The Dart service is likely to close on the Easter bank holiday and June bank holiday weekends next year if the Lansdowne stadium redevelopment is approved, an oral hearing was told yesterday.
Tom Phillips, town planning consultant for Lansdowne Road Stadium Development Company Ltd, told the An Bord Pleanála oral hearing in the Gresham Hotel, Dublin, that the €350 million development would require the Dart to close for two sessions of four days each.
This would allow work to be carried out on a 24-hour basis to demolish and build the stadium near the Dart line. Negotiations with Iarnród Éireann on the closure dates had still to be finalised, he said.
Asked by Cepta Hopkins, of the O'Connell Gardens Boundary Group, whether it would not be possible to close the Dart only during the day over a greater number of days, he said the Dart had to be kept running as much as possible and they were trying to balance noise mitigation with the need to run the service.
He also said it was deemed preferable that the 24-hour work be carried out over two intense sessions - "short, sharp, shocks" - to minimise the disruption caused.
Emma Byrne, also of the boundary group, expressed residents' concern about the impact of demolition and construction noise at night.
"Four days without sleep is enough to send you to John of Gods," she said.
She was told that mitigating measures would bring noise levels down to eight decibels above the "ideal figure" and if windows were shut, standards would be "very good".
Dr Graeme Flynn, wind consultant, said that without mitigation measures such as tree planting, house numbers 38 to 41 at O'Connell Gardens would be "unsuitable for prolonged recreational use" due to high winds caused by the design of the new stadium.
But once the 20-ft trees were in place, the issue would be resolved.
