Cllr. Cormac Devlin - Councillor For Dún Laoghaire

UP-DATE ON DÚN LAOGHAIRE TO

FOXROCK B.P.L. SOUGHT:

June 2005

Fianna Fáil County Councillor Cormac Devlin has sought an up-date on the proposed changes to the Mounttown Roundabout and clarification on a number of items at this months meeting. The Council propose to build a Bus Prioirity Lane (B.P.L.) from Dún Laoghaire Town to Foxrock Church:

The following Motion was moved by Councillor Cormac Devlin:

That the Manager (following up on my last question of October 2004) report on what is being done about the roundabout at Mounttown/Monkstown Farm? I was given an undertaking that work would begin in early 2005. Now that we are in the stated time frame, I would now like to know the following:-

(a)

What date does this Council plan to commence work on this roundabout and how long will construction take;

(b)

Since the design of the roundabout has been completed, can plans be presented to this Council;

(c)

I would like to know what type of traffic lights are going to be put in place, will they be on a timed basis or will they be purely pedestrian crossings;

(d)

Will all entrances/exits on the roundabout have traffic lights to ease traffic flow;

(e)

Will the QBC lane merge into regular lanes of traffic on the roundabout or will there be a special lane for the QBC around the entire roundabout;

(f)

Did public consultation take place with the local community on this issue;

(g)

If so, when and where did it take place;

(h)

How were local residents notified of the public consultation.

The following report of the Manager was noted:

(a)

The Foxrock Church to Dún Laoghaire Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) and Cycle Track Scheme is about to proceed to Tender and subject to final approval of the Dublin Transportation office on funding, it is expected that work on site on the scheme will start in July 2005. Construction work will initially start at Foxrock Church and Clarence Street and the work will proceed on a section by section basis so that two way traffic flows can be maintained throughout the Contract. The Contractor appointed will provide a ‘Programme of Works’ and it is assumed that the new Mounttown Roundabout will be constructed either towards the end of this year or early next year.

(b)

Our Consultants, JB Barry and Partners will be asked to present the new roundabout design to the Councillors.

(c)

The traffic lights being installed will be on a timed basis. The optimisation of the operation of the traffic signals is by using ‘SCATS’ controllers (Sydney Co-Ordinated Adaptive Traffic System).

(d)

A signalised pedestrian crossing will be provided on Glenageary Road Upper located approximately 20 metres from the roundabout. The highest volume of traffic at the morning peak entering the roundabout is from Glenageary Road Upper and ‘Bus Presence Detectors’ will be installed on Kill Avenue, linked to the above crossing, which will provide efficient movement of the bus through the roundabout. No other entrances/exits on the roundabout will have traffic lights.

(e)

The bus will merge with other traffic at the roundabout and no designated bus lane is provided on the roundabout.

(f,g,h)

A notice of the proposed development was placed in the ‘Irish Independent’ on the 24th March 2003, stating that plans were available for inspection from the 24th March to the 22nd April 2003 and submissions could be made up to the 6th May 2003. The newspaper advert also stated that Council Representatives and their Consulting Engineers would be in attendance in the County Hall on the 8th April 2003, between 5p.m. and 7p.m. to answer any queries with respect to the proposed scheme.