Major renovation of Shop Street 2018

Goofy

The council are planning a major renovation of Shop St and the surrounding lanes. This sounds like good news as the cobbles on the street are just law suits wait to happen.

https://galwaybayfm.ie/major-renovation-shop-street-begin-next-year/

The article mentions expanding the pedestrian areas. I wonder what exactly is meant by this. Has anyone seen any plans or proposals yet?

biko

I suppose it's needed, not a major pain-point for myself though ( I use it every day without issues)

what_traffic

Goofy wrote: »

The council are planning a major renovation of Shop St and the surrounding lanes. This sounds like good news as the cobbles on the street are just law suits wait to happen.

https://galwaybayfm.ie/major-renovation-shop-street-begin-next-year/

The article mentions expanding the pedestrian areas. I wonder what exactly is meant by this. Has anyone seen any plans or proposals yet?

Those law suits are not waiting anywhere, they have been stampeding through the courts in recent years.
"
Crooked cobbles create ‘compo culture’ of €5m over three years
By Dara Bradley - December 11, 2015
"
http://connachttribune.ie/crooked-cobbles-create-compo-culture-of-e5m-over-three-years/

Mrs OBumble

biko wrote: »

I suppose it's needed, not a major pain-point for myself though ( I use it every day without issues)

I guess you've not had to wade thru the puddle which appears outside the pharmacy across from Anto Ryans whenrever it rains heavily. It's quite a lot larger than your usual Galway street puddle, and comes very close to flowing inside the shop at times.

fearruanua

biko wrote: »

I suppose it's needed, not a major pain-point for myself though ( I use it every day without issues)

I thought the same. Thinking what are they on about, shop street is grand. but the last time i walked down shop street from the square to the spanish i consciously looked down at the surface. it actually is in pretty poor condition. loads of humps and hollows and bits sticking up.

dilallio

This has the potential to be a very costly project depending on how they do it.

A lot of the premises on Shop Street have old disused cellars/basements. A combination of heavy delivery trucks along with awful drainage is the main cause of the uneven surface. The bollards outside OMG records for example, were put there in the late 80s / early 90s to prevent heavy trucks pulling up on the pavement, after a delivery truck caused the road to cave in slightly. The Corporation at the time started to dig it out, and when they discovered a huge unfilled space below, decided to patch the hole and install the bollards to prevent a recurrance.

A proper job would involve a detailed underground survey possibly involving archaeologists.
A quick and cheapish job will need to be redone after a few years unless they strictly restrict the weight of delivery trucks

ChunkyLover54

fearruanua wrote: »

I thought the same. Thinking what are they on about, shop street is grand. but the last time i walked down shop street from the square to the spanish i consciously looked down at the surface. it actually is in pretty poor condition. loads of humps and hollows and bits sticking up.

It's in terrible condition. They made a hames of cobbling the street after pedestrianisation in the late '90s. The renovation is a long time coming.

what_traffic

dilallio wrote: »

A quick and cheapish job will need to be redone after a few years unless they strictly restrict the weight of delivery trucks

True. Galway City Council will have to address this. The sheer size of the rigid trucks going down Shop Street every morning is a major pedestrian hazard now as the volumes of workers and tourists has increased in the City Centre. Or else the times of delivery's will need to change.

Goofy

dilallio wrote: »

This has the potential to be a very costly project depending on how they do it.

A lot of the premises on Shop Street have old disused cellars/basements. A combination of heavy delivery trucks along with awful drainage is the main cause of the uneven surface. The bollards outside OMG records for example, were put there in the late 80s / early 90s to prevent heavy trucks pulling up on the pavement, after a delivery truck caused the road to cave in slightly. The Corporation at the time started to dig it out, and when they discovered a huge unfilled space below, decided to patch the hole and install the bollards to prevent a recurrance.

A proper job would involve a detailed underground survey possibly involving archaeologists.
A quick and cheapish job will need to be redone after a few years unless they strictly restrict the weight of delivery trucks

They had the same issue in Limerick when they upgraded William street. The solution they used there was to pump the old cellars full of concrete.