the worst potholes in Dublin

laundrygirl

Hi all,
I'm writing an article on potholes and am looking for feedback from cyclists in particular on where the worse potholes in Dublin are located?
any suggestions?

WhisperingDeath

The roundabout at the point O2 - as you come from the East Link towards the East wall road.

Coupled with the train tracks it is extremely hazardous.

Dr_Colossus

There's a real nasty spot on the slip road at O'Connell bridge that joins Burgh Quay onto D'Olier St. The whole top tar surface has gone leaving a couple of 6cm deep craters with really sharpe edges. The only way to avoid these on the bike is to take the lane and cycle in the middle of the road which is fine when you know they're there but to an unexpecting cyclist it means either going through them and possible breaking your wheels or else swerving into traffic to avoid them. They've been there for months and it would only take 2 shovels of asphalt to fix them.

There's also another nasty crater that's about 15cm in diamater and about 4-5cm deep on the corner that joins D'Olier St with College Green. It's right in the middle of the road so guessing it affects cars just as much as cyclists but again no action has been taken to fix that either.

Road surfaces in general are appalling around dublin city centre, I've broken numerous spokes since Christmas trying to avoid some of the hazzards. It's as much a case of pathetic repair works as actual potholes that are causing the problem. For instance the corporations will come along and dig up part of the road and then make a pathetic attempt of covering it back over with some tar tapped down with the back of the shovel. There really needs to be a law requiring people doing maintenance on roads to thoroughly repair the roads after themselves and leave them in a better condition that they found them with smooth joins between the existing road and the repaired section. I always thought the Lower Rathmines Road from the Canal as far as Rathmines village had a disgraceful surface.

DualFrontDiscs

Would it be useful to have sticky documenting these potholes and their location? Perhaps a Google Maps link too?

ISTR that the relevant authority is obliged to remedy said potholes once they are brought to their attention. In particular, the authority is exposed to litigation should any injury result from a previously 'declared' pothole.

Thoughts?

DFD*

*DigitalFotoDefence

Robertd_07

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

There really needs to be a law requiring people doing maintenance on roads to thoroughly repair the roads after themselves and leave them in a better condition that they found them with smooth joins between the existing road and the repaired section.

There is, kinda.
When you get permission to open up the road (i.e. dig a hole in the road/footpath) you have to lodge a bond with the Local Authority (in this case DCC).
This is generally only released when the work is finished, and has been inspected by a DCC area eningeer/roads engineer.
As you can guess, with the amount of works done in the last 10 years, coupled with the number of engineers/inspectors in the council available to do this, things never seem to get checked.
Couple this with a complete lack of pride and the roads are a disaster.
As far as I know, if you report the pothole in writing, you may have some grounds if you later go to sue on foot of damage to bike.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Raam

It's not the city, but anywhere around Oldtown and Garristown. Scary in races. One rider hit one last week and broke his collarbone as a result of the fall.

Closer to the city: The Hole In The Wall Road (between Donaghmede and Portmarnock) has been in disrepair for as long as I can remember. It's at a dip in the road.

The Howth road is in quite a state also.

Explosive_Cornflake

I drive across the Sunday night and I was shocked how bad it was. All the trucks and buses turning have done a number on it.

WhisperingDeath wrote: »

The roundabout at the point O2 - as you come from the East Link towards the East wall road.

Coupled with the train tracks it is extremely hazardous.

The cycle lane along Leeson St. Upper is terrible, really uneven surface. I hate having to cycle along it when there is traffic.
Pembroke Rd, or Northumberland Rd has an awful cycle lane also going into town.

Highway_To_Hell

this site might help http://www.potholes.ie/

EamonnL

From a previous dealing with the city council my understanding of the 'who is to blame' issue is that the council would only be legally responsible for injury / damage if their staff caused the hole in the road. So unless they dug the hole themselves and left it unguarded or botched a repair its not legally their fault.

You should definitely notify them of dangerous potholes but if you subsequently cycle into a pothole you knew was there I don't think you would be in a very good position to blame anyone but yourself.

tunney

laundrygirl wrote: »

Hi all,
I'm writing an article on potholes and am looking for feedback from cyclists in particular on where the worse potholes in Dublin are located?
any suggestions?

The ones you don't see.

ED E

North wall quay itself aswell as that poxy roundabout above.

RE bad filling after works, try orwell park rd. They liad lumpy macadam that looks fine but shakes you to bits.

Harrybelafonte

DualFrontDiscs wrote: »

Would it be useful to have sticky documenting these potholes and their location? Perhaps a Google Maps link too?

ISTR that the relevant authority is obliged to remedy said potholes once they are brought to their attention. In particular, the authority is exposed to litigation should any injury result from a previously 'declared' pothole.

Thoughts?

DFD*

*DigitalFotoDefence

I made this suggestion before, I also think we should have somewhere o mention slicks, gravel etc.

Jip

The full stretch of the Cabra Road inbound where it starts at the end of the Navan Road at McDonalds through Cabra itself almost as far as Dalymount. Years ago pipes or something similar were laid but they made an absolute balls of repairing it. Not one bit of the road that was dug is flush with the rest of the road and it's not your usual 1 foot wide pit, it's takes up a fair chunk of road. So if you do cycle it and are not on an MTB you either have to cycle right in the middle of the lane or suffer a very sore ass.
Best avoided.

jimm

Scien wrote: »

That's not so bad I think, although some bright road worker did think it was a good idea to lay one of those drain covers vertically instead of horizontally. I was nearly thrown onto the road last year when I cycled into it.
It's near the Church cycling southbound just in case...

That one looks to be correctly installed. It's the ones which have the grating bars running parallel to your wheel which are extremely dangerous.

Always best to keep 500-600mm out from the kerb if poss. to avoid these.

Slydice

Almost the entire Phoenix Park.

ROK ON

Islandbridge by Clancy Barracks to Coyngham Road is pretty bad surface. Exacerbated as it is downhill thus speed higher than average.

Chesterfield Ave in Phoenix park is a joke.

Blackhorse Avenue is like a minefield with craters and speedbumps.

Jip

ROK ON wrote: »

Islandbridge by Clancy Barracks to Coyngham Road is pretty bad surface. Exacerbated as it is downhill thus speed higher than average.

Is that the South Circular Road from the N4 to Chapelizod Road/Conynghnam Road ? It's a real bone shaker, it's like someone spilled cement in places the length of the road.

km991148

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

Road surfaces in general are appalling around dublin city centre, I've broken numerous spokes since Christmas trying to avoid some of the hazzards. It's as much a case of pathetic repair works as actual potholes that are causing the problem. For instance the corporations will come along and dig up part of the road and then make a pathetic attempt of covering it back over with some tar tapped down with the back of the shovel. There really needs to be a law requiring people doing maintenance on roads to thoroughly repair the roads after themselves and leave them in a better condition that they found them with smooth joins between the existing road and the repaired section. I always thought the Lower Rathmines Road from the Canal as far as Rathmines village had a disgraceful surface.

Robertd_07 wrote: »

There is, kinda.
When you get permission to open up the road (i.e. dig a hole in the road/footpath) you have to lodge a bond with the Local Authority (in this case DCC).
This is generally only released when the work is finished, and has been inspected by a DCC area eningeer/roads engineer.
As you can guess, with the amount of works done in the last 10 years, coupled with the number of engineers/inspectors in the council available to do this, things never seem to get checked.
Couple this with a complete lack of pride and the roads are a disaster.
As far as I know, if you report the pothole in writing, you may have some grounds if you later go to sue on foot of damage to bike.

There have been a number of road 'Repairs' around terenure over the last few months that have left the road far worse, but leaving unleveled tar at repair spots, some cases the road surface rises up by 6-8 inches. At first I thought it must be a temporary repair while works continue, but it now seems to be the half ars3d final solution - I have been meaning to complain for ages as it is dangerous, any sort of speed and you could take a serious tumble

JMJR

A lot of speed bumps of a certain type have suddenly degraded nearly simultaneously. The type is a shallow long one which has a shallow, say 50mm, cover of a red coloured cement mortar. The one in particular Id mention is on between Donore Ave and the Coombe at the SCR end. This covering has degraded into a fine sandy material (ideal to skid on) and left a pattern of holes of varying sizes which, if you dont know the story, you do not see until its too late. Its just past the traffic lights and when you are cycling up to it you can be corralled by the following traffic over the worst bits.
This is clearly a design negligence issue as its arguably a system that just is not suitable to be used on those roads with the traffic loads being experienced.

Idleater

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

RE bad filling after works, try orwell park rd. They liad lumpy macadam that looks fine but shakes you to bits.

Kilshane Cross to the "top" at Ballycoolin and vice versa.

To be fair, they (don't know whom so royal they) did fill in many of the potholes some of which were terrible, but were perhaps a bit over enthusiastic on the throwing in tarmac and use of a shovel to "flatten" each individual pothole.

elduggo

Northumberland Road, from Jurys up as far as the canal. Its as if all the damage caused there during the battle of Mount St in the easter rising never got fixed up. A brutal stretch of road.

Also, Mespil Road heading from Baggot St towards Leeson St. Absolutely brutal.

tomasrojo

Emmet Road in Inchicore is very bad, especially heading west.


Incidentally, you can report potholes by email:

roadmaintenance@dublincity.ie

I contacted about a shallow rectangular cut-away in the middle of the road that you had to cycle over going from Kilmainham Lane to Inchicore Road. They fixed it within a week. I mentioned that it was a hazard to two-wheeled vehicles, especially with traffic following, since it was hard to see and too wide to swerve around.

Doctor Bob

You might save yourself a lot of time - and your printers a lot if ink - if you were to draw up a list of the roads that don't have poxy surfaces.

El Tarangu

There's one absolute whopper just where George's St becomes Aungier St, ridiculous given that's one the city's main access routes

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Raam

Scien wrote: »

Chesterfield Ave. has a tarmacced cycle track running right through it.

Huh-huh, good one

nitrogen

jimm wrote: »

Always best to keep 500-600mm out from the kerb if poss. to avoid these.

I'd say at least a metre out.

Downtime

elduggo wrote: »

Northumberland Road, from Jurys up as far as the canal. Its as if all the damage caused there during the battle of Mount St in the easter rising never got fixed up. A brutal stretch of road.

Also, Mespil Road heading from Baggot St towards Leeson St. Absolutely brutal.

Ill second that - hold on tight. You have to cycle in the middle of the road to avoid them.
Also Beaver Row coming towards Donnybrook Garage.

cdaly_

JMJR wrote: »

A lot of speed bumps of a certain type have suddenly degraded nearly simultaneously. The type is a shallow long one which has a shallow, say 50mm, cover of a red coloured cement mortar. The one in particular Id mention is on between Donore Ave and the Coombe at the SCR end. This covering has degraded into a fine sandy material (ideal to skid on) and left a pattern of holes of varying sizes which, if you dont know the story, you do not see until its too late. Its just past the traffic lights and when you are cycling up to it you can be corralled by the following traffic over the worst bits.
This is clearly a design negligence issue as its arguably a system that just is not suitable to be used on those roads with the traffic loads being experienced.

These are coming apart all over the place. There are about 20 or so of these scattered around various of my habitual routes and many are breaking up in the same fashion.

The Machine

WhisperingDeath wrote: »

The roundabout at the point O2 - as you come from the East Link towards the East wall road.

Coupled with the train tracks it is extremely hazardous.

+1

serendip

laundrygirl wrote: »

Hi all,
I'm writing an article on potholes and am looking for feedback from cyclists in particular on where the worse potholes in Dublin are located?
any suggestions?

Are you a cyclist yourself? If not, you might borrow a bike (or get a Dublin Bike) and go for a spin around the city.

That would give you a fair idea of the state of Dublin's roads from a cyclist's perspective.

seanhunt

loads come to mind, but one in particular is on the cycle lane at the ucd bus stop heading south on the n11 (across from the montrose), its turning into more of a trench than a pothole.

miketv

Quote:
Originally Posted by WhisperingDeath View Post
The roundabout at the point O2 - as you come from the East Link towards the East wall road.

Coupled with the train tracks it is extremely hazardous.

The Machine wrote: »

+1

Yep thats nasty, but its really the railway tracks that are dangerous as they curve with the roundabout, so if there is any kind of wet slippy weather and if your not on a mountain bike its very likely you'll skid off, thats if you are not aware of it

SerialComplaint

DualFrontDiscs wrote: »

Would it be useful to have sticky documenting these potholes and their location? Perhaps a Google Maps link too?

ISTR that the relevant authority is obliged to remedy said potholes once they are brought to their attention. In particular, the authority is exposed to litigation should any injury result from a previously 'declared' pothole.

A Google Maps would be good fun, but probably ineffective. To the best of my knowledge, the liability only falls to the local authority if they have attempted a repair and left it in bad nick. If they just ignore it, they have no liability. Something to do with the legal concept of feasance, which (like most legal concepts) has nothing to do with common sense.

DonVincenzo

There's an absolutely mingin pothole at the cross-roads of Nassau Street & Dawson Street (just at the pedestrian traffic-lights/entrance to Trinity).

The hole is filled in regularly, but it reappears every 2nd month (I don't know what they are filling it with? Rice Crispies??). Its deep & sharp and if you hit it, you'll break yer bleedin wrist!!

Many bus drivers are daft enough to try to overtake cyclists at that junction, meaning there's no avoiding that darn hole. I've had to perfect my bunnyhopping skills over the last few years, but see many a rattled cyclist get mashed on that piece of road.

Marvinthefish

Raam wrote: »

The Howth road is in quite a state also.

Somebody seems to have been out with a can of yellow spray paint in the past few weeks and marked any uneven surfaces/potholes between the start of the Howth road and the Texaco garage (where they're upgrading the junction). So hopefully that section at least will be smoother than a snooker ball shortly

WhisperingDeath

WhisperingDeath wrote: »

The roundabout at the point O2 - as you come from the East Link towards the East wall road.

Coupled with the train tracks it is extremely hazardous.

This has been completely rectified by some fresh tarmac-ing.

If somebody who had a hand in this is reading this please accept my thanks for making my daily commute a lot safer and happier.

Thanks

Gizmoses

Its a disgrace cause for people who cycle like me its so dangerous, like a bike would easily swerve in front a car

Lawrence1895

For me, Grace Park Road should be mentioned.
It was bad anyway, but it turned from bad to worse after the last cold spell. One pothole after the next, cracks in the road's small pieces of rubble (especially near All Hallow's College) :mad:

spokeydokey

Lars1916 wrote: »

For me, Grace Park Road should be mentioned.
It was bad anyway, but it turned from bad to worse after the last cold spell. One pothole after the next, cracks in the road's small pieces of rubble (especially near All Hallow's College) :mad:

Give Bertie a call

biomed32

phoenix park road and the old cabra road!!

Schnell

WhisperingDeath wrote: »

This has been completely rectified by some fresh tarmac-ing.

If somebody who had a hand in this is reading this please accept my thanks for making my daily commute a lot safer and happier.

Thanks

Yeah the o2 roundabout is a lot better now, it still has the curving train tracks but the massive potholes are gone. It means you only have the tracks to worry about dodging and hitting at the right angle. Nearby the East wall road heading from Fairview to the port has some of the worst potholes I've encountered. Also they've recently dug up and resurfaced incredibly poorly the fairly new cycle track through Fairview park, completely destroying the benefits of it.

100Suns

There were 4 or 5 chasms opening up on Wolfe Tone Quay along the Garden of Rememberance which nicely followed the dotted line separating the cycle lane from the bus lane. You could actually see the reinforced ironwork and concrete in the base layer. They were filled last night (with the usual clotted cream substitute for macadam I suspect) but will no doubt open up again in the coming days so keep your eyes open if you cycle that route.

neris

The road through beaumont hospital is full of craters never mind potholes. Have hit them in the car a few times. See two guys regularly cycling through about 8am playing dodge the hole. East wall road is in a bad state heading towards the port from clontarf.

justo

anywhere in between the causeway and the wooden bridge in Clontarf on the right hand lane coming into town, and here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056152940

Lawrence1895

neris wrote: »

The road through beaumont hospital is full of craters never mind potholes. Have hit them in the car a few times. See two guys regularly cycling through about 8am playing dodge the hole. East wall road is in a bad state heading towards the port from clontarf.

Beaumont Road and Skelly's Lane are not much better, I'm living in this area...but I'm not one of the two guys. I'm normally leaving for work between 8:15am and 8:30am

captain P

Lars1916 wrote: »

For me, Grace Park Road should be mentioned.
It was bad anyway, but it turned from bad to worse after the last cold spell. One pothole after the next, cracks in the road's small pieces of rubble (especially near All Hallow's College) :mad:

+1.
Its dreadful there, and means you can't go as fast down the hill .
Richmond road is just as bad.

Lawrence1895

captain P wrote: »

+1.
Its dreadful there, and means you can't go as fast down the hill .
Richmond road is just as bad.

Sometimes it feels like Downhill in the German Alps when I go down there

And if you turn from Richmond Road onto Grace Park Road, there is a hole on the left side, I guess, you can bury somebody inside it :eek:

mal1

justo wrote: »

anywhere in between the causeway and the wooden bridge in Clontarf on the right hand lane coming into town, and here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056152940

Funny that I saw this post because I was complaining about this hole to my girlfriend the other night (I have nobody else to complain to). I know where it is now but I hit it the other night while daydreaming, it can be hard to see unless you're looking for it. It knocked my saddle out of place and left me with a very sore arse. No permanent damage though.

BostonB

ROK ON wrote: »

Islandbridge by Clancy Barracks to Coyngham Road is pretty bad surface. Exacerbated as it is downhill thus speed higher than average.

Chesterfield Ave in Phoenix park is a joke.

Blackhorse Avenue is like a minefield with craters and speedbumps.

Have to Agree. An air-strike couldn't leave roads in worse shape.