Dublin drivers have a lot to battle through these days, with all the roadworks going on, but Dublin City Council is doing its best to minimise the disruption. Ray Okonski reports
It is said the population's enthusiasm of Dublin as a beautiful and architecturally interesting city is being fuelled by the fact we get so many opportunities to stop and appreciate it. If this doesn't describe you, then you can't be one of the tens of thousands of motorists who sit nose-to-tail on the network of national, regional and sundry one-way roads and streets of our fair city.
Forgetting tourists who may appreciate driving round St Stephen's Green slower than it would normally take to walk, the rest of us simply fume at the futility of it all. While commuters once marvelled at how little time it used to take to drive from home to the office, now they compare how early the alarm clock must be set to beat the morning rush. With Luas construction affecting drivers from the south and west, and the Dublin Port Tunnel doing the same in the north, due east only cross-channel ferry companies have anything to smile about.
Within Dublin's 1,181km road network, during a typical weekday there are on average 327 disruptions to traffic flow within the Dublin City Council traffic management area. Actually, I'm lying - the ephemeral nature of traffic disruptions - both planned and unplanned, makes it impossible to quantify.
The council and utility companies are seen as the worst offenders, but there are over 80 companies who are licenced to "cut" the streets of Dublin. So has anything been done to prevent them from inducing further mayhem to the commuter's daily mystery? The answer is "yes", and the council's Control of Roadworks Directive provides for the co-ordination and mandatory control of roadworks on all traffic routes in the city.
While it may appear contractors can turn up and dig with impunity, they cannot. The Council has a classification system, ranging from T1 to T5 that is used to denote the urgency of the works in question. Disruptive roadworks are required to be carried out during off-peak periods, at night or at weekends; this has to be balanced with any noise nuisance after dark. Utility companies (telcos, gas, water, power and so on) may not need to "break" the road surface, but require access to their service chambers from street manhole covers, and protect this access whilst working underneath, so it is vital that all works are carefully synchronized to prevent bottlenecks being created on the same stretch of roadway.
So much for forward planning. What if a real emergency takes place? Derek Dixon is the Senior Executive Engineer at Dublin City Council and he takes up the story.
"Emergency work needs to be prioritised. If a 5m water fountain appears in Dame Street, the street will have to be closed immediately while the burst is repaired. If it is simply a leak, the work will be scheduled after the peak traffic load has passed. We assess every emergency and give permission accordingly; balancing the needs of road users as well as local residents - there isn't an unrestricted free-for-all that some motorists mistakenly suggest.
"Any organisation that wishes to work on roads within Dublin must adhere to our 80-page directive, which provides details on the reporting and works grading system as well as restrictions on working hours. We also encourage the use of shared ducting arrangements to minimise future disruption by the utility companies.
"The ESB is currently in the middle of a major upgrade of its power distribution grid, and don't forget the O'Connell Street Project, Dublin Port Tunnel and the ongoing preparation for the arrival of the Luas. This is a major civil works operation and isn't limited to building of a track bed, but the diversion and relocation of utilities that would be otherwise trapped under the new permanent way.
Similarly, in advance of our work to create the QBC (Quality Bus Corridor) on the Crumlin Road, we arranged with a number of utilities to share a common trench before we upgraded and resurfaced the new QBC lane. Anyone who comes along later will be forced to reinstate the whole lane or footpath, not just backfill the trench and asphalt a top strip.
"When things go right, motorists will not realize the organisation that has gone to ensure we keep the traffic moving. It is only when things go wrong that anyone notices . . . My job is to ensure the bulk of the work is hidden from view, wherever possible. If a contractor flouts the rules, we may not give permission in the future, so it is a useful sanction and concentrates everyone's mind on keeping Dublin moving," Dixon concludes.
Dublin City Council also points to its use of technology, by advising motorists where parking spaces are available or dynamically altering traffic light sequences to remove bottlenecks viewing at their CCTV control centre at Wood Quay.
As Derek pointed out , in reality Dublin's traffic flow is no worse than any other European city - only peak time volumes cause the problem.
Travel outside those times, or use public transport, and your journey will be completed without any increase in blood pressure.