when will the new stretch of clontarf to sutton open?

mr spuckler

does anyone know when this is due to be finished? i had reviously read various reports saying it was due to be open in july 2016 but it obviously wasn't...

will it even be this year?

Raam

Never, ever again. That's a realistic guess I reckon.

Hollister11

It's been going on years at this stage.

Raam

I love the pavé section.

Lusk_Doyle

They should put in a roller section bit have the rollers automatically going the opposite way so you really have to work to get over them.

RobertFoster

Is the "cyclists dismount" sign still up? I've taken to going through Raheny and Killester instead after two wheels caught in the road months back.

Raam

RobertFoster wrote: »

Is the "cyclists dismount" sign still up? I've taken to going through Raheny and Killester instead after two wheels caught in the road months back.

No, they have one which tells drivers to be courteous to cyclists.

Jocry

Its an absolute disgrace, I'm surprised no one has come off their bike and been involved in an accident with passing vehicles. Its a deathtrap waiting to happen

buffalo

Leroy42

I haven't cycled that way much over the last year due to the works, better to go up through Killester/Raheny, but decided that it might be better now so went out on Monday.

Wow, the place is a mess. Now I get the need for the lane closures, but the road itself is an absolute disaster. It was never good, but I would be tempted to say it is bordering on dangerous and to be fair to the traffic there isn't really much room to allow for bikes.

I'll certainly be avoiding it

shamrock2004

mr spuckler wrote: »

does anyone know when this is due to be finished? i had reviously read various reports saying it was due to be open in july 2016 but it obviously wasn't...

will it even be this year?

I have heard from 360 cycles that they heard it "should" be finished by October. It's nothing short of appalling at this stage. To even contemplate starting a project like that in the midst of summer (was started July 2015) is mind boggling. There were objections from Clontarf residents about the height of the new wall which delayed the progression of the works. Why couldn't it have all been agreed before works started? Further, why aren't works ongoing over a 24-hour period seeing how busy that road is leading into and from the city centre? Regardless, the road surface along there is disgraceful. I go right before 360 cycles if coming from town and go along mount prospect avenue to get back onto the road further down.

buffalo

shamrock2004 wrote: »

There were objections from Clontarf residents about the height of the new wall which delayed the progression of the works. Why couldn't it have all been agreed before works started?

It was agreed (or at least, planned and publicised), but the residents objected when they saw what it looked like it reality.

magicbastarder

a friend works for DCC and has taken calls from residents in clontarf when a spring tide and storm surge is due, about the large sandbags the council would arrange on the seafront, on the grounds that they were an eyesore.

Mercian Pro

Like a lot of cyclists, I have taken to the (lovely, smooth) footpath both on the way out to Howth and back. There are very rarely any pedestrians on it and, if I meet any, I slow right down and acknowledge them.

Resurfacing of the road is due to take place later this month. This is from the Dublin City Council website:

James Larkin Road, Dublin 5.

KN Network Services intends to close the following road to facilitate road resurfacing work on the dates and times listed below:

James Larkin Road (from Clontarf Road/Mount Prospect Road to Causeway Road), Dublin 5 between 19.00hrs to 07.00hrs each night from Monday 15th August 2016 to Monday 29th August 2016.

Traffic Management Plan

Outbound traffic on Fairview wishing to travel on Clontarf Road & James Larkin Road to Kilbarrack, Sutton and Howth will be diverted via Howth Road.
Inbound traffic on Dublin Road wishing to travel on James Larkin Road to Clontarf Road will be diverted via Howth Road, Sybil Hill Road and Vernon Avenue.
Pedestrian access will be maintained.

I still can't understand why a temporary cyclepath wasn't provided along the edge of St Anne's park for the duration of the works. It's still not clear when the overall works will be completed and the two-way cyclepath along the coast side opened.

OleRodrigo

Going up the Howth road is much better.

brocbrocach

magicbastarder wrote: »

a friend works for DCC and has taken calls from residents in clontarf when a spring tide and storm surge is due, about the large sandbags the council would arrange on the seafront, on the grounds that they were an eyesore.

Ah now, there were "large sandbags" arranged on the seafront for the guts of a year - winter, spring, summer. It's false to paint that as snobby clownishness.
Also the council thought it was grand idea to store some of the smaller sandbag piles on the bike path where they were a proper danger for a while.

magicbastarder

brocbrocach wrote: »

It's false to paint that as snobby clownishness.

okay, said 'friend' is my wife. and i could fill thread after thread after thread with 'snobby clownishness' of the **** she had to deal with. and the calls did in fact coincide with the works related to genuine flood prevention. to be fair, it only takes a couple of assholes to generate the likes of the anecdote i related, but they're the sort of people who unfortunately take up the time of the council.

ted1

shamrock2004 wrote: »

I have heard from 360 cycles that they heard it "should" be finished by October. It's nothing short of appalling at this stage. To even contemplate starting a project like that in the midst of summer (was started July 2015) is mind boggling. There were objections from Clontarf residents about the height of the new wall which delayed the progression of the works. Why couldn't it have all been agreed before works started? Further, why aren't works ongoing over a 24-hour period seeing how busy that road is leading into and from the city centre? Regardless, the road surface along there is disgraceful. I go right before 360 cycles if coming from town and go along mount prospect avenue to get back onto the road further down.

The summer is better for work like that as you miss the school traffic and get extra day light hours, 24 hour work is expensive and also quite disturbing to residents trying to sleep,

Mercian Pro

ted1 wrote: »

The summer is better for work like that as you miss the school traffic and get extra day light hours, 24 hour work is expensive and also quite disturbing to residents trying to sleep,

There are also restrictions on what work can be done in the Winter months due the presence of Brent geese and other bird life.

odyssey06

buffalo wrote: »

It was agreed (or at least, planned and publicised), but the residents objected when they saw what it looked like it reality.

Lots of residents objected beforehand too, but DCC ignored them and didn't listen until too late.
There was no real consultation, there was no real agreement with local residents. And the publicised information was misleading about the effect of the new wall on sightlines.

Several of the conditions of the planning permission such as liaison committees with local residents and bodies and DCC never materialised, committees that DCC were obliged to setup.

When challenged about the height of the wall and questioned as part of an independent report, DCC were unable to find a complete report outlining the full reasons why that particular wall height was chosen.

From the outset, DCC have had a antagonistic relationship with the local residents and have deliberately starting leaving sandbags in situ as an eyesore all year round when before they would only position them when needed. DCC seems to more than its fair share of snobby clowns, not to mention incomptents, jobs worths and work dodgers. I have nothing but contempt for them as an organisation.
Nothing seems to have changed in their mentality to Dublin since Wood Quay, and the aborted 1980s plan to turn Dublin Bay into an underground oil reservoir.

odyssey06

magicbastarder wrote: »

okay, said 'friend' is my wife. and i could fill thread after thread after thread with 'snobby clownishness' of the **** she had to deal with. and the calls did in fact coincide with the works related to genuine flood prevention. to be fair, it only takes a couple of assholes to generate the likes of the anecdote i related, but they're the sort of people who unfortunately take up the time of the council.

How can the local residents know what is and isn't genuine flood protection, when the councils leave sandbags in place for over a year when there's no current flood risk? That's the sort of stuff local people have had to put up with.
I think the fact that someone in DCC is creating the impression that the people that keep them in a job are snobby clowns and assholes says as much about DCC as it does about the local residents.

Sleeper12

Picture this: the cycle track is to go all the way almost to Fairview. They are 12 months into it at the moment. Judging by the amount left still to do it looks like another 2 years work

When they planned this no one told them about the bird sanctuary. If I remember correctly they weren't allowed to work down the St Anne's end for almost half of the year. Birds nesting, breading etc.

odyssey06

Sleeper12 wrote: »

When they planned this no one told them about the bird sanctuary.

Someone has to tell DCC about bird sanctuaries in their own jurisdiction? Really? If you were building a golf course, no one would have any sympathy for a body which failed to do proper due dilgence on local wildlife impact.

DCC should have read wikipedia:
North Bull Island has the most designations of any site in the Republic of Ireland and its importance for nature conservation has been recognised since 1914, when it was listed as a Rothschild Reserve. It was the first National Bird Sanctuary, designated in 1931. It has been designated since 1981 by UNESCO as biosphere reserve that is part of the Dublin Bay Biosphere Reserve. It is the only Biosphere Reserve entirely in a capital city in the world. In 1988, it was designated a National Nature Reserve in 1988. It is of European Union importance, and part of the Natura 2000 Network as both a Special Protection Area under the EU Birds Directive and a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive. It is also a National Special Amenity Area [1] since 1995, one of 3 in the Republic of Ireland. This recognises both its outstanding beauty and nature conservation values.

magicbastarder

odyssey06 wrote: »

How can the local residents know what is and isn't genuine flood protection

in this instance, several years ago, it was a day or two after bags were delivered due to a forecast and imminent spring tide and storm surge. as mentioned, it was just a couple of people complaining about them.

Veloce150

OleRodrigo wrote: »

Going up the Howth road is much better.

Coast road should only be tackled on a well specced MTB.

Roadies should watch out for the 'cyclists dismount' sign at the road works on the outbound route before Killester.

Mercian Pro

Sleeper12 wrote: »

When they planned this no one told them about the bird sanctuary. If I remember correctly they weren't allowed to work down the St Anne's end for almost half of the year. Birds nesting, breading etc.

DCC were well aware that there would be restrictions on when work could be carried out beside the North Dublin Bay SAC. It had been spelt out in the EIS that was undertaken long before the works were tendered. AFAIK this has not been a significant factor in delaying completion of the scheme. I suspect that altering the design of the flood protection walls has affected the programme.

Sleeper12

Mercian Pro wrote:

DCC were well aware that there would be restrictions on when work could be carried out beside the North Dublin Bay SAC. It had been spelt out in the EIS that was undertaken long before the works were tendered. AFAIK this has not been a significant factor in delaying completion of the scheme. I suspect that altering the design of the flood protection walls has affected the programme.

They haven't actually altered the design of the walls at all. The locals kicked up about the height of the wall stretching a few hundred meters in front of st Anne's park. DCC took an angle grinder and took a few inches of the top of the wall. The press made the whole thing a much bigger deal than it actually was. It was one of the protesters from clontarf that reminded the council about the bird sanctuary and forced them to stop work down that end of the wall.

Squeaksoutloud

Good to see some surfacing going ahead should greatly improve the appearance and safety for cyclists. There were a lot of restrictions building beside the SAC on this project which restricted working periods. Plus every planning conditions put restrictions on work hours so no 24 hours working would be permitted anyway..hard to keep everyone happy especially the residents of clontarf! No idea when it is due to finish but with all roadworks I tend to just avoid until done if possible.

John_Rambo

I'm local to the area and the only time the park part of the road floods is when there's heavy rain and the Naniken river (in the park) floods out on to the road. One year a guy in a JCB knocked down part of the wall to let the river water out in to the lagoon.

Now they've build that wall even higher! It will contain trillions of litres of water on the road!! Locals informed the council but were ignored.

The sand bags have been left strewn along the promenade in Clontarf now for years with no spring tides matched with big onshore winds (prime flood conditions for the area), an obvious finger salute to the residence from DCC for complaining about the original lazy "hillock" flood defence planned.

The impact on cyclists is pretty big. A very narrow road with stupid drivers trying to overtake cyclists so they actually make stretch in a timely fashion that doesn't see the drivers and cyclists waiting on the other end seeing a green light with traffic still trundling towards them.

I drove the stretch a while ago behind a cyclist, the car behind me did the whole stretch with his hand constantly on the horn because I couldn't over take the bike safely. The poor cyclist was on Dutch style bike pumping as fast as he could with a seven inch unmountable kerb beside him. I was stuck in the middle helplessly trying to make "it's ok, it's not me beeping at you" gestures every time he looked behind him.

magicbastarder

Sleeper12 wrote: »

It was one of the protesters from clontarf that reminded the council about the bird sanctuary and forced them to stop work down that end of the wall.

i can easily see this sort of story arising based on a single council worker not knowing about the bird sanctuary, and then gaining legs, so i'd be interested in more detail before i'd credit it with any credibility.

Sleeper12

magicbastarder wrote:

i can easily see this sort of story arising based on a single council worker not knowing about the bird sanctuary, and then gaining legs, so i'd be interested in more detail before i'd credit it with any credibility.

It was actually in the planning. Said times that they could work and when they couldn't. I'm not going to say they ignored the planning deliberately though they could have I suppose but they only followed their own rules on the sanctuary when the protesters brought it to the attention of the media. I'm not one of the protesters. I didn't think the wall that high, we're only talking about a few inches here but the whole thing was definitely organized very baldly by the city planners.