Royal Canal Greenway to open today between Docklands and North Strand Road

A new cycling and walking link between North Strand Road and the Dublin Docklands is to be open to members of the public by 10am this morning (Friday). The official launch is due earlier but will have restricted numbers of people allowed to attend due to COVID-19.

The link — which is officially Phase 2 of the Royal Canal greenway in Dublin City — is about 720 metres long. It includes seprate paths for walking and cycling for most of the route before the paths merge into a ramp and bridge over a railway track and up onto North Strand Road. There is also a shared crossing point where the route meets the existing canals route in the Docklands.

IMAGE: Map showing existing and planned cycle routes in the wider area. New link is Royal Canal Phase 2 shown in purple.

UPDATE: The official opening has now happened — with Lord Mayor Hazel Chu cutting the ribbon flanked by transport minister and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, and finance minister and local TD Paschal Donohoe:

.@hazechu jokes: "Which Minister am I going to take out next?" @Paschald: "Many have tried!" pic.twitter.com/x3olpabbez

— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) July 31, 2020

The route will eventually be part of a continuous Royal Canal Greenway between Dublin and Lonford. As this website reported recently, over 100km of the greenway route is already opened. The main greenway route currently runs between Maynooth and Lonford, with a link at Mullingar to the ‘Old Rail Trail’ to Athlone.

West of Athlone the route was supposed to continue from Athlone to Galway but has run into issues with landowners objecting to the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs). In the east, between Maynooth and the end of the canal in the Docklands the route has also suffered delays due to host of reasons.

Locally, the new link opening today will connect North Strand Road — which is the second busiest commuter road for cycling in the city — more directly with the Docklands and onto the Liffey and existing Grand Canal Cycleway.

The new route will give new views of the city’s docklands area which to date were not usually seen by many people as the project involved cleaning up a overrun section of canal.

On both ends the project includes new shared road crossings. The canal from North Strand to Dorset Street / Drumcondra (Royal Canal Phase 3) is passable but not yet upgraded and there is no crossing near the canal at Dorset Street.

MAIN IMAGE: Thanks to Rudi G. He also posted this short clip to YouTube:

Also a sneak peak at ground level from the North Strand Road side:

Spoiler, this is an awesome piece of infrastructure pic.twitter.com/J1KPzjEYTw

— Phil (@rothairisbeoir) July 23, 2020

Images of work being finished off last week: 

View from the Docklands:

From the North Strand Road end:

More from the Docklands end: