One of the busiest traffic arteries into Dublin city from the northside is to be closed to private cars for at least one year from Monday to facilitate the construction of the Clontarf to city centre cyclepath.
Private traffic will be banned from travelling inbound on North Strand Road from Fairview to the Five Lamps, but buses, taxis and cyclists will be permitted to use the route. The road will remain open to traffic heading out of town.
Cars and private vehicles heading into the city will have to divert at Edge’s Corner on to Fairview Strand and Ballybough Road, and can either continue on Summerhill to reach the city centre, or can use Portland Row to access the Five Lamps and Connolly Station on Amiens Street.
Residents on dozens of small roads that feed on to North Strand, who want to drive into the city, will also be blocked from using the road inbound and will have to first drive north out of town to head back south on the diversion route.
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Victor Coe senior executive engineer with Dublin City Council said the closures may be implemented on parts of North Strand over the weekend, but the diversion would be fully in place from Monday.
“There are four traffic lanes and from rush hour on Monday morning, one lane will be given over to the contractor, there will be two bus lanes, one in and one out of town, and the remaining lane will be for general traffic coming out of town.”
Traffic would inevitably be heavy on alternative routes into the city, he said, particularly on Ballybough Road.
“If we had tried to do this by giving over tiny bits of land to the contractor bit by bit, it would take decades to complete the project. What we have tried to do is prioritise public transport, cycling and walking and make sure they aren’t discommoded at all,” he said.
“A certain impact on traffic is inevitable and there is going to be a bit of delay for people driving from Monday. But we’re hoping that over time the message will go out to the travelling public that they really do need to think about how they plan their travel into town and consider using the bus, Dart, cycling or walking.”
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Mr Coe said he understood the diversions could be particularly inconvenient for residents on roads off North Strand, but he said they ultimately would have a much improved public realm and access to a high quality cycle path.
“There will be community plazas along the route and additional trees in purpose built tree pits, as well as the greenway along the Tolka river, and a really, really high quality, high class cycle route, so in the long run that will we are doing will benefit locals.”
The cycle 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 from the city to the off-road Dublin Bay cycle path, which runs from Sutton to Clontarf. The project is scheduled for completion in 2024.
