The current road infrastructure around the proposed Adamstown development in Lucan, Co Dublin, is so congested it could not handle any additional traffic from the new scheme, an oral hearing by An Bord Pleanála was told yesterday.
Mr James Nix, an independent expert on transport networks, said building any new houses at Adamstown would cause further congestion, which could not be sustained.
The existing Newcastle Road was already a bottleneck, and constructing any of the proposed 10,000 homes at Adamstown "would be like putting pipes into a full bucket".
While Adamstown represented a "unique way" of bringing a development forward, An Bord Pleanála should consider existing developments around the site when deliberating on the merits of Adamstown. "If it were to constrain itself to on-site planning it might miss the point," he said.
Mr Nix was addressing the fourth day of the hearing. An Bord Pleanála's inspectors are hearing submissions on the 500-acre, 10,000-dwelling scheme from South Dublin County Council (SDCC), the developers and residents' groups.
Yesterday it emerged that SDCC was basing projected traffic flows in the Adamstown area on up-to-date Dublin Transportation Office figures which had not been made available to either the developers or residents' groups.
Mr Bernard McHugh, of Chartridge Developments Ltd, a consortium of developers, expressed his group's concern at the phasing built into the Adamstown draft plan. The phasing sets down a level of infrastructure which must be completed before developers can begin the next phase of building. There are 13 phases.
Mr McHugh said the phasing might result in the Adamstown scheme being hampered by a stop-start approach.
Developers "could not afford to wait until the end of the scheme to see if it is economically viable".
While the developers supported the level of infrastructure proposed, it was the building and sale of dwellings that would provide the income for that infrastructure.
Mr Sean Giblin, of the Deliver It Right residents' group, said the provision of schools and roads for Adamstown was not firmly tied into the draft plan, and was dependent on Government funding.
"There is a case that the economy could take a dive, and Adamstown goes ahead with no infrastructure in place," he said.
Mr Alan Bailes, a transport consultant working for SDCC, disputed earlier evidence given to the hearing by Dublin Bus.
The company said 40 to 45 additional buses would be needed to service Adamstown, and that figure might rise to 60 if two tracks were not added to the Dublin-Kildare rail line. However, Mr Bailes said the required number of buses would be nearer 300.
Mr Paul Hogan, a senior planner with SDCC, said no provision had been made as to how trucks involved in constructing the initial stages of the scheme would be accommodated. He also said no weight limit had been imposed on the the vehicles when using existing local roads.
