Ten years ago this week, land and home owners around Galway city received long-awaited correspondence in the post.
After a public consultation process, the "emerging preferred corridor" for a new road through the city had been chosen.
The letters informed those whose properties or holdings would be directly impacted.
Planners had worked to ensure the proposed route would be bulletproof.
It would not impact on habitats protected under EU law.
The construction would involve the acquisition and demolition of a relatively small number of homes.
The completed road would ease the congestion that dogged Galway and ease traffic flows across the city.
The N6 Galway City Ring Road project was submitted to An Bord Pleanála in 2018, considered in detail at a protracted oral hearing during the pandemic, and adjudicated on, in late 2021.
The road was approved, subject to a number of conditions, only for the planning board to subsequently concede that it had failed to consider the implications of the State's Climate Action Plan.
That does not mean the impact of the road on Ireland's climate obligations was not investigated. It was, in some detail.
However, the board did not refer in deliberations to the latest Climate Action Plan, which had been published just days before it made the decision to sanction the development.
As a result, the permission was quashed and, in early 2023, the project returned to the desks of planners in Galway, pending the submission of updated environmental data and other requested information.
On the face of it, this isn't rocket science.
A small city expands and develops. It attracts businesses and people. They need to travel in and out and across the city, for work and recreation. The existing infrastructure is not fit for those purposes. Something's got to give.
The response from Galway city and county councils would involve the construction of a dual carriageway from the end of the M6 motorway to the existing N59, before the route continues on a single lane to west of the village of Bearna.
With existing traffic volumes through the city reduced by the new infrastructure, a reimagined public transport system would be rolled out. It would have more frequent buses, updated routes and be more user friendly.
Galway could breathe again and regain some of the time that has been lost to endless tailbacks, for more than 20 years.
For commuters, school children, businesses, pedestrians, cyclists and local residents, this sounds positively utopian.
The prospect of a modern, connected, free-flowing city, designed in a way that's cognisant of its heritage and the appeal it has had for centuries.
It sounds very promising but is it the best way to proceed?
For much of the period from January 2023 until recent weeks, planners at Galway city and county councils worked to update the application.
New surveys in relation to the ecology along the selected route were carried out. Fresh data was gathered, analysed and cross-checked. And the final submission set out to show how the project would comply with the latest Climate Action Plan.
County councillors were told this week that the completion of the request for further information marked a "significant step forward in the planning process that is essential to the future of transport infrastructure in Galway".
The recent submission sets out the intended "key benefits" of the N6-GCRR, including reduced journey times, air quality improvements, safer urban streets along with economic, sustainable growth of the city.
An Bord Pleanála has not indicated when it is likely to complete its adjudication and issue a decision.
It is expected that the material gathered by the local authorities will be subject to a public consultation process in the coming months but it's not yet clear if a second oral hearing would be deemed necessary.
Planners argue that inspectors previously saw fit to recommend approval, having considered issues around Compulsory Purchase Orders, the selected route and other matters.
They are hopeful, on that basis, the same conclusions will be reached. If that were to be the case, the final call rests on how the climate related argument stacks up.
The local authorities remain fully committed to the plan and say work would begin on construction, as soon as inevitable objections were dealt with. Should the plan withstand court challenges and get the ultimate green-light, a tentative start date of 2027 is now mooted, with work taking around 36 months to complete.
The councils also point to the ongoing efforts they're making to re-allocate road space around Galway, to encourage active travel and more sustainable transport options.
The ring road was put forward as an important component to ensuring such plans can be implemented in the urban centre.
It would enhance other schemes, like a cross-city link on the Dublin road; the planned - but delayed - Bus Connects route improvements and several local initiatives on the populated eastern and western suburbs.
However, others argue that the construction of an 18km ring road will simply increase the volume of vehicles, raise carbon emissions and is the worst way to go about tackling traffic in a sustainable manner.
Instead, they contend, give people the option of frequent bus and rail travel, so the existing road infrastructure can be freed of thousands of cars, making short trips around and about the city.
In turn, the present network can be adapted to cater for traffic volumes and we save the millions of euro that the ring road would cost.
The Galway Branch of An Taisce says it's very difficult to see how the proposed route would align with emission and fuel reduction targets.
The group has long argued that the moment has passed for the ring road and that other solutions need to be examined.
Work on city's bus network is progressing, slowly
The argument for a rail-based solution was boosted last autumn when a feasibility study from the National Transport Authority found "there could, under the right conditions" be a case for developing a light rail system in Galway.
The report suggested a line from the west to the east side of the city could command support and result in the transport of millions of people each year.
Proponents of the so-called 'Gluas' option favour a Very Light Rail (VLR) type system, which they say would be easy to install, rapidly operational and attractive to passengers.
However, the feasibility study was high on hypothesis and given the city's track record in delivering transport changes in a timely fashion, who knows how long it would actually take to deliver VLR.
Similarly, with the volume of vehicles crossing the city from all approaches at present, how much of a dent in the overall pattern would an urban rail line make?
As we reach the tenth anniversary of the N6 Galway City Ring Road route being announced, the ultimate conclusion to this process - and what that will entail - is still unclear.
In the absence of clarity, frustration has given way to resignation.
For now, everyday life remains constrained by what should be a long-solved problem.
Parents surrender hours ferrying children to sports and other activities; rural dwellers are late for medical appointments; businesses have increased transport costs; hundreds of vehicles idle in tailbacks, pumping emissions into the atmosphere.
Simple tasks are complicated. Basic things like walking and cycling are unsafe on many travel arteries and scheduled buses sometimes do not show up at all.
Despite the ongoing divergence of views on how best to resolve the above, there’s one point of agreement.
Ten years on, in the year 2025, it should all be so different.
