New road in Little Island opens up new routes for running

 

This week, a major part of the Dunkettle Interchange project was completed with the opening of a western route into Little Island. This is shown in the map above going from B to C and is about 1km in length.

This is important from a running point of view because it opens up new routes for runners living in Mayfield, Tivoli, Glanmire, Riverstown, Glounthaune and of course, Little Island itself.

If we go back just a few years, there were no safe routes in this area for running without taking to the hills to avoid the traffic. Now, someone in say Glanmire can run on the flat down to the Dunkettle Roundabout... along the 'new' Greenway (A to B) to get to Bury's Bridge near the Gaelscoil... and now across the new western road into the Little Island and a new network of roads.

The photo below is an aerial view of point 'B' on the map near Bury's Bridge. 

You can see the new Greenway heading East towards Glounthaune under construction. 

'Structure 16' is the new pedestrian bridge over the railway line.

The image above is an aerial view looking south from point 'B' on the map... pretty much over the railway pedestrian bridge.

It shows the new walkway and cycle lane, the 'Northern Roundabout' and 'Structure 01' which is the new bridge over the N25.

At the top right, you can see part of the 'Southern Roundabout' and the road heading south into Little Island.

Comments... Donal O'Donoghue sent on the following... "Finally, two years later, this new pedestrian bridge has opened. It is simply parallel to the existing Burys' bridge over the Cork-Cobh railway, which is now exclusively for vehicles.

This new bridge can be used by pedestrians to access a new motorway-style bridge over the east-west N25 (Cork to Waterford). The south end of this new road is at a new roundabout, on the R623 - between BASF/Cognis/Henkel, and the Punch Industries site - near where the BHAA would start/finish their 5k route.

There is perhaps 1km of tarmac laid on the Glounthaune greenway, which reaches almost as far as the Island Gate pub/restaurant now.

This opens up the possibility of running a complete circuit race, from Little Island, on the R623, to Rockgrove on L3004 to North Esk, and over this new bridge/pathway."

In Conclusion: This is just another piece of the overall jigsaw in the new extensive network of Greenways and walkways around Cork City. Up to a few years ago, there was no safe flat route to walk or run east out of Cork City. Slowly but surely, that's changing now.

Addendum: See some photos of the route I took below. 

The photos are in sequence from 1 to 7. They start at the most southerly point which is the small roundabout at the western part of Little Island and then proceed north.

Photo 1: The photo above is the shared footpath and cycling path at the small roundabout in Little Island. This is the view looking west and the new link road is at the top right.

Photo 2: The photo above is the view approaching what is termed the 'southern roundabout'. The walkway on the right has a smooth tarmac surface and is about 3-metres in width.

Photo 3: The photo above is is the view of the path at the 'southern roundabout'. There is a gap where there will be a future slip road for cars exiting the N25 below.

Photo 4: The photo above is the view of the bridge linking the southern and northern roundabouts. The key thing here is that they have kept the path nice and wide so that there's plenty of space.

Photo 5: The photo above is the view of the path at the northern roundabout. The traffic cones where there is a gap in the path for a future slip road to go down onto the N25 below. The bypass continues south at the far left of the photo.

Photo 6: The photo above shows the view of the path as it heads away from the northern roundabout and towards the northern end of this new link road. Again, there is a nice wide 3-metre shared path for pedestrians, runners and cyclists.

Photo 7: The photo above is the view of the pedestrian bridge over the railway line.

Photo 8: And the final photo above is of the zebra crossing allowing pedestrians and cyclists to cross over to the Greenway path on the other side. That is part the new Greenway path which will go from Dunkettle Roundabout to Glounthaune / Carrigtwohill & Midleton.