Dundalk Active Travel plans progress

Councillors at the Dundalk Municipal District December meeting, passed the recommendations provided in the Chief Executive's report on the Active Travel Scheme for the Inner Relief Road to Riverside Walk in Dundalk.

Senior Executive Engineer, Noel Treanor, presented the report to the members at the December meeting, detailing the scheme. The development will see the creation of high quality segregated cycle lanes, pedestrian/cyclist crossing points and works to existing junctions along a circa 1.8km stretch of the R125 Dublin Road, starting at the junction of the Dublin Road and the Dundalk Inner Relief Road (known as the Xerox Junction) and finishing at Riverside Walk at the Dublin Road.

The proposed works include:

• The installation of high-quality segregated pedestrian and cycling infrastructure to improve safety and promote active travel along the Dublin Road from the Xerox Junction (R132, R215 intersection) heading northwards to Riverside Walk for a length of c.2km.
• The upgrade of junctions along the entire route to provide safer pedestrian and cycle crossings.
• The upgrade of existing bus stops along the route, providing facilities that integrate both pedestrians and cyclists.
• The upgrade of all entrances along the route to better facilitate pedestrians and cyclists.
• The provision of pedestrian and cycling crossings at identified desire lines along the route.
• Connection to existing cycling facilities that interface with the route, the improvement of landscaping and biodiversity along the full length of the scheme, including sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS).
• The provision of all other ancillary works associated with these cycle lanes along the length of the scheme.

The public consultation for the proposed development ran from 3 September until 15 October. At last week's December meeting, Mr Treanor told the members present that six submissions were made during the public consultation, the majority of which were positive in relation to the proposed scheme.

Mr Treanor said that there were one or two concerns in relation to property owners and a development taking place in the vicinity of the Active Travel scheme, but added that these concerns were addressed in the Chief Executive's report and the woud be addressed further in the detailed design stage.

Cllr Maeve Yore raised the issue of potholes on the Dublin Road, saying that she had a number of queries in relation to the resurfacing of the road. Cllr Yore said that the last time she counted them there was 48 potholes on the stretch of road from DkIT down to Hill Street Bridge, and that those who raised the queries with her asked that the resurfacing of the Dublin Road, from DkIT to the town, be prioritised.

Cllr Yore asked if this would be done as part of the Active Travel scheme, and mentioned that if this was the case, it could take two or three years before this might happen, and further asked if there was a workaround so the road might be resurfaced ahead of this without impacting on the Active Travel scheme. Cllr Yore also paid compliment to the Active Travel team for their engagement with all stakeholders and thanked them for all their work.

Replying to Cllr Yore, Mr Treanor said that he would be having dialogue with Senior Engineer, Mark Johnston, in relation to resurfacing of the Dublin Road. Mr Treanor added that it is the National Transport Authority (NTA) who funds the Active Travel scheme and while there might not be funding available in that budget for surfacing of the road, they would be looking at other funding sources to carry this out.

Commenting on another Active Travel project for which the non-statutory Public Consultation on the Preliminary Design proposals was running up to last week, the Dublin Road from Xerox Junction to Greengates project, Cllr Shane McGuinness highlighted the Sexton's Junction.

Cllr McGuinness commented that there was over 50 submissions made in relation to this junction and the realignment of the crossroads, and said that it was an extremely dangerous junction and that he belives that its realignment is the only answer to the project being finished “completely, forever”.

Cllr Marianne Butler agreed with Cllr McGuinness' point about the junction and said that turning it into a protected junction, is the right thing to do, as is done in other places, and that it would “future-proof” the junction.

Following further comments on the plans, the recommendations in the report were passed by the councillors.