The northern end of the relief road at ‘The Estuary’, Somerville, running alongside Tramore Backstrand, a Special Area of Conservation. | Photo: Noel Browne
Residents of a Tramore housing estate mounted a protest this week as Council crews resumed work on the new Riverstown Relief Road being built on their doorsteps.
The route will run from the Prom to ‘Somerville’, an estate of nearly 200 houses situated off the first roundabout on the main Waterford road entrance to Tramore town.
Somerville was constructed in three sections – ‘The Strand’, ‘The Dunes’ and ‘The Estuary’ – each fed by a branch off the main access road. In total it comprises 198 semi-detached homes and around 600 residents.
Adjacent to a tidal inlet (a designated Special Area of Conservation and proposed National Heritage Area), the estate has lovely views of the Backstrand and Sand Dunes, albeit with ugly industrial units in Riverstown Business Park erected “practically overnight” amid much controversy directly behind some people’s homes – “one element of the fiasco we’ve had to put up with,” says residents’ spokesperson Jim Heylin.
Basically an alternative name for a new 1.2km road extending to/from the new public toilets near the former landfill site, the road was mooted as far back as the 2001 Traffic Management Plan. Though this predated Somerville, permission was first granted for 223 houses on the Crobally Lower lands in 1998.
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