Funding for Limerick

Lanigamadan

Some more good news for our city!

http://www.limerickcommunicationsoffice.ie/2012/02/01/e9-million-funding-boost-for-limerick-city

Kess73

While any extra is good news, €9 million over a five year period will not amount to much physical end result.

I would have been much more impressed if Noonan was coming out and announcing something on a similar scale of the 800 new jobs with one company like we saw with the news of Sky and their new service centre in Dublin.

I think that too often small scale stuff gets chucked at Limerick and the powers that be like to announce such things as some massive thing for Limerick.

Just imagine if Limerick had gotten that 800 job Sky centre. 800 direct jobs and probably half as many again by way of indirect jobs. In a city that has an unemployment rate that is 50% or more above the national average, that is the kind of news Limerick needs.


I do however look forward to seeing threads pop up in here in the future when the lower speed limits that are part of the €9m scheme come in for the city and surrounding estates.

galwaycyclist

If you spend it properly it will do loads. The first decision to make is that you need to avoid money pit "flagship schemes" beloved of certain types of politician/local authority official.

There is all kinds of stuff you can do with signs and some paint. One obvious place to start is making any single lane one-way streets two-way for cyclists. Re-examine the larger one-way streets. Put up signs advertising handy short cuts etc. Spend a million on bike parking. Get cycle skills training for all the schools and any adults who want it. Put raised zebra crossings on all the roundabouts. Get a few speed cameras into the city. Knock down any walls between housing estates that don't absolutely have to be there and link the estates up with simple, wide footpaths. Use traffic cells to block "rat runs" through residential areas and school zones. Put speed ramps and raised platforms across side-road entrances.

Most of the above costs peanuts in the scheme of things - which is why it never gets done - its not considered "sexy".

Dublin threw away millions on dubious cycling infrastructure for little obvious beneficial effect - Limerick can provide an example of the right way to do things.

Kess73

galwaycyclist wrote: »

If you spend it properly it will do loads. The first decision to make is that you need to avoid money pit "flagship schemes" beloved of certain types of politician/local authority official.

There is all kinds of stuff you can do with signs and some paint. One obvious place to start is making any single lane one-way streets two-way for cyclists. Re-examine the larger one-way streets. Put up signs advertising handy short cuts etc. Spend a million on bike parking. Get cycle skills training for all the schools and any adults who want it. Put raised zebra crossings on all the roundabouts. Get a few speed cameras into the city. Knock down any walls between housing estates that don't absolutely have to be there and link the estates up with simple, wide footpaths. Use traffic cells to block "rat runs" through residential areas and school zones. Put speed ramps and raised platforms across side-road entrances.

Most of the above costs peanuts in the scheme of things - which is why it never gets done - its not considered "sexy".

Dublin threw away millions on dubious cycling infrastructure for little obvious beneficial effect - Limerick can provide an example of the right way to do things.

Totally agree that a figure that is worth less that €2m a year could do quite a bit if it was spent correctly and in a cost effective manner.

But going by the huge sums of money that were wasted in Limerick with no return, I would not hold out much hope for €9m over a five year period being spend in a prudent manner.

The Opera centre which does not exist has managed to cost circa €100m to date. The Limerick regen scheme has racked up a €116m bill to date with very little to shop for it save for a hell of a lot of company cars and cushy positions for relatives of the bigger fish involved.

Even recent work like that on Sarsfield street ran miles over budget, and given that the William street project is already months past it's original finishing date, I can only guess that it is over budget as well.

Also going by how much was spent on things like the kinda used bus lane on the Condell road, It will not take too many things to eat up that €9m over the five years.

Speed ramps had a crazy fee put for their construction, I will try to find a link to an article from the last two years but I think it was a fairly hefty four figure sum for each speed ramp.

That €9m is to pay for pedestrianisation, bike lanes, school bike lanes, workplace bike lanes, bike parking facilities, road signs etc etc for the entire city. I really am struggling to see how the big spending powers that be would manage that on a modest budget.

Hope that it plays out more like how you described though

galwaycyclist

Kess73 wrote: »

But going by the huge sums of money that were wasted in Limerick with no return, I would not hold out much hope for €9m over a five year period being spend in a prudent manner.

Well to be honest in Galway we have been praying that we wouldnt get the money because much of what the council were proposing to do would make the situation worse. So Limerick's gain is our gain.

Kess73 wrote: »

That €9m is to pay for pedestrianisation, bike lanes, school bike lanes, workplace bike lanes, bike parking facilities, road signs etc etc for the entire city. I really am struggling to see how the big spending powers that be would manage that on a modest budget.

Hope that it plays out more like how you described though

Ok well first off you could drop the cycle lanes and the "pedestrianisation".

"Pedestrianision" or better still "vehicle restricted areas" can be done with selective road closures - eg the roads stay open to buses, taxis, cyclists, people with disabled parking tags. This is also safer at night if there is low footfall in the city centre. All that is needed are a few signs and maybe a by-law or two. There is no need for fancy paving or urban landscape architects.

The national cycle policy framework puts cycle facilities at the bottom of the list of physical interventions See the Hierarchy in chapter 2.

http://www.transport.ie/upload/general/11387-0.pdf

The reason is because focusing on cycle lanes often misses more fundamental issues. Also typical Irish practice means that separate roadside cycle facilities often end up creating more problems than they solve. In any case the humble hard shoulder marking, if used appropriately, offers the same benefits without all the red paint and other parephenalia.

phog

Kess73 wrote: »

............I would have been much more impressed if Noonan was coming out and announcing something on a similar scale of the 800 new jobs with one company like we saw with the news of Sky and their new service centre in Dublin.....................

........................Just imagine if Limerick had gotten that 800 job Sky centre. 800 direct jobs and probably half as many again by way of indirect jobs. In a city that has an unemployment rate that is 50% or more above the national average, that is the kind of news Limerick needs.

I think that's one of the major failing in the city centre, a lack of office staff based in and around the city.

Imagine having an office block with even 400 staff foot falling on the city streets each day.

The city centre has lost office staff from Neodata, eircom, ESB, County Council offices not to mention staff in solicitors, auctioneers, banks and insurance companies in the last number of years.