Knocklyon Road realignment

seamus

It would appear that this is on the list to go ahead this year, subject to funding. Only 40 years later

There was a lot of consternation a couple of weeks ago when speed ramps appeared on the Knocklyon Road, but I suspected that there were part of the realignment, since that section would become a quiet residential street. And I was right, these appear to be on the planning document:

http://roads.southdublin.ie/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=244

So perhaps they've already started with this?

My one question though is what they're doing with the wall at Dargle Wood, which has been knocked. Maybe I'm overthinking it - they might just be replacing it - but I've only recently found that there's a direct route from there to the "new" Knocklyon Road. If they removed that wall, they could put a more direct link to the new Road (as below), meaning the old Knocklyon road would become much quieter (and safer for peds).

I haven't seen this on any plans though, so I might be barking up the wrong tree. But I equally can't see any notices of these works. Any ideas?

Luckycharm

Thats interesting - those speedbumps seemed to appear overnight they were not well marked when first night and game me a nice shock first time

So would the new road basically go from the roundabout at Spawell to up near Templeroan?

seamus

Yep the new road will go from Spawell up to the roundabout at the junction with Scholarstown Road.

Been in the offing for literally 40 years (that's why the green spaces it's using have never been built on), but was constantly held back by funding and opposition. Bit of a sour victory now because the M50 and N81 now mean that traffic on the Knocklyon road is nothing compared to what it was 15 years ago. Back then it was urgent, now it's not so much.

seamus

Mystery solved. Pedestrian kissing gates appeared yesterday where the wall used to be. Still room to put a road through, but they're probably just lowering the wall to make it more of public park rather than some random green space between estates.

Luckycharm

seamus wrote: »

Yep the new road will go from Spawell up to the roundabout at the junction with Scholarstown Road.

Been in the offing for literally 40 years (that's why the green spaces it's using have never been built on), but was constantly held back by funding and opposition. Bit of a sour victory now because the M50 and N81 now mean that traffic on the Knocklyon road is nothing compared to what it was 15 years ago. Back then it was urgent, now it's not so much.

HOw old is Knocklyon most of it would be less that 30 years I would have thought? Yep Knocklyon and Firhouse roads are no where near as busy as they used to be.

seamus

Construction on the "older" estates would have started in the early to mid 70's, most of it done by the late 70's/early 80's. Some of the later projects (like Templeroan) went on till the early nineties. "Literally" is probably the wrong word though I do know that realignment plans were around in the late 70's.

Guyaman

seamus wrote: »

It would appear that this is on the list to go ahead this year, subject to funding. Only 40 years later

There was a lot of consternation a couple of weeks ago when speed ramps appeared on the Knocklyon Road, but I suspected that there were part of the realignment, since that section would become a quiet residential street. And I was right, these appear to be on the planning document:

http://roads.southdublin.ie/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=244

So perhaps they've already started with this?

My one question though is what they're doing with the wall at Dargle Wood, which has been knocked. Maybe I'm overthinking it - they might just be replacing it - but I've only recently found that there's a direct route from there to the "new" Knocklyon Road. If they removed that wall, they could put a more direct link to the new Road (as below), meaning the old Knocklyon road would become much quieter (and safer for peds).

I haven't seen this on any plans though, so I might be barking up the wrong tree. But I equally can't see any notices of these works. Any ideas?

The existing primary schools in Knocklyon will be demolished and a larger new school built over the next two years. The children will attend school in temporary prefabs during the construction. These prefabs will be put in the green space you talked about that runs from Dargle Wood over to Templeroan Road. The work you see is the early stages of this development.
The Knocklyon Road is quite old. It used to be a small narrow road that had trees growing and meeting overhead forming a tunnel. The trees had yellow flowers, and the locals (in the 1940's and 50's) called it the 'Yellow Road'. Just where the petrol station is now there was a stream and the road went over a hump back bridge. The road isn't as busy now as it was, but it's still quite unsuitable for the modern usage it gets - not even a footpath on both sides from the garage up to the Pig Farm bend!

seamus

Guyaman wrote: »

The existing primary schools in Knocklyon will be demolished and a larger new school built over the next two years. The children will attend school in temporary prefabs during the construction. These prefabs will be put in the green space you talked about that runs from Dargle Wood over to Templeroan Road.

This I did not know. I did see they'd knocked the railings at Templeroan, so something much bigger must have been up.
Knocking my old primary school, all the memories gone

thegen

The new Temp school is being located in Sancta Maria, beside Ballyboden St Endas pitch. This work is near completion. Entrance will be via Ballyboden main entrance to Sancta Maria Complex.

seamus

The works at Dargle Wood then are probably just to provide easier access from the new to the old school via a path. Traffic on the already jammer Scholarstown road is going to be crazy in the mornings I reckon.

Clanket

Yes that was just a path they were building accross from Knocklyon shops to pretty much the entrance to Ballyroan. Temporary school is indeed going to be housed in Sancta Maria

Luckycharm

It was a nightmare this morning they have closed stocking lane so traffic backed up past woodstown and then they are also doing work on Knocklyon road with Temp lights :mad:

Clanket

Yeh I wouldn't mind but they had Stocking Lane closed last year for 2 weeks. Could they not have gotten everything they needed to do done then?

DermoMIO

Guyaman wrote: »

The Knocklyon Road is quite old. It used to be a small narrow road that had trees growing and meeting overhead forming a tunnel. The trees had yellow flowers, and the locals (in the 1940's and 50's) called it the 'Yellow Road'. Just where the petrol station is now there was a stream and the road went over a hump back bridge. The road isn't as busy now as it was, but it's still quite unsuitable for the modern usage it gets - not even a footpath on both sides from the garage up to the Pig Farm bend!

cool nice trivia there thanks, do you have any pics of the "old" knocklyon road would like to see what it looked like, and is that "pig farm bend" not just stables ?

Guyaman

DermoMIO wrote: »

cool nice trivia there thanks, do you have any pics of the "old" knocklyon road would like to see what it looked like, and is that "pig farm bend" not just stables ?

Just beyond the bend where Dargle Lodge is now was a pig farm for many years. There is no name on the bend, I just called it that! It would be more correct then to call it the Stable Bend as the stables are located right on it. I can post some photos of the old knocklyon road in a few days - perhaps even a photo of the old petrol station circa 1950's!

username123

Guyaman wrote: »

Just beyond the bend where Dargle Lodge is now was a pig farm for many years. There is no name on the bend, I just called it that! It would be more correct then to call it the Stable Bend as the stables are located right on it. I can post some photos of the old knocklyon road in a few days - perhaps even a photo of the old petrol station circa 1950's!

I remember the pig farm! I was only talking to my husband about it the other night - he doesnt remember it, moved into the area later than me. When did they get rid of it?

Id love to see some photos of Knocklyon from years gone by alright, please do post.

LXFlyer

I remember the smell from the pig farm! Not pleasant!!

Tragedy

The re-alignment is still on the long finger and this was once again confirmed in January. I e-mailed SDCC roads at the start of the month about the speed ramps:

Dear Sir/Madam, May I enquire as to why these speed ramps were installed several months ago? As there are no traffic lights or pedestrian crossings near the speed ramps, I'm unaware of it being an accident hotspot or of significant antisocial driving in that specific area, I'm quite curious as to why two extremely large and significant speed ramps were installed on a busy road with approximately 12 buses passing over them per hour. The speed ramps require the bus to slow significantly and even travelling slowly results in discomfort for passengers - and isn't much better in a car. Thanks in advance,

The response was:

The ramps were provided to reduce traffic speed to the level required for this road. The safety of pedestraians and cyclists takes precedence over vehicles and will necessarily impact on motorists more than vulnerable road users. The ramps were approved as part of the Knocklyon Road improvement scheme which will be implemented as recources are provided.

The particular ramps serve as an indication to motorists that this is a differefnt place to that pertaining on the Firhouse road where frontage development does not occur.
John Mc loughlin

Senior Engineer.

I replied with

Thanks for the reply John.
While I'm aware of the Knocklyon Road improvement scheme, to the best of my knowledge it is indefinitely on hold due to budget shortfalls and has been in 'planning' since at least 1972. Therefore, to install the ramps (which were approved to be installed in a cul-de-sac) when there is no current funding set aside for the Knocklyon Road realignment seems extremely short sighted - after all, there is a good reason why planning applications generally are only valid as long as the works approved are completed in full.

As a pedestrian in Knocklyon for 20 years, I appreciate the ever increasing traffic levels and the threats that that may pose, but using the Road Safety Authority map on collisions ( http://www.rsa.ie/RSA/Road-Safety/Our-Research/Ireland-Road-Collisions/ ), it only shows two pedestrian accidents over a 5 year period on the Knocklyon Road - both occuring at the junction to Firhouse Road. Again, as a pedestrian, I can think of far more dangerous places in Knocklyon for example;
1) The top of Scholarstown Park which has been waiting for a promised pedestrian crossing for over a decade.
2) The Old Scholarstown Road which consists of a narrow winding country lane with a path so narrow two people can't pass in places.
3) The Knocklyon Road opposite Knockullen which only has a narrow path on one side with bushes protuding far enough to again, make it so two people cannot pass.
4) The Knocklyon Road around the entrance to Lower Dargle Wood where people are forced to cross for a bus stop on a blind bend.

If the aim was to slow down speeds on the Knocklyon Road, it seems incredibly pointless to position the speed ramps 180m and 270m from the end of a road which is 2,400m long, and if the aim was to make it safer for people to cross the road to the garage/bus stops, a pedestrian crossing would be a far more effective system than making vulnerable road users continue to have to jaywalk on a busy main road, albeit a slightly slower one.

But never received a reply from anyone in the Roads Department even though SDCC customer care forwarded on the reply to them.

Ah well. I did find out that one of our local councillors lives near the speed ramps and was (i believe) involved with a campaign to get speed bumps installed on the Knocklyon Road here several years ago. Correlation does not equal causation and all that, but you never know

Also, as has been said, local residents successfully opposed the placing of the temporary school in the green area between Dargle Wood/Scholarstown Park, and the works being done are a combined cycle and footpath to link the centre of Knocklyon with the new Primary School by Sancta Maria.

spockety

Utterly unrelated, but does anyone know what the house in the middle of this satellite image of Scholarstown Road is?

http://g.co/maps/h7my4

Drive past it all the time and most of the times there appears to be an unmarked garda car outside etc.

Safe house? Ex president?

seamus

Liam Cosgrave, former Taoiseach afaik.

LXFlyer

Correct.

Tragedy

He grew up in the old house behind Dargle Wood/The Rookery which was known as Beechpark. Built the new Beechpark in the 60's and sold the old house which was renamed to Ros Mór(hence the name of the apartments built just in front of it).

redzer_irl

Mystery solved, I drive past Beechpark every day on my way to work and always wonder who lives there. The unmarked car and security hut had me intrigued.

Synode

Anyone know if the realignment is going ahead any time soon?

Zamboni

REPORT:

The Knocklyon Road Realignment Scheme has been deferred pending the identification of funding. To date, no funding has been made available to carry out any temporary works as part of or in advance of the scheme, in relation to the Knockcullen/Ashton Knocklyon Road junction.

http://paddycosgrave.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/knocklyon-road-re-alignment/

seamus

Dragging this up because I can't find any info on www.sdcc.ie about road works, but they have started doing some related works on this in the last week. At Knockcullen, they're putting a through-road across the green from Knockcullen Drive to the Knocklyon Road. Presumably then when that's done, they will block up the old dangerous turn onto Knockcullen Rise from Knocklyon Road.

This is on the plan for the Knocklyon Road realignment, so I'm presuming this is a precursor to the entire works.

Anyone have any info on this?

Tragedy

It's not a precursor, the council applied to the NRA for €100000 from a discretionary fund for dangerous junctions (or something similar). The roads department proposed 3 options, two of which kept the existing entrance and cost between €10 and €20k but councillors pushed for the new entrance as the best solution.

Can find some info on laharts web site I think.

seamus

Yes, thank you.

http://www.johnlahart.com/knocklyon-news/knockcullen-riseknocklyon-road-junction

Tragedy

Tis good news regardless. Don't think I've ever actually driven in there but even cycling/driving past I've seen plenty of almost accidents. Hope they upgrade the lighting on that little stretch too.

Tragedy

New junction complete. Much improved, though there is now awkward positioning with a bus stop almost directly across the mouth of the access road. Don't know where they could move it to either, the next stop is only 2-3min walk across from the Esso, and there's nowhere between the current stop and the previous one at Knockaire (or Knock-errr as Dublin Bus pronounce it).