Virtual Image Of "New" O'Connell St. And Info On Plans

Karmafaerie

Sorry about the pic quality. I couldn't find it online, so I just scanned it from the paper.

CITY CENTRE €50m FACELIFT ON WAY By CLODAGH O'LEARY
AN ambitious €50m plan to transform the city centre was unveiled by Limerick City Council yesterday. The plan combines the pedestrianisation of O'Connell Street between William Street and Roches Street with the introduction of an Inner City Orbital Route, in a bid to make the city centre comparable with Europe's top cities.
The proposed Orbital Route around the city centre will create a mainly one-way, two lane, clockwise traffic system in three sections.The route will encircle the city centre, beginning at Mallow Street, around to Henry Street, Arthur's Quay, Charlotte's Quay onto Clare Street, Cathedral Place onto Sexton Street, Parnell Street and back on to Mallow Street.
Nick de Jong of Nicholas de Jong Associates, responsible for the design of the transformed city centre, told City Councillors that it is planned to convert Charlotte Quay into a one-way system, while Clare Street on to the Dublin Road will remain a two-way. There will be enhanced pedestrian access around the St John's Square area into the city and it is envisaged that there will be a new Link Road between Mulgrave Street and Sexton Street.
The Council hope to raise the huge amount needed for this project from the coffers of the National Development Plan's €300m Gateways Innovation Fund. Limerick city is one of the nine National Spatial Strategy Gateway Centres pinpointed in the NDP for regional investment. City Manager Tom Mackey said the launch of the "highly achievable" plan was in good timing.
"We plan to lift Limerick's position so that it can compete with other cities in Ireland, so that Limerick has a city centre adequate to compare with any city in Europe," City Manager told City Councillors.
"We want to create a vibrant city centre, and give priority to the people who live there, work there and shop there rather than giving priority to traffic."
"There will be a lot of consultation with the public, and we will enter into more detailed consultation with the gardai, taxis and Bus Eireann as well as traders. So there is a way to go on this," Mr Mackey told Councillors.
Director of Transportation and Infrastructure Pat Dromey added: "The one-way orbital routes in city centres are considered a very efficient and safe way of moving traffic with up to 50 per cent less turning at junctions and a decreased risk of collision."
The plan will officially go for public consultation in mid-March, as part of the Part 8 process. A private information seminar for City Councillors will be held in the next two weeks.
Mayor Leddin commented:"By investing millions of euro in the city we are matching the confidence of investors in our city who have invested huge amounts of money already here."

ninty9er

haha....I'll believe it when I see it

krudler

yeah that makes sense,pedestrianise the biggest street in town that carries a load of the cities traffic,cant wait to see the dock road on friday nights now...

Karmafaerie

ninty9er wrote:

haha....I'll believe it when I see it

I can understand the scepticism, but this is happening.
With Bedford Row and Thomas Street almost complete, all that's left is the pedestrianisation of Little Cathrine Street, Foxes Bowe and Limerick Lane, before this starts.
Expect O'Connell Street to be a crater by October!

krudler wrote:

yeah that makes sense,pedestrianise the biggest street in town that carries a load of the cities traffic,cant wait to see the dock road on friday nights now...

So you prefer having a National Highway going through the middle of the city?
O'Connell Street desperately needs pedestrianisation, and it's been over ten years since this plan was announced.
The traffic in Limerick is a disgrace, and this will not only ease that, but make Limerick a much more pedestrian/shopper friendly city.

In a couple of year Limerick will be completely bypassed anyway.

ellenmelon

Karmafaerie wrote:

In a couple of year Limerick will be completely bypassed anyway.

bypasses can be a bit of a double edged sword in my opinion...on the positive it reduces traffic within a city so its residents can move around a bit more freely..but might it also decrease the amount of visitors visiting the city? limerick struggles a wee bit as it is.
will be interesting to see what happens anyway.
about time its pedestrianised..its a bit of a shambles in there!
(have to say, im not holding my breath as to when it will be completed..but im hoping it will be done in about 3.5 years when im most likely to be back that way..)

ricey

Looks class.

Limerick Dude

Needed badly, will creat a really good atmosphere in the city centre.

billy the squid

Is every CGI image of a development in Limerick going to include munster flags from now on?

Karmafaerie

billy the squid wrote:

Is every CGI image of a development in Limerick going to include munster flags from now on?

Short answer. Yes.
The bandwagon's well and truly hitched, and LCC is gonna squeeze it for all it's worth!

sioda

This is a great plan Limerick is going to look fantastic in a few years

1huge1

^^ I think the city centre is already looking very impressive with the exception of william street

Karmafaerie

1huge1 wrote:

^^ I think the city centre is already looking very impressive with the exception of william street

Well William St. is next on the agenda.
Work is due to start there before O'Connell St. is even finished!

sioda

William street upper thomas street all of catherine street and BTs and penneys need facelifts

dv

Willy St. is certainly the biggest mank-athon in the city and hopefully they'll get to work on it before too long. Of course it sure is awful cramped with small footpaths, a taxi rank, loads of buses and on-street parking.

Work on upper Thomas St. and Lower Catherine St. is due to start around July/August, if I'm not mistaken.

Karmafaerie

dv wrote:

Willy St. is certainly the biggest mank-athon in the city and hopefully they'll get to work on it before too long. Of course it sure is awful cramped with small footpaths, a taxi rank, loads of buses and on-street parking.

Work on upper Thomas St. and Lower Catherine St. is due to start around July/August, if I'm not mistaken.

Well every single thing you mentioned is part of the plan to revamp William St.!

They're widening the footpaths, getting rid of the on-street parking, with the exception of two loading areas and the bus rank, setting new on street furniture and decorations, and planting a load of trees.
Should look a damn site better when finished.

There is however one major downside to all of this pedestrianisation that nobody has mentioned yet.
The whole place is gonna be covered with goppets, and muppets on skateboards!;)

dv

Can't help but wonder where all the buses are gonna go if they actually do remove the bus stops on both William and O'Connell St...

I still think it would be a good idea to allow public transport on an otherwise pedestrianised O'Connell St.

1huge1

ya I agree dv
I'd say the buses will end up on henry street though that will become very traffic ridden, maybe beside authers quay

Karmafaerie

Colbert Station is undergoing a makeover.
A proper bus terminal is being built next to the train station, so the station rather than O'Connell, William, and Henry St, will become the main bus hub.

dv

Where did you here that? I read alot about the redevlopment of the bus station but never saw anything about it becoming the hub for city services.

dv

Just found a very interesting document here:

http://www.limerickcity.ie/services/planning/CityCenterProjects/Limerick%20City%20Public%20Realm%

Some of the info is a bit out of date, but there's a fair bit I'd never heard/seen before aswell...

source

some very interesting ideas there, can't wait to see the river walk along the quays completed, it looks fantastic. especially the stone wall walkway along the castle.

Karmafaerie

foinse wrote:

some very interesting ideas there, can't wait to see the river walk along the quays completed, it looks fantastic. especially the stone wall walkway along the castle.

Well, lets hold off on that a while.
Admittedly it might be a good idea, but we are talking about defacing the walls of a castle that have stood there for 800 years!!!
Lets see if they deseign it to be a stand alone walkway, just off the castle, or not.
I'd fight tooth and nail if they decided to try and deface the castle and build it off the wall itself!:mad:

I agree though. Great post DV. Some great concepts and ideas there.
Some of the new parks, and improvements to the bridges look really good.

As for the bus station, I'll take a look and see if can find the article online.
It was mentioned as part of the proposed new traffic system by some councilor in an interview.

source

from the picture it looks like it is attached to the ground under the castle.....as opposed to the castle wall proper.... tbh i don't think any more damage could be done to the castle, that monstrosity at the front is ridiculous, at least this would be in keeping with the castle.

Limerick Dude

dv wrote:

Just found a very interesting document here:

http://www.limerickcity.ie/services/planning/CityCenterProjects/Limerick%20City%20Public%20Realm%

Some of the info is a bit out of date, but there's a fair bit I'd never heard/seen before aswell...

There is some very interesting stuff in there. The new pedestrain footbridge looks cool and the lighting effects they will put on all the bridges!

1huge1

I dont like the thought of moving the citty commuter buses to colbert from O Connell, Im not being lazy or anything but when your in the city centre its handy to get a bus out to the cresent because you only have to walk to brown thomas or somewere but having to walk up to colbert will be a nuisence I know its not a long distance but it will still be a pain I would rather not have to go thorugh each time. I hope your wrong about that

source

well they're staying on william street, so i'd say that they will keep the o'connell st stop but move it out of the pedestrian zone

Karmafaerie

foinse wrote:

from the picture it looks like it is attached to the ground under the castle.....as opposed to the castle wall proper.... tbh i don't think any more damage could be done to the castle, that monstrosity at the front is ridiculous, at least this would be in keeping with the castle.

The original "unofficial" plan was to have it abutting off the castle wall, but there's been strong opposition, so it's being reconsidered.
Personally I think the walkway would be a great addition, but only as long as it's done to match in with the wall, without damaging it further.

P.S: Foinze - I hate that glass contraption as much as the next person, but they really didn't have a choice.
When they knocked all the houses that were in there, the original plan was to rebuild the wall, but when preparing to do so, they found the remains of some houses under the foundations, that predated the castle itself!
Seeing as they couldn't damage the protected buildings, they had to develop something without a foundation, hence the floating building we all know and loathe!
It may be ugly, but it's better than a hole in the wall, and at least it serves a purpose!


As for the buses, the plan I heard was to still have them stopping at the usual places (ie: William St, O'Connell St, and Henry St), but for them to be there for less time.
More of a stop n' drop kinda thing, to keep the roads clear.
Then again, this was only one councilor talking, so it may not be even remotely accurate!;)

sioda

Karmafaerie: its nice to hear the real reason for the castle structure being mentioned as it gets a lot of stick but serves a vital purpose.

I am really looking forward to the new bus depot think it will bring easier access to the city and add to the transport links.

Gotta agree about the walkway though unless its an independent structure away from the castle I wold fight against it myself

Limerick Dude

Karmafaerie wrote:

Well, lets hold off on that a while.
Admittedly it might be a good idea, but we are talking about defacing the walls of a castle that have stood there for 800 years!!!
Lets see if they deseign it to be a stand alone walkway, just off the castle, or not.
I'd fight tooth and nail if they decided to try and deface the castle and build it off the wall itself!:mad:

I agree though. Great post DV. Some great concepts and ideas there.
Some of the new parks, and improvements to the bridges look really good.

As for the bus station, I'll take a look and see if can find the article online.
It was mentioned as part of the proposed new traffic system by some councilor in an interview.

Karma, have you not seen the picture of the stone walkway along the castke wall, it blends in really well with the caste and its not 'defacing' it as you put it, it looks really good.

Goofy

It sounds like there will still be bus stops around the city centre, but they will be stop and drop, and the main stops will be at the train station.
Great news if it is true. It will mean an end to the lines of empty busses on william street, o'connell street and maybe henry street when the bus drivers change over/ go on a break.

vkid

Goofy wrote:

It sounds like there will still be bus stops around the city centre, but they will be stop and drop, and the main stops will be at the train station.
Great news if it is true. It will mean an end to the lines of empty busses on william street, o'connell street and maybe henry street when the bus drivers change over/ go on a break.

I agree. Think its pretty crap having everyone hanging out for buses on main shopping streets. If the station upgrade goes ahead I would much prefer that to be the location of the city buses. Stop and drop points great but prefer to get rid of people hanging out for buses. (especially on William St - horrible to have to walk through that "bus stop")