Deansgrange Road in Dublin is to be made one-way for 6 months from Monday to aid with faster construction of the planned cycle route.
The latest plan is to keep the road two-way for motorists and install a two-way cycle track by removing some parking, as agreed by councillors last March.
Making the road one-way will only be temporary for 6 months for construction works which is expected to take a total of 8 months.
Today, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council said: “From Monday the 18th of September there will be no access to Deansgrange Road northbound (towards Blackrock). A diversion route will be in place.”
In an FAQ document, the council said: “The provision of the cycle facility requires a new concrete kerb at the edge of the car lanes. This will require a trench to be dug along Deansgrange Road and the kerb poured into the trench. The trench needs to be wider than the kerb to facilitate the machine access and extra space is required to allow safe space for workers. This leaves insufficient space to maintain two way traffic (even if the parking is removed).”
On the question of why a stop / go system wasn’t used, the council said: “The use of stop/go set up would result in more significant congestion in this area. For example, if the section of Deansgrange Road was done in 100m sections using stop/go this system this would usually take 3-5mins between ‘go’ cycles. The junction at Deansgrange Road typically cycles every 2 mins. This means that there would be two changes of the lights at the junction before you get a ‘go’ at the stop/go system.”
The council added: “This would quickly backlog traffic in both directions on Deansgrange Road. The use of stop/go would also not resolve the issue around having to keep the trench for the kerb open until the kerb is poured. The use of stop/go.”
From photo, are we going to have to cycle European style, ‘ on the right’.