Route Selection Report Volume 1B Report - Part 2 March 2016 Galway County Council N6 Galway City Transport Project Route Selection Report GCOB-4.04-009 Issue 1 | 16 March 2016 This report takes into account the particular instructions and requirements of our client. It is not intended for and should not be relied upon by any third party and no responsibility is undertaken to any third party. Job number 223985-00 Ove Arup & Partners Ireland Ltd Arup Corporate House City East Business Park Ballybrit Galway Ireland www.arup.com Document Verification Job title N6 Galway City Transport Project Job number 223985-00 Document title Route Selection Report File reference Document ref GCOB-4.04-009 Revision Date Filename GCOB-4.04-009 (Route Selection Report)_Draft 1.docx Draft 1 28 Aug Description Draft 1 2015 Prepared by Checked by Approved by Name Mary Hurley Fiona Patterson Eileen McCarthy Signature Issue 1 16 Mar Filename GCOB-4.04-009 (Route Selection Report)_I1.docx 2016 Description Issue 1 Prepared by Checked by Approved by Name Mary Hurley Fiona Patterson Eileen McCarthy Signature Filename Description Prepared by Checked by Approved by Name Signature Filename Description Prepared by Checked by Approved by Name Signature Issue Document Verification with Document GCOB-4.04-009 | Issue 1 | 16 March 2016 | Arup Galway County Council N6 Galway City Transport Project Route Selection Report List of Volumes Volume 1A – Route Selection Report – Part 1 Volume 1B – Route Selection Report – Part 2 Volume 2 – Figures Volume 3A – Appendices – Part 1 Volume 3B – Appendices – Part 2 Volume 3A – Appendices – Part 3 Volume 3B – Appendices – Part 4 Table of Contents – Volume 1B – Route Selection Report – Part 2 Page 7 Stage 2 Project Appraisal 429 7.1 Introduction 429 7.1.1 Option Development 430 7.2 Summary of Economy Appraisal 434 7.2.1 Introduction 434 7.2.2 Engineering Summary 434 7.2.3 Option Cost Estimates 459 7.2.4 Cost Benefit Analysis 460 7.3 Summary of Safety Appraisal 461 7.4 Summary of Accessibility and Social Inclusion Appraisal 462 7.5 Summary of Integration Appraisal 462 7.6 Summary of Environmental Appraisal 464 7.6.1 Ecology 464 7.6.2 Soils and Geology 487 7.6.3 Hydrogeology 525 7.6.4 Hydrology 545 7.6.5 Landscape and Visual 571 7.6.6 Archaeological, Architectural and Cultural Heritage 576 7.6.7 Material Assets – Agriculture 658 7.6.8 Material Assets – Non-Agriculture 663 7.6.9 Air Quality and Climate 672 7.6.10 Noise and Vibration 694 7.6.11 Human Beings 704 7.6.12 Planning 741 GCOB-4.04-009 | Issue 1 | 16 March 2016 | Arup Galway County Council N6 Galway City Transport Project Route Selection Report 7.6.13 Environmental Summary Matrix 759 7.7 Project Appraisal 766 7.7.1 Introduction 766 7.7.2 Project Appraisal Matrix 766 7.7.3 Pair-wise comparison – Section 2 768 7.7.4 N59 Link 774 7.8 Recommendation 777 8 Stage 3 Preferred Route Corridor PABS 778 8.1 Public Display of Emerging Preferred Route Corridor 778 8.3 Option Cost Estimate Preferred Route Corridor 779 8.4 Project Appraisal Balance Sheet of the Preferred Route Corridor 779 8.4.1 PABS Part A 780 8.4.2 PABS Part B 780 8.4.3 PABS Part C 780 8.4.4 PRC PABS Part D 781 8.5 Summary of Road Safety Audit Stage F (Part 2) 781 8.6 Recommendation 781 GCOB-4.04-009 | Issue 1 | 16 March 2016 | Arup Galway County Council N6 Galway City Transport Project Route Selection Report 7 Stage 2 Project Appraisal 7.1 Introduction Following on from Stage 1 of the route selection process, a Stage 2 project appraisal of the refined route options (see Section 7.1.1 below) was carried out using the multiple criteria outlined by the Department of Transport in Guidelines on a Common Appraisal Framework for Transport Projects and Programme June 2009. This multiple criteria comprises of Economy, Safety, Environment, Accessibility and Social Inclusion and Integration. For the Economy criterion, Option Comparison Estimates of the refined route options were prepared and a cost benefit analysis was completed. Factors such as route option length, property acquisitions and significant structures impact on the overall costs, whilst factors such as traffic volumes, junction connectivity and delay contribute significantly to the estimation of the benefits of the scheme, and it is the relationship of the costs of the route option to the benefits of the route options that define the economic appraisal of the route option. A summary of the Economy Appraisal is included below in Section 7.2. All six route options were assessed in terms of safety benefits. An independent Road Safety Audit was undertaken for each route option to outline the impacts on road safety of the route options. A summary of the Safety Appraisal is included below in Section 7.3 and a copy of the Road Safety Audit Stage F Report (Part 1) is included in Appendix A.7.3. Under the heading of Accessibility and Social Inclusion all of the route options were assessed in terms of how they seek to resolve the transportation issues in Galway and in turn to free capacity for further improvements to the public transport network, which in turn will remove traffic from the city streets. This will allow improvement of the streetscapes to enable workers/school children to commute by walking and cycling, thereby reducing the very high percentage of short commutes by providing a safe environment for such a change in behaviour. A summary of the Accessibility and Social Inclusion Appraisal is included below in Section 7.4. All six route options were also assessed under the heading of Integration. All decisions must align with Government Policy to ensure that the project is in line with land use integration, geographical integration and other Government policies. Route options which provide resolution of the transportation issues in Galway must be compatible with the Government’s objectives in National, Regional and Local policy documents. Transport integration aims to provide improved road linkages between key centres, improved connectivity between roads and other modes, improved public transport, and improved access to other transport infrastructure such as ports and airports. A summary of the Integration Appraisal is included below in Section 7.5. Environment encompasses many disciplines, with the emphasis and importance of the different disciplines varying depending on the particular discipline. A ranking assessment methodology was adopted for each of the environmental specialist assessments within the Environment criterion. Human Beings, Ecology, Landscape and Visual, and Material Assets – Non Agricultural are significant disciplines under GCOB-4.04-009 | Issue 1 | 16 March 2016 | Arup Page 429 Galway County Council N6 Galway City Transport Project Route Selection Report the Environment criterion. The Environmental Appraisal is included below in Section 7.6 . A summary of the overall appraisal of the Stage 2 Route Options using the five criteria is included in the Project Appraisal in Section 7.7 below. For the Stage 2 assessment, the options are assessed in three sections. The location of the breakline between Section 1 and Section 2 used for the Stage 1 assessment has been moved eastwards to the Galway City boundary. Section 1 extends from the R336 to the Galway City boundary and Section 2 extends from the Galway City boundary to the existing N6 in the east of the city. An additional break down at the N6 tie-in at Coolagh has been incorporated in order to compare the junction layouts at the N6 tie-in for the Stage 2 assessment. This section is referred to as Section 3. These junction layouts are shown on Figures 7.2.2 to 7.2.5 . 7.1.1 Option Development 7.1.1.1 Outcomes of Public Consultation No. 2 Public Consultation No. 2 took place on 28 and 29 January 2015 and on 3 and 4 February 2015 at the Westwood Hotel, Galway and the Menlo Park Hotel, Galway respectively. An overview of this consultation is included in Section 6.2 of this report with full details of the consultation and submissions received from the public included in Appendix A.6.1 . Following the public consultation, the display material was made available for inspection in the project office for four weeks. During this time, multiple consultation meetings were convened with concerned residents, key stakeholders, residents associations and various other interested parties. This consultation facilitated the dissemination of information and allowed members of the public to make informed submissions on the route selection process. The closing date for submissions on the route options was 6 March 2015. Approximately 1,000 submissions were received via email, post or in person. The general consensus of the submissions was as follows: 1. Habitats have been given more importance than people – the impact of the route options on people’s homes and on communities is too great; 2. We need a solution to the congestion but public transport can solve this congestion; and 3. 2006 GCOB scheme should be considered. Each submission was catalogued and circulated to team members for consideration as part of the Stage 2 route option assessment. In addition, the route options were reviewed in detail to establish whether improvements could be made to the Stage 1 Route Options in order to address the concerns as noted in the submissions above. 7.1.1.2 Stage 2 Route Options This section details the major amendments and alterations made to the route options between Stage 1 which are outlined in Section 6.1 and Stage 2.