Cork City's Marina Promenade reopens after multimillion euro revamp
Marina Picture: From Has The Approx To Reopened Upgraded 2km, For Runs Now Centre River Village Larry Blackrock Beside Cummins The Lee Which Road Promenade Park
The famous Marina riverside amenity in Cork City has reopened to the public after a multi-million revamp – providing a new fully pedestrianised route to walk off the Christmas dinner.
The city council announced on Thursday that the popular Marina Promenade is now fully open along its extended and revamped 1.8km length from Centre Park Road to Blackrock Village.
Funded by the National Transport Authority, the project involved the construction of a new six-metre wide pedestrian and cycle corridor to replace the existing crumbling road, as well as the construction of new plazas, riverside balconies, new seating areas, and the installation of environmentally sensitive public and feature lighting.
It includes new pedestrian and cycle access points to the adjacent Marina Park, where work is ongoing on phase two of its major redevelopment, including the Atlantic Pond, and on the Cork City to Passage West greenway.
The promenade project included the protection and retention of the iconic formal tree planting along the route and the restoration of old stone walls.
Engineers also ensured the protection and enhancement of the natural heritage, green space and biodiversity of the area, which included the provision of swales – shallow, broad and vegetated channels designed to store or convey runoff – and related planting.
New access roads serving the rowing clubs, SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh and the Atlantic Pond area, were also built.
The project was borne out of a pilot project which saw the area pedestrianised on weekends only for several months in 2019 as part of a Healthy Cities initiative.
That was extended to full pedestrianisation for the summer of 2020, which was in turn extended to that December.
But such was the success of the initiative, the area was permanently pedestrianised as part of the city’s wider response to the covid pandemic before the full revamp of the area was approved in 2021.
Contractors Ward and Burke will continue to work on phase two of the adjoining Marina Park project into 2025, with a number of areas within the park remaining closed to the public during the Christmas period, including Holland Park, the new elevated tree walkway, Barrington’s Folly, the Atlantic Pond area itself, and the park access at Monahan Road.
The Marina, originally called the Navigation Wall, was completed in 1761 as a dock for ships.
But in the early 1820s, the Cork Harbour Commissioners deposited the silt from upriver dredging operations behind the Navigation Wall, to create an area of reclaimed land, which went on to become a popular walking area, which was planted in the 1850s, to create the tree-lined walkway people know today.
It is also hoped that the new promenade will form a key link in wider plans to develop the Lee to Sea greenway – a massive greenway which would link Ballincollig to Cork's lower harbour.
An official opening of the Marina Promenade will take place in the new year.