Kerry County Council has defended the escalating costs of the proposed South Kerry Greenway.
Senior Engineer Tom Sheehy was speaking after it was revealed the estimated costs increased from €4.7m to over €16m during 2014 and 2015, while last November’s estimate was over €20m.
Kerry County Council received funding in 2014, when the estimated cost was €4.7m.
The local authority now says it may have been naïve to base the proposed greenway on the existing Great Western Greenway, which has a permissive access agreement with landowners, where landowners maintain ownership of the land.
Mr Sheehy says the original estimate didn’t include land acquisition costs.
However, he says the council was breaking new ground in many aspects of the project and new greenway standards were published in 2014.
Mr Sheehy says the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport complimented the council on its attempts to keep costs down.
