In last week’s issue of the Mallow Star it was reported that the new boardwalk on Mallow Bridge would not be completed until around Christmastime, but this week the completion date was pushed even further back, to February of 2022.
The news was relayed to local councillor Gearóid Murphy, who said that he was disappointed at the news. “It had previously been projected that the boardwalk would be opened to pedestrians from this month [October], and the progress made in installing the main structure last month had made this seem possible. I enquired about it last week and was told it was likely to be delayed until Christmas, but now unfortunately it seems unlikely to be completed this year,” he said.
“The reason given for this delay is a delay in obtaining the building materials needed to complete the boardwalk, caused by the current global supply chain problems,” he added. “This was supposed to be the easy part – the hard part was the structure installation last month – so this is quite frustrating. I will keep working on this and pushing to have the boardwalk completed as soon as the materials are delivered.”
Mallow residents have been expressing frustration at the ongoing delays in the work which began in July/August 2019 with a projected completion time of up to three months. The work has now stretched to 27 months, and locals are fed up with having to negotiate the line of barriers strewn along the bridge.
Another area of concern is the path under the bridge which links the town park with the castle riverwalk, which has been closed to pedestrians for over a year, and Cllr Murphy said that he would be asking that the path be reopened when sewerage works in the river are completed.