The Tralee Blog

Not many people will have noticed that there were construction works going on at Kerry General Hospital in Tralee. And that is fortunate, because if they had noticed it might have been because they were seriously ill. So the new helipad at Kerry General is one of the few structures that will hopefully not have to be used too often in the future. But it’s good to know that injured or seriously ill patients can reach the hospital now very fast again.  

(The landing facility is mainly used by the coastguard, although the picture shows an Agusta Westland AW139 helicopter of the Irish Air Corps.)

As the month of may draws to an end final works are currently being done at phase one of the long awaited River Lee Nature Walk and Cycleway in Tralee. While the paving from Ballyard (right behind the Aqua Dome) to the Fels Point Hotel has already been completed and “unofficially” opened weeks ago (read more here) there had still been a gap to be closed. The final part of approx. 200 metres was particularly diffcult to build, because  the path had to be raised above the flood level of the river Lee there. Now these works are almost finished and I expect the official opening of the complete way soon.

After the successful restoration of the rail tracks between Tralee and Blennerville the Tralee & Dingle Railway had been one of the major attractions of Tralee for years. Unfortunately it has now been out of service since the end of the 2006 season. So I wondered whether we could hope for the steam train to be back on track in 2008.
[»]

The new year will bring some interesting projects to Tralee which will without doubt help to keep the tourists coming. One of those developments is the brand new “River Lee Nature Walk and Cycle Way”. The first 1.5km-section of this way will connect O’Hara Bridge just next to the aquadome at Ballyard with the also new Castlemorris Park in Ballymullen and is planned to cost almost 600,000€. Once phase 2 of the project is completed you will be able to walk or cycle even further, for the way will then take you as far as Ballyseedy Wood some kilometres east of the town. [»]

Although I do agree with the road safety experts that the biggest risk factor for traffic accidents is usually the guy sitting in front of the steering wheel I am also quite sure that sometimes the road planning (and building) people too have to take their share of the responsibility when disaster strikes. [»]