before the start of the Summer of 2018.

The City Council have now budgeted €50,000 towards the operation of the park which will allow it to open to the public. The whole project of developing the old dump into a grassland park has cost in the region of €40 million to date.

So what does it mean??....Once it opens, there are unlikely to be any races held there, nor are we likely to see a resumption of the 5k parkrun. The problem of limited parking on site will remain a problem with the Black Ash Park & Ride located on the opposite side of the busy South Link Road.

The only options in the short term might be events like cross country for schools where the participants are bused in. I guess small races where the pre-entries are limited to say 200 runners might be an option but open events like a parkrun where it's impossible to know in advance how many people are going to turn up will remain a problem.

But one step at a time. At least the park will be open. If the parkrun did ever resume then the Ballincollig 5k parkrun should take off some of the pressure but the uncertainty of numbers would still be there. If that problem can be solved then the parkrun is an option again.

In terms of training, it will allow runners in the South side of Cork City someplace to train away from traffic. The loop in the park is about 1.5 miles in length and there will be access points from Half-Moon Lane on the South Douglas Road and from the new path that runs alongside the South Ring Road towards Douglas Shopping Centre.

Bridge Over the South Ring Road.....It was also announced recently that some County Councilors approved the decision to send plans to the full Council for approval. This bridge which is shown in an artists impression below is likely to cost a substantial amount of money and it will probably be a good few years before it is completed. It would eventually link the Grange-Frankfield area to the Tramore Valley Park which would allow a lot of options for training and access.

It is shown in the map above as two yellow lines to show where it would be located.