When you boil it down the first section of the greenway from Cork to Halfway offers a major reason not to proceed with this project. This section has three significant architectural features The Chetwynd Viaduct, The Gogginshill tunnel (828 meters long) and the halfway Viaduct. These features require a very extensive capital investment in order to make them fit for use. Given the limited budget available to the Cork CoCo they will argue that they will get a better bang for their buck on other greenways.
There is an alternative!!
If the CoCo bring the cycle path from the City to the Chetwyn Viaduct and then bring the path down past the Viaduct Inn and run the cycle path beside the N71 (Main Cork to Bandon road) out to Halfway ie don't cross the Viaduct. There is a lot of space along this road and it should be cost effective to do. I know we would all love to cycle/walk across the Chetwynd Viaduct and through the Gogginshill Tunnel however lets take small steps. Once we get to Halfway this opens up the next stage of the west Cork Greenway project to Inishannon - Bandon - Clonakility. Once we have established the economic and social benefit of the route we can go back and add the more difficult and expensive features to make this one of the most unique greenways in Europe.
When you meet a politician on the door step over the next two months ask them what their plans are for the west Cork Greenway? If they genuinely believed in this project then there are solutions. It would be a great amenity for the people of west cork and could become a significant tourist feature.
Just in case you need a question to ask those election canvassers!