Improving access to Barnageeragh Bay Beach could cost €1.35 million and take years, a consultant told councillors

The small car park overlooking Barnageeragh Bay Beach – between Skerries and Balbriggan – is an out-of-the way spot to pick up a coffee.

“Mostly it’s the local community who come, but they like it,” says Gintare Jonuskyte, who runs the coffee van, Blend 39.

The van isn’t that easy to reach, even for nearby neighbours, whose only route is a single thin footpath that runs alongside the busy R127.

Neither is the main attraction, the beach itself.

Jonuskyte steps out of the van, and past a tiny black and white wagtail scuttling about at her feet.

She points north towards the steep steps from the side of the R127 down to the beach, almost 300 metres away – near the junction with Barnageerah Road.

For parents with kids, the elderly or people with mobility issues, it’s not possible to go down, she says. “People aren’t using it a lot.”

It would be nice to get some steps going down from the carpark and viewing point from where she operates, she says. “Some people have said this because it’s so big of a beach.”

Fingal County Council is looking at making the beach universally accessible, councillors on the Balbriggan/Rush-Lusk/Swords Area Committee learnt last Thursday.

It is the latest proposal by the council to make the beaches along its coastline more inclusive and inviting.

In 2022, they carried out a similar study at Balscadden Beach in Howth. More recently, in October, they confirmed plans to look into building a new boardwalk at Balbriggan Beach.

But consultants hired to carry out a feasibility study in Barnageeragh said the access route to the beach can’t be made safer without first making the R127 safer to walk along to get there.

This could take up to four years, said Ronan Murtagh, an associate director with Tobin Consulting Engineers.

Councillors at the meeting were caught by surprise that this idea had expanded to encompass significant roadworks in the area, and that those would precede a safe path down to the beach.

The timeframe too was treated as a cause for concern. Independent Councillor Grainne Maguire urged the council to see what interim works could be done as soon as possible. “We’ve got to start looking at what we can do now,” she said.

A steep task

The council has allocated €570,000 for a feasibility report and design to improve access to Barnageeragh Bay Beach, in its 2024 to 2026 Capital Programme.

But the project could cost about €1.35 million, according to the feasibility study, prepared by Tobin Consulting Engineers.

It’s not going to be a quick and easy job, said Paul Graham, a senior executive engineer, at the meeting last Thursday. “Such as throwing a wheelbarrow of concrete down and it’d be alright.”

It needs a holistic approach, Graham said.

Murtagh, from Tobin Consulting Engineers, said that as well as the steps, they had to look at traffic and pedestrian movement in the area, and environmental impacts.

Currently, the approaches to the existing access point are substandard from every direction, he said.

That’s because of footpaths, speeds, poor visibility and the low-standard waiting areas at nearby bus stops, he said.

Also, making the access route from the R127 to the beach universally accessible is challenging because it is via a 70 metre long ravine with an 11 metre drop.

The ravine’s gradient is three to three and a half times steeper than what would be deemed accessible for all people to use, he said. “It is limited to a very distinct category of people.”

The Tobin feasibility study outlined two parcels of works that would need to be done.

The first priority would be to upgrade the road, the report says. That includes widening of the footpaths, making more space to wait at bus stops, and putting in controlled crossings and public lighting.

All this could cost in excess of €600,000, the report says.

Only then, could the main works on the access route down to the beach be done, building a ramped surface and adjacent steps, and maintaining the existing drainage system.

A ramp could also bring the risk of more planning and environmental constraints, Murtagh said. “That opens up into submissions for appropriate assessments to An Bord Pleanála, and the cost implications of that.”

Just looking at the steps would be putting the cart before the horse, he said. “Any increase in footfall and traffic from this great amenity would be countered by increased health and safety risks of people waiting at bus stops, people trying to get to it along narrow footpaths.”

In all, the feasibility study estimates that the project could cost €1,345,000 excluding VAT, with a timeline of four to five years.

Footpaths first

Given the scale of this project, it may be more suited to be a larger capital works project, Murtagh said, which would require a business case and submission to the National Transport Authority.

The works also can’t be seen to undermine any existing planning applications, like the Fingal Coastal Greenway, which is at the pre-planning stage, he said. “That would have to be taken into consideration.”

If the Coastal Way is coming along this particular way, the access point will need to be included as a feature, said Graham, the council’s senior executive engineer. “It all has to be included as a holistic approach.”

The priorities are wrong, and the beach access should be done first, said Labour Councillor Brendan Ryan. “We’ve come to a point where we’re changing the roadway before we even consider making it safe.”

But the engineers couldn’t make it the main priority if they were looking for universal access, Murtagh said.

The council needs to look at interim works to make sure the route from the R127 down to the beach is safe for anybody using it now, said independent Councillor Grainne Maguire.

“This is a huge piece of work and investment that will happen, but it’s not going to happen now,” Maguire said.

After the meeting, the Fine Gael Councillor Tom O’Leary said the study’s advice that the roadworks must be done first does complicate the project.

But he doesn’t see a question of whether or not it should be done. “We have to do it. There’s no way we can leave it as it is.”

Putting it into the Coastal Way plan would mean there is more funding, he said. “But it will be too slow. I think we have to get it into the capital plan and get Fingal to do it.”