Dublin City Council plans to change the dreaded roundabout between the Point Village and Dublin Port into a signalised junction, but it will take until phase 2 of the project to provide for cycling on East Wall Road.
This means that even after 16 or more years of construction along the Point Village frontage on East Wall Road that there will still be no cycling provision northbound on the road. The current layout beside Point Village includes 3-4 traffic lanes and a non-carriageway width of around 11-16+ metres in space on the Point side of the road, but it is not all public land.
A spokesperson for the council said: “Dublin City Council intend to progress the delivery of the Point Junction Improvement works in two phases. Phase 1 includes the signalisation of the junction to provide safe pedestrian and cycling crossing facilities.”
“Phase 2 will involve the delivery of segregated cycling facilities on East Wall Road once land acquisition issues have been resolved. This phase will include an upgrade for cyclists to the Phase 1 pedestrian crossing on North Wall Quay.”
The council added: “In advance of this, Dublin City Council hopes to implement a cycling scheme from Alfie Byrne Road to East Road in the near future.”
Previous plan
A previous plan for the roundabout and road — which contain slip roads and road widening — was deferred by councillors in 2016 because the design was not safe enough for walking and cycling.
At the time in 2016, the then director of traffic at Dublin City Council, Declan Wallace, told councillors: “It’s gone from being a very hostile environment to being a huge improvement. It’s very easy to come along and say ‘we need to tweak this and tweak that’. People have spent months on this trying to tweak it and trying to find the best possible answer. And it’s a bit difficult for them each time it comes forward to say ‘you need to do more’.”
The revised plans do not include cycling- and pedestrian-unfriendly designs such as a left-hand slip turn, three-stage staggered pedestrian crossings, a narrow island which would be shared between people walking and cycling, and some of the planned shared footpath space.
But Phase 1 of the new plans also excludes a pedestrian crossing from one of the four arms of the junction.
Public consultation on Phase 1 has started and can be found at consultation.dublincity.ie. It’s listed as closing on December 23, 2022.
The council said that “The scheme is a traffic calming measure and is proposed to be implemented under Section 38 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 in the interest and convenience of road users.”
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