DART+ (DART Expansion)

Jack Noble

1huge1 wrote: »

How does everyone think Varadkar did overall? Not an easy job in the current environment.

He was growing into the role after a shaky start.

His belated conversion to rail-based transport and Dart Underground was welcome -- let's hope a Pascal Donohoe gets on the same track quickly.

But Pascal's problems are child's play compared to what Leo will face in Angola. Best of luck to him there.

1huge1

Jack Noble wrote: »

He was growing into the role after a shaky start.

His belated conversion to rail-based transport and Dart Underground was welcome -- let's hope a Pascal Donohoe gets on the same track quickly.

But Pascal's problems are child's play compared to what Leo will face in Angola. Best of luck to him there.

I agree, he did seem to be keen in keeping DU alive anyway.

The Leap card was released finally, as the its functionality and how much can be attributed to him on the other hand I do not know.

Real time displays across the network.

Then again problems with Irish Rail and Dublin Bus unions. Never easy to go up against them. I did feel sorry for him for having to put up with Aer Lingus's union problems however.

Newlands cross underway.

No problem in saying that the Western Corridor (in its current form at least) was a complete white elephant.

BonkeyDonker

Pascal is going to solve it all by running DU under croke park, so all the culchies* up for Garth Brook can just get off there.



*I was born in Portlaoise, and spent the first 20 odd years of my life living in the country.

D.L.R.

1huge1 wrote: »

How does everyone think Varadkar did overall? Not an easy job in the current environment.

Very satisfied. He rebalanced things towards Dublin which was badly needed, especially after that numpty Noel Dempsey.

Hopefully Pascal will get Dart Underground green-lit, that's top of the list for me.

murphaph

The minister doesn't greenlight a multi billion euro project on his own. That'll be cabinet after the minister suggests it.

tharlear

He rebalanced things towards Dublin

is this not baiting

Cinephille1888

Well all rumours suggested Leo was due to push DU and BRT plans if strong enough for 2015 infrastructure funds...

I also noticed in the 6 new "focused areas" of the coalition that there is

"quote" €6 billion from the Irish Strategic Investment Fund for investment in enterprise and infrastructure "<quote"

via the journal.ie

Some of this could be jump-start money for any key projects that will help over-all transport infrastructure.




Good luck to Pascal anyway, he has only a few short months to read the various plans, the new business case that was recently ordered, and the public consultation process of BRT before the budget submissions.

A busy summer recess. That's if Garth doesn't take all his time...


(Best case scenario he continues current Cycle/green way plans, improved QBCs, more private coverage of rural areas that BE can't reach, and better relations with CIE/DAA/Aer Lingus et al. That doesn't call for a budget increase to put the fear of god in anyone :P)

Grandeeod

Cabinet reshuffles are usually bad for transport projects.

Zebra3

tharlear wrote: »

is this not baiting

No.

That username is already in use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSsMO9dzrnI

D.L.R.

alias no.9 wrote: »

Fantastic Map* of existing and proposed rail, tram, metro and brt lines in Dublin, shamelessly borrowed from here

*doesn't work on phones

Sorry to go OT, but is the Sandyford-DL line just a fantasy project, or is there an actual study?

LXFlyer

Fantasy like quite a few other lines on that map.

Sam Russell

Is DU likely to be pushed by the new minister, or is it still sometime never?

Sam Russell

BBC2 are showing: The 15 billion Railway on Wednesday 15th Jul at 9.00pm.

Urban Heart Surgery

Not currently available on BBC iPlayer
Episode 1 of 3

Duration: 1 hour
This series follows a team of more than 10,000 engineers and construction workers as they race to build a brand new railway under London - Crossrail - London's new Underground. Costing fifteen billion pounds, it's the biggest engineering project in Europe and a huge challenge to pull off. As they burrow the forty-two kilometres of tunnels, engineers must battle to make sure that listed buildings don't crack, London Underground trains keep running, roads don't shut and the City stays in business. Crucially, they must drive one of their gigantic 1,000-tonne tunnel boring machines through a tiny gap in the congested underbelly of Tottenham Court Road station without the passengers on the tube platforms below knowing they are there.

Might give an idea of how DU could be built. Also, might give an idea of costs.

alias no.9

You just don't know what you're going to find

1huge1

Sam Russell wrote: »

BBC2 are showing: The 15 billion Railway on Wednesday 15th Jul at 9.00pm.

Urban Heart Surgery

Not currently available on BBC iPlayer
Episode 1 of 3

Duration: 1 hour
This series follows a team of more than 10,000 engineers and construction workers as they race to build a brand new railway under London - Crossrail - London's new Underground. Costing fifteen billion pounds, it's the biggest engineering project in Europe and a huge challenge to pull off. As they burrow the forty-two kilometres of tunnels, engineers must battle to make sure that listed buildings don't crack, London Underground trains keep running, roads don't shut and the City stays in business. Crucially, they must drive one of their gigantic 1,000-tonne tunnel boring machines through a tiny gap in the congested underbelly of Tottenham Court Road station without the passengers on the tube platforms below knowing they are there.

Might give an idea of how DU could be built. Also, might give an idea of costs.

It was a pretty good documentary, I never cease to be amazed of the magnitude of crossrail, such an impressive project that will benefit London for many decades to come.

The price tag of £18bn is astonishing beside the €2bn price tag of DU.

alias no.9 wrote: »

You just don't know what you're going to find

You wouldn't find any bones in St Stephens Green

murphaph

One look at that documentary and you'll understand why a park in a central location would be preferred over a small space surrounded on all sides by historic buildings. The Crossrail engineers have little choice where they tunnel as there are already many many tunnels under London and for Crossrail to be any use it must interchange with a host of the existing stations.

1huge1

murphaph wrote: »

One look at that documentary and you'll understand why a park in a central location would be preferred over a small space surrounded on all sides by historic buildings. The Crossrail engineers have little choice where they tunnel as there are already many many tunnels under London and for Crossrail to be any use it must interchange with a host of the existing stations.

Exactly, the Tottenham Court road tube station in particular, having to build the new Crossrail tunnel with only a few cm between the tunnel above and the tunnel below.

alias no.9

1huge1 wrote: »

You wouldn't find any bones in St Stephens Green

Hoggen Green (College Green) was part of viking Dublin, Stephen's Green was incorporated into the city much later.

Jack Noble

alias no.9 wrote: »

Hoggen Green (College Green) was part of viking Dublin, Stephen's Green was incorporated into the city much later.

One skeleton found when you scratch the surface on a small part of College Green.

Can you imagine what they would find if they dug a bloody great hole for a massive underground interchange station on an area that has been settled and occupied since the Middle Ages?

Herr S Wolf please take note!

1huge1

I'm not living in Dublin so I don't know, has construction started again on the Luas at Trinity College or are they still excavating?

TheBandicoot

There is lots of activity and excavating along the city centre route, but it is utilities work. The actual Luas construction contract hasn't been awarded yet and the building of rails/stations etc won't start until next year.

LXFlyer

Utilities works will continue until spring next year.

D.L.R.

Jack Noble wrote: »

One skeleton found when you scratch the surface on a small part of College Green.

Can you imagine what they would find if they dug a bloody great hole for a massive underground interchange station on an area that has been settled and occupied since the Middle Ages?

Dart Underground will be going directly under the oldest parts of Medieval Dublin (Dublin Castle, Christchurch). Expect very significant finds here.

Hopefully this will be catered for in a similar manner to Crossrail, where archaeologists have been granted the time and space to do some very important work.

Oasis_Dublin

Hopefully they save some more of any discoveries made at Christ Church, rather than just cementing over them ala Wood Quay.

D.L.R.

Oasis_Dublin wrote: »

Hopefully they save some more of any discoveries made at Christ Church, rather than just cementing over them ala Wood Quay.

Agreed, that was disgusting - bare faced vandalism of our heritage and history.

D Trent

D.L.R. wrote: »

Agreed, that was disgusting - bare faced vandalism of our heritage and history.

Ah but we got a lovely lovely building in its place.
Architecture at. Its.

Finest

Jack Noble

D.L.R. wrote: »

Dart Underground will be going directly under the oldest parts of Medieval Dublin (Dublin Castle, Christchurch). Expect very significant finds here.

Hopefully this will be catered for in a similar manner to Crossrail, where archaeologists have been granted the time and space to do some very important work.

There's a big difference between tunnelling 20-plus metres under the surface and digging a big hole for a station box.

Much of the station for Christ Church, including the, entrance, ticket hall and access elevators and lifts, is under the plaza at the Civic Offices facing Winetavern Street.

Archeology on that site was done 40 years ago for the Civic Offices.

D.L.R.

Jack Noble wrote: »

There's a big difference between tunnelling 20-plus metres under the surface and digging a big hole for a station box.

Much of the station for Christ Church, including the, entrance, ticket hall and access elevators and lifts, is under the plaza at the Civic Offices facing Winetavern Street.

Archeology on that site was done 40 years ago for the Civic Offices.

Fair points. I'd still expect plenty of intersting stuff to come out of the ground between the Green excavation and the SSG-Christchurch tunnel section though.

Also regarding college green, lets remember there are plenty of cities around Europe which have excavated stations in their historic core, so its not unprecedented. Just expensive and slow.

Jack Noble

D.L.R. wrote: »

Fair points. I'd still expect plenty of intersting stuff to come out of the ground between the Green excavation and the SSG-Christchurch tunnel section though.

I can't see those TBMs leaving much in the way for the archeologists to get their hands on, can you?

Also regarding college green, lets remember there are plenty of cities around Europe which have excavated stations in their historic core, so its not unprecedented. Just expensive and slow.

Most decades ago - given the restraints imposed today by EU and national environment and heritage protection laws and economic realities, I believe excavating the historic cores of cities would be avoided at all costs.

On the Crossrail documentary on BBC2 this week, I found it absolutely fascinating. It really is a triumph of not just engineering, but modern science and technology. The 'eye of the needle' tunneling at TCR was an incredible feat.

The look back at how they managed construction under Oxford Circus in the early-1960s for the Victoria Line construction was also interesting. Laying an iron bridge in a single bank holiday weekend to carry road traffic as construction proceeded underneath. Amazing.

One line early on really caught my intention - Crossrail 1 was first planned some 40 years ago and only really progressed in the last decade. The same applies for Crossrail 2, which is currently in detailed planning phase.

Sounds familiar. There's hope yet for Dart Underground and Metro North yet...