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Parnell Square North redesign as part of Cultural Quarter project to proceed, city council confirms
Approved plans include larger footpaths, a single mixed traffic lane, and a two-way cycle path. In 2019, An Bord Pleanla said the planned two traffic lanes must be reduced to one. Parnell Square North will be redesigned as part of Dublin City Councils Cultural Quarter as the project advances, the council has confirmed today.Dublin City Council announced earlier this week that Phase 1, with an estimated all-in project cost of 173.2 million, will proceed, with construction to commence within weeks.The work mainly includes redeveloping existing buildings, including refurbishing the Hugh Lane Gallery and creating a new linked space to the building that will house the City Library, which is currently on the first floor of a nearby city centre shopping centre. But the council did not mention the proposed street changes outside the buildings. IrishCycle.com asked this week whether the council plans to provide the street changes with a cycle path and a single traffic lane, as required by the projects planning conditions set out by the national planning board, An Bord Pleanla, now renamed An Coimisin Pleanla. Today, a spokesperson for Dublin City Council said: The public realm elements of the project will be delivered in accordance with the relevant planning permissions and conditions granted as part of the overall development. The detailed design of the public realm works will be progressed as the project advances.IMAGE: An outline of the project plan as proposed. The landscape designers also had a single-lane option, but Dublin City Council opted for the two-lane option before planners overruled it and reduced it to a single lane.In 2018, when the plans were approved, the planning inspector, Donal Donnelly, said that he accepted that traffic would be calmed to an extent by the proposed surfacing material, raised informal crossing tables and the reduction in kerb radius at the entry point to Parnell Square North from the west. But he did not accept that a two-lane one-way street would be pedestrian-friendly. He noted that the National Transport Authority also said that it sees the street as critical for some bus movements, and that the authority also recommended improving the design by reducing the vehicular entry from Parnell Square West from two lanes to one, with the carriageway then widening out to two lanes at an appropriate point to accommodate bus drop-off.He said the authority said this is particularly important because the proposed pedestrian crossing at this point is uncontrolled.On the councils plans for calming the street, Donnelly said: I would still be concerned that a 6m wide one-way 2-lane carriageway will continue along Parnell Square North. There is the issue that the provision of 2 no. one-way lanes will promote faster speeds as drivers do not perceive a risk from on-coming traffic. Furthermore, it is noted in DMURS that designing local streets to cater for buses would require wider streets, which will serve to increase vehicle speeds, thus undermining their place function. The idea that pedestrians would have priority in this area is also jeopardised by 6m wide crossing distance.As a condition of planning, An Bord Pleanlas board directed that Vehicular entry to Parnell Square North from Parnell Square West shall be reduced from two lanes to one lane, and may provide facility for bus and coach drop off/pick up on the eastern part of Parnell Square North.It ruled that A segregated two-way cycle way shall be provided and the pedestrian crossing at Granby Row on Parnell Square West shall be relocated in a southerly direction to align with the widened footpath in front of the proposed Library. It said this was to be done in the interest of pedestrian and traffic safety.
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