— Interim Southside plan includes bicycles sharing with buses between O’Connell Street and Wood Quay.
Work on the a section of the south quays Interim Liffey Cycle Route will start soon in the city centre, Dublin City Council has said.
The council said that work on some sections of the quick-build interim scheme will surpass a year from when work started on the interim route — this is despite the full lenght of the interim route being less than 3km in length.
The council said that interim schemes on the Liffey Cycle Route and the Fitzwilliam Cycle Route is to to “facilitate immediate safety improvements for cyclists” and “to compensate for delays in the delivery of the main schemes”.
The restart of works on the project was confirmed in a report to councillors dated January 22 and signed by Brendan O’Brien, the city’s executive manager for traffic and John W Flanagan, acting assistant chief executive and city engineer.
The report said: “Work has commenced at Bridge Street/Merchants Quay junction. Works at St John’s Road West/Victoria Quay junction will commence shortly. This will facilitate the rollout of the scheme from Grattan Bridge [aka Capel Street Bridge] to Frank Sherwin Bridge.”
Work on the eastern section between O’Connell Bridge and the Docklands is only due to take place in April of this year, a year after construction work started on the route. That start date in April 2020 was it self a delayed starting date. The report said: “The designs from O’Connell Bridge to Matt Talbot Memorial Bridge, for both the North and South Quays are being finalised. However, Covid has affected progress and works over this section is anticipated to take place in April.”
The report added: “For the full permanent scheme, Dublin City Council has appointed services providers to provide the baseline archaeology, architectural heritage and conservation reports. The archaeology report has been finalised, and Dublin City Council has received a draft of the other report. This is under review by the relevant DCC Department. The drafting of the public realm and opportunities study will to resume in February 2021.”