Upgrade of St. John's Square

Amazotheamazing

Upgrade of St John's Square

KATHRYN HAYES

UPGRADE WORKS have been announced forLimerick’s historic St John’s Square.

They include granite paving, street lighting and traffic-calming measures.

Located in the centre of Limerick city, St John’s Square is at the centre of a group of historically significant buildings.

These include St John’s Cathedral, St John’s Hospital and the limestone town house buildings in the square accommodating many businesses.

The development was designed by Francis Bandana in 1751.

The upgrade contract approved by Limerick City Council is valued at just under €1 million.

The work will begin shortly and will take about five months.

Councillor Jim Long, mayor of Limerick, has welcomed the work.

“The works are necessary to protect the heritage of this historic square and to improve the streetscape for the many visitors to the square and the nearby St John’s Cathedral and St John’s Hospital,” he said.

The mayor has also welcomed the construction jobs that will be created and the opportunities for Limerick companies supplying materials.

“John’s Square is an important gateway to the centre of Limerick city and a public open space in front of the St John’s Cathedral providing important first impressions for both residents and visitors,” Mr Long said.

Amazotheamazing

Great to see another part of the city centre getting refurbished. Hope the plans can do it justice.

Limerick Dude

Any artist impressions of the proposed plans?

niceview

This is good news, but I will wait to see plans before I get too excited. I hope it isn't in the generic style of the city centre

Berty

It is a nice part of the city. It's good that the wethouse was moved out of it recently enough so. No sense doing the place up for that lot to hang around.

Goofy

Plans here

Goofy

I think the plan is to move the statue that stands beside the Cathedral into the middle of the square. You can see in the plans that the is a "monument by others" included

kilburn

I would rather see Patrick Sarsfield moved to pride of place on O'Connel Street when it is redone than into the square tbh.

Kess73

kilburn wrote: »

I would rather see Patrick Sarsfield moved to pride of place on O'Connel Street when it is redone than into the square tbh.

Would be a much more fitting location for the statue.

Goofy

And traffic will be changed to one way, from the caterdral place to gerald griffen street. My little rat run will be gone

leakyboots

Goofy wrote: »

And traffic will be changed to one way, from the caterdral place to gerald griffen street. My little rat run will be gone

Where'd you hear that?

So going towards William Street will all be one way?

Balls, my GF lives around there. Presume you can still slip down the side of the offlicence there? Or no, that won't let you back out towards the hospital

Goofy

leakyboots wrote: »

Where'd you hear that?

So going towards William Street will all be one way?

Balls, my GF lives around there. Presume you can still slip down the side of the offlicence there? Or no, that won't let you back out towards the hospital

Look at the link i posted. You can see the arrows in the tarmac sections.

LB6

wouldn't have seen them only you pointed them out. How clever of them to hide the most important detail with a colour that's barely visible!

leakyboots

LB6 wrote: »

wouldn't have seen them only you pointed them out. How clever of them to hide the most important detail with a colour that's barely visible!

I had to zoom to 70% to see that, sneaky Russians

Icky Thump

kilburn wrote: »

I would rather see Patrick Sarsfield moved to pride of place on O'Connel Street when it is redone than into the square tbh.

why not move it to Sarsield street???? we could just make it one lane of traffic coming over the bridge into town. in fact no lanes of traffic. it would be awesome


i like the plans but does anyone else think it will still be a carpark whenever there is a funeral. think ill invest in a clamp

source

Icky Thump wrote: »

why not move it to Sarsield street???? we could just make it one lane of traffic coming over the bridge into town. in fact no lanes of traffic. it would be awesome


i like the plans but does anyone else think it will still be a carpark whenever there is a funeral. think ill invest in a clamp

The curb height will be around the same as the curbs on Thomas Street. Getting a car up there will be difficult enough.

Goofy

source wrote: »

The curb height will be around the same as the curbs on Thomas Street. Getting a car up there will be difficult enough.

And there are bollards along all along the roadside.

I think the plans look great. This square is one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture in the city but has been turned into a glorified carpark in recent times. Hopefully it will be pedestrian priority like outside Aubars.

bigpink

That predestrian plan of Thomas is a complete waste of money,i have seen people walking along and then a car pops along,very dangerous with kids as the way the street is paved you would think its a car free zone
Plus i often see cars using Little Catherine street and not just delivery cars

Poxyshamrock

Would be nice too if something like a boutique hotel opened in the Square or a couple of nice cafés.

boomerang

If I remember correctly, when the Patrick Sarsfield monument was commissioned, it was planned to place it in the centre of St. John's Square. But there was a unionist majority in the corporation at the time, so it didn't go ahead. Then the folks in St. John's Catherdral offered to give it a space on their grounds. That's why it's so out of the way. Would be great to see it given more prominence.

Icky Thump

just noticed a 3d pic of it

http://limerickcity.ie/Transport/MajorProjects/LimerickCityCentreRemodellingandPedestrianisation/JohnsSquareUpgradeWorks/JS%20AxonView.jpg

op feel free to move this to your op

Kess73

Icky Thump wrote: »

just noticed a 3d pic of it

http://limerickcity.ie/Transport/MajorProjects/LimerickCityCentreRemodellingandPedestrianisation/JohnsSquareUpgradeWorks/JS%20AxonView.jpg

op feel free to move this to your op

The blue car is driving against the one way system, must be a local.

Berty

Kess73 wrote: »

The blue car is driving against the one way system, must be a local.

being pedantic that is the first thing I noticed. Not that people don't drive down the wrong way down towards Donkey Fords anyway. :rolleyes:

Goofy

Beer Baron wrote: »

being pedantic that is the first thing I noticed. Not that people don't drive down the wrong way down towards Donkey Fords anyway. :rolleyes:

Sorry lads but ye are both wrong. That stretch of road is two way at the moment and will be changed to one way in the direction the blue car is going when the development is complete.

Google street view

Poxyshamrock

Beer Baron wrote: »

Kess73 wrote: »

The blue car is driving against the one way system, must be a local.

being pedantic that is the first thing I noticed. Not that people don't drive down the wrong way down towards Donkey Fords anyway. :rolleyes:

It's two way ! It only becomes one way at IFAC House! So if you want you can go down that lane way and come out by Watergate!

Icky Thump

yea as the lads have said it is 2 way. i do see the one way being changed when its finished anyway. i see it being one way in the direction the blue car is going. its the only thing that makes sense according to the road layout in the square

Berty

I didn't say it was one way. I said it was one way down towards Donkey Fords.

Kess73

Goofy wrote: »

Sorry lads but ye are both wrong. That stretch of road is two way at the moment and will be changed to one way in the direction the blue car is going when the development is complete.

Google street view

The arrows on the road are pointing the wrong way then.



In the plans with the car, not as it is in real life.

phog

Beer Baron wrote: »

I didn't say it was one way. I said it was one way down towards Donkey Fords.

Did you not kind of agree with Kess about it being oneway

Kess73 wrote: »

The arrows on the road are pointing the wrong way then.



In the plans with the car, not as it is in real life.

Maybe they're not arrows, I think they are for the ramps.

Edit to add, if they are directional arrows then there's now way out of the square as they all lead inwards.

Jofspring

phog wrote: »

Did you not kind of agree with Kess about it being oneway



Maybe they're not arrows, I think they are for the ramps.

Edit to add, if they are directional arrows then there's now way out of the square as they all lead inwards.

So basically if you ignore that blue car and follow those arrows under it then all traffic would lead into the square and up gerald griffin street no?

Berty

phog wrote: »

Did you not kind of agree with Kess about it being oneway

I agreed that in the picture the car was moving the wrong way because on the Architects drawing the arrows suggest the flow of traffic on that lane would lead into the square.

Goofy

The architects plan drawing shows an arrow pointing away from the square on this lane. There are no arrows on the 3D render, there are triangles that indicate the slope of speed bumps. The tip of the triangle is at the top of the slope and the base of the triangle is at the bottom of the slope.

phog

Jofspring wrote: »

So basically if you ignore that blue car and follow those arrows under it then all traffic would lead into the square and up gerald griffin street no?

Only if you ignore the fact that they are there to highlight a ramp rather than being directional arrows.

Kess73

phog wrote: »

Only if you ignore the fact that they are there to highlight a ramp rather than being directional arrows.

I was making a joke about it going the wrong way. Did not think people would take it as being such a serious matter when a fictional car is the butt of a joke.

The bit the blue car is on will be a one way street and the made up car is going the right direction, but I just made the crack as the directional arrows were pointing the wrong way. The are directional arrows imho because on the other proposed one way stretch they match the direction of the traffic flow.

Goofy

They are triangles. Just like the ones here Triangles point one way, arrow the other way.

Kess73

Could you stand on that X in front of my desk please?

Brennans Row

I heard that the fountain section is now completed.

Anybody got photos of it?

CiaranMT

I like the look of that. Supposed to be a few bike-stands going in on the bottom left and up on the top right too.

ZombieBride

How much parking is there? I've been unfortunate enough to have to drive though that area a few times in the last few weeks and the number of double and triple parked cars, is shocking, I think most of them are going to the chemist, but isn't there a doctor, I'm not sure what else is in the square, where are these people going to park. I can see lots and lots of traffic jams.

It does look pretty though, on paper.


why do we need a giant chess board there?

CiaranMT

Only a guess but I'd wager the parking spaces above will be reserved for residents/employees of the businesses there.

jmch81

ZombieBride wrote: »

How much parking is there? I've been unfortunate enough to have to drive though that area a few times in the last few weeks and the number of double and triple parked cars, is shocking, I think most of them are going to the chemist, but isn't there a doctor, I'm not sure what else is in the square, where are these people going to park. I can see lots and lots of traffic jams.

It does look pretty though, on paper.


why do we need a giant chess board there?

yea my Dad uses the Doctor there, no choice but double parking :eek: when he goes in to collect his perception. Looks like 12 parking spaces on the left with the right side of the square block from cars, cant see the business in the area been happy about that!

phog

ZombieBride wrote: »

How much parking is there? I've been unfortunate enough to have to drive though that area a few times in the last few weeks and the number of double and triple parked cars, is shocking, I think most of them are going to the chemist, but isn't there a doctor, I'm not sure what else is in the square, where are these people going to park. I can see lots and lots of traffic jams.

It does look pretty though, on paper.


why do we need a giant chess board there?

I use the doctor and the chemist there, for the doctor I park in Summer St carpark, for the chemist I usually leave someone in the car on one of streets and run in to collect my prescription.

TBH, I'm delighted with the development even with the reduction of the car park spaces.

Icky Thump

there are business's on oconnel street

where do you park if there are no parking spaces there?????

as someone from the neighbourhood i can tell you that residents dont like the fact that the place is often cluttered with people illegally parking. its not a fu##ing carpark.

i for one am delighted that they are improving the look of the area. if you wanna park do what the rest of us do and park in one of the hundred car parks in the city. there is no shortage of car spaces in this town even if you believe what people say. there are no less than 7 car parks i can think of off hand that are no less than a 10 minute walk from the square.

its not new york we are living in. learn to walk a couple blocks.

for people that are disabled im sure car spaces will be made available as per usual



they where never car park spaces btw. people parked illegally

Cherrycoke

Summer St. car park is just a stones throw from the square, and from the city center. I think a lot of people forget/don't realise it's there.

TONY DAY

So much negativity!!

Icky Thump

Cherrycoke wrote: »

Summer St. car park is just a stones throw from the square, and from the city center. I think a lot of people forget/don't realise it's there.

i dont think thats it. people just like to park for free in the square

TONY DAY wrote: »

So much negativity!!

no matter what is done to make our city look nicer and more exciting we always seem to get people on here whinging about something. cant believe the amount that our city has changed in a vibrant positive way and the amount its being critisised

Amazotheamazing

Icky Thump wrote: »

no matter what is done to make our city look nicer and more exciting we always seem to get people on here whinging about something. cant believe the amount that our city has changed in a vibrant positive way and the amount its being critisised

Meh, some people will always be critical, the thing is to be able to sift the valid critics from the cranks.

godfrey

I suppose this granite paving the OP referred to is more of the same stuff that's like a bloody ice rink when it rains, and even worse when there's frost. My first experience of this was on O'Callaghan Strand, and now it's all over the city, AND it's imported from Italy. Could we not make SOME effort to learn from previous mistakes and also buy Irish?

Man, I'd love to meet the city engineer one day...

>sigh<

g

source

godfrey wrote: »

I suppose this granite paving the OP referred to is more of the same stuff that's like a bloody ice rink when it rains, and even worse when there's frost. My first experience of this was on O'Callaghan Strand, and now it's all over the city, AND it's imported from Italy. Could we not make SOME effort to learn from previous mistakes and also buy Irish?

Man, I'd love to meet the city engineer one day...

>sigh<

g

No it looks to be the same stuff as used on William Street, not the ridiculous stuff from Thomas St.

Brennans Row

Limerick’s historic John’s Square reopens after €1m redevelopment (Limerick Leader)

Just looking at the photo of the finished square on the Limerick Leader and it seems that they have made a nice job of it?

Kess73

Brennans Row wrote: »

Limerick’s historic John’s Square reopens after €1m redevelopment (Limerick Leader)

Just looking at the photo of the finished square on the Limerick Leader and it seems that they have made a nice job of it?

Read that it reopened on Friday, but have not been near that side of town since. Might take a wander down later to have a look at the finished square.