Extensive roadworks to facilitate construction of a segregated cycle route from Clontarf to Dublin city centre over the next two years will begin today.
The route, first proposed a decade ago, is part of a €62 million project that also involves watermains rehabilitation and new bus lanes. The route will provide safe access to the city centre from the off-road Dublin Bay cycle path, which runs from Sutton to Clontarf .
The project will be completed in sections from Alfie Bryne Road in Clontarf to Connolly Station on Amiens Street, phased between now and March 2024.
The work starting today will focus on sections at Fairview, and from the Five Lamps to Buckingham Street, just north of Connolly station, with traffic restricted to one bus lane and one general traffic lane in each direction.
In the coming weeks a third construction site will be added on the Clontarf Road opposite the junction of Alfie Byrne Road, again with one general traffic lane and one bus lane in each direction.
Work at all three sites will continue until this time next year. The sections in between Fairview and Buckingham Street, and a short section from Buckingham Street to Talbot Street will be completed from the beginning of next year to the end of March 2024.
The cycle route was proposed a decade ago at an estimated cost of €7 million. However, the project was beset by delays and underwent several redesigns, including one necessitated by protests in 2017 over plans to cut down 50 trees in Fairview Park. Dublin City Council subsequently amended its plans to save 42 of the trees.
Funding agreements
In February 2019, the council published revised costs of €20 million following design changes and the decision to include extensive water mains replacement and new sewerage systems in the project, as well as a link through Fairview Park as part of the Tolka Valley greenway.
The project again stalled due to a failure, the council said, to reach funding agreements with Irish Water and National Transport Authority concerns about proposed bus diversions during construction.
In January the council said the project would go ahead, with the inclusion of the water mains work, but at a cost of €62 million, with bus access maintained along the route.
The costs had increased from €20 million to €62 million due to “enhanced streetscape, additional planting and upgrades of the public realm throughout the scheme”, the council said. The project incorporated “major upgrades of 6km of water mains and part of the Tolka Valley greenway”, it added.
