Phoenix Park main road closed for up to 3 months

fletch

Just linking the to this thread as figured most of us Phoenix Park cyclists would be interested

A large section of the main thoroughfare in the Phoenix Park is to be closed for up to three months from the beginning of October to allow for the reconstruction of the roadway.

Major traffic disruption is expected as almost the entire length of Chesterfield Avenue will be closed to traffic.

The road is used by over 20,000 vehicles a day.

It has not weathered well during the recent harsh winters and despite a temporary resurfacing measure earlier this year, it has a large number of cracks, bumps and potholes.

The Office of Public Works is to carry out a €3m reconstruction project on the road which will begin on 3 October.

However that will involve closing the road from the Gough Roundabout near the Parkgate Street entrance to the Mountjoy Roundabout beside the Castleknock Gate.

A one-way system will be put in place inside the park which will essentially turn it into a large roundabout.

The road closure is likely to cause major traffic disruption and inconvenience some park users.

The reconstruction project is due to last about 12 weeks and the road should be reopened by Christmas.

The full traffic management plan will be published in the coming days.

The Minister of State at with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Brian Hayes, has insisted that the road works are necessary.

"Chesterfield Avenue was never designed to take the volume and weight of traffic that it does and the condition of the road has been a cause of increasing concern," Mr Hayes said.

"The extreme weather conditions experienced in recent years have exacerbated the situation. While the surface degradation was the most immediate and evident sign of the problems prevailing, surveys confirmed that the underlying cause was with the substructure of the road and, in order to address the problem properly, work to the substructure is required.

"Works to achieve the necessary substantive repair and reconstruction of the most damaged areas of the road have been tendered and the contract has just been placed."

Slydice

Will the bike lanes stay open?

Also, how was cycling through the park last year when the snow and ice was on the roads?

fletch

Slydice wrote: »

Also, how was cycling through the park last year when the snow and ice was on the roads?

Pretty much impossible on a road bike...even when the roads began to thaw the cycle lanes took a few days longer to defrost. I cycled into work one day when the roads were clear but by the time I was cycling home, it was snowing (heavy)...the cycle lanes were unusable so I had to use the road. Traffic was pretty much stationary the entire length of Chesterfield Avenue so each time I wanted to pass a car, I had to unclip my pedals, get down off the saddle and walk past them. Took the guts of an hour to "cycle" through the park :eek:

Rew

I walked home though the park the day the buses shut down last year, cycle paths disappeared pretty quickly.

Im tempted to get ice spiker MTB tiers to make sure I can keep commuting not sure there worth it though.

Doubt they will close cycle paths for resurfacing anyway.

myself69

fletch wrote: »

Pretty much impossible on a road bike...even when the roads began to thaw the cycle lanes took a few days longer to defrost. I cycled into work one day when the roads were clear but by the time I was cycling home, it was snowing (heavy)...the cycle lanes were unusable so I had to use the road. Traffic was pretty much stationary the entire length of Chesterfield Avenue so each time I wanted to pass a car, I had to unclip my pedals, get down off the saddle and walk past them. Took the guts of an hour to "cycle" through the park :eek:

That week was awful. Couldn't cycle on the cycle lane, back wheel had no traction and the bike was uncontrollable. Didn't want to cycle on the road so ploughed through the snow on the grass.

Rew

Photos I took that day

Quays: http://twitpic.com/3bx7ea
Conygham Road: http://twitpic.com/3bx9st
Park: http://twitpic.com/3bxajr

Side Show Bob

Clever of the council deciding to do it during winter, just to let it get fcuked all over again,

Holyboy

Side Show Bob wrote: »

Clever of the council deciding to do it during winter, just to let it get fcuked all over again,

Thats exactly what I was thinking,why not wait till spring to do it,especially as theres another bad winter forecast! The mind boggles.

listermint

Holyboy wrote: »

Thats exactly what I was thinking,why not wait till spring to do it,especially as theres another bad winter forecast! The mind boggles.

It doesnt boggle, they are plowing through the budgets like no bodies business after a year of spending nothing anywhere. Theyve know found out that they wont be getting the same cash next year as it isnt needed obviously.

The amount of road resurfacing going on in the capital in the last month is insane, there is roads out there that are being resurfaced completely unnecessarily and other more urgent roads are left idle.

In the last week ive passed about 15 different resurfacing projects going on all over the south of dublin from the city to the outskirts. It smells of poor management of funds and bad project planning. (nothing new here so)

Moflojo

It sounds like the road is in danger of total disintergration if we get another bad winter and I'd imagine doing the road works during the winter, as opposed to after it, is essentially a stall tactic by the council.

When they talk about the park becoming a 'giant roundabout' does this mean that there'll be a one-way system with two lanes of traffic operating in a clockwise direction around the park or what? That might not be too bad?

Also, any word on whether the cycle lanes along Chesterfield Ave. will stay open? They're probably far enough away from the road to not interfere with road works.

tomasrojo

Holyboy wrote: »

Thats exactly what I was thinking,why not wait till spring to do it,especially as theres another bad winter forecast! The mind boggles.

They can't forecast months in advance though. Even five-day forecasts aren't very accurate.

There are a few longer-term indicators that are quite useful, such as El Niño events, but I don't think there's anything like that that would help you gauge the likelihood of harsh Irish winters.

Chips Lovell

About time. That road is absolutely in bits.

If a newly surfaced road can't last one winter, then it wasn't a very good job.

manwithaplan

Holyboy wrote: »

why not wait till spring to do it,especially as theres another bad winter forecast! The mind boggles.

That's like saying that there's no point washing your clothes because they're just going to get dirty again.

karltimber

Moflojo wrote: »

When they talk about the park becoming a 'giant roundabout' does this mean that there'll be a one-way system with two lanes of traffic operating in a clockwise direction around the park or what? That might not be too bad?

I'd say - when traveling from C-knock to town you will go left at the first round-about and come out at the lower one beside the zoo.
From town out to C-knock - a left at the zoo round-about and go around by Mag-fort and come out at the C-knock round-about.

seems logical

K

Bunnyhopper

You'd hope they keep the outer roads two-way (North Road and Glen/Military Road). Otherwise it'd make some trips unnecessarily long.

I think the last time they worked on the main road there they did block the cycle path at some points. It was possible to get past by going on the grass, but it made cycling through there after dark interesting. By the sound of this they'll be excavating quite deep and doing drainage and all sorts, so I wouldn't be surprised if they do block the cycle paths.

GSF

Side Show Bob wrote: »

Clever of the council deciding to do it during winter, just to let it get fcuked all over again,

It will be the OPW not the council doing it. If you think the council works slowly, the OPW takes things to a higher level entirely.

monument

Traffic management plan: http://www.phoenixpark.ie/media/Phoenix%20Park%20Diversions.pdf

Kaisr Sose

It's great to see money being spent on crumbling roads rather than crumbling banks ;-) Eliminating safety hazards is more important and than avoiding moral hazard !! Spend spend spend!

Side Show Bob

manwithaplan wrote: »

That's like saying that there's no point washing your clothes because they're just going to get dirty again.

Not really the point, in wet weather the foundation of the road gets more damaged when the surface is dug up or planed down, the short work days give the rain more time to get in and move the ground around, the short work day also means less productivity and less return in production per wages paid, it also leads to more cost with temporary lighting and traffic Managment not to mention the washing and maintainance of the traffic Managment systems which in inclement wearther in a populated area ever cone and sign may have to be washed on an hourly basis.

With the Government, minister for transport, the county engineer, the county councils and in this case the OPW on holidays how could it possibly be done during the summer.

Kaisr Sose

Side Show Bob wrote: »

Not really the point, in wet weather the foundation of the road gets more damaged when the surface is dug up or planed down, the short work days give the rain more time to get in and move the ground around, the short work day also means less productivity and less return in production per wages paid, it also leads to more cost with temporary lighting and traffic Managment not to mention the washing and maintainance of the traffic Managment systems which in inclement wearther in a populated area ever cone and sign may have to be washed on an hourly basis.

Interesting points....However, this is Ireland, and we have to work with the weather we get. Roads have to maintained, resurfaced and built twelve months per year. What would the road crews do if we only permitted road works (laying tarmac etc) on fine, dry days ?
Having lived abroad I can corfirm the so called madness of working on roads duing winter is pretty common place! And in these countries they do not clean cones and signs on an hourly basis-nor are normal road signs cleaned on an hourly basis. That would be total madness anyway.
With all this in mind, I hope the new surface is smooth

Bambaata

I found Chesterfield Ave fine all year once they did the works earlier in the year. Far better than the majority of roads out the country!

manwithaplan

Side Show Bob wrote: »

Not really the point, in wet weather the foundation of the road gets more damaged when the surface is dug up or planed down, the short work days give the rain more time to get in and move the ground around, the short work day also means less productivity and less return in production per wages paid, it also leads to more cost with temporary lighting and traffic Managment not to mention the washing and maintainance of the traffic Managment systems which in inclement wearther in a populated area ever cone and sign may have to be washed on an hourly basis.

With the Government, minister for transport, the county engineer, the county councils and in this case the OPW on holidays how could it possibly be done during the summer.

This work is being done by a contractor as a fixed price job. The OPW doesn't pay extra if it takes longer (although obviously there is more disruption). Perhaps tenderers price up winter jobs differently but I suspect that there isn't a lot of certainty as to when works will take place when tender notices are placed. The whole argument is ludicrous - the winters aren't particularly wetter than the summers, the multi-annual contracts that delivered our motorway network ran continuously and the civil engineering side of the construction industry can't just deliver masses of work in the summer and down tools for the winter. This nonsense argument is based on some 'council man with a shovel' view of how road construction and improvement takes place.

tomasrojo

I don't know about roadworks, but the winter in Dublin is considerably wetter than the summer (about 40mm on average in July, versus about 70mm in January). Most summers, unbelievably, Dublin is close to drought conditions.

However, I agree that the winters aren't all that wet either.

Doctor Bob

Side Show Bob wrote: »

With the Government, minister for transport, the county engineer, the county councils and in this case the OPW on holidays how could it possibly be done during the summer.

The OPW has always said that the primary purpose of the park is amenity and leisure, and summer is the busiest time. I suspect that may be more relevant to the timing of roadworks than anyone's holiday plans.

***

I hope someone keeps an eye on the effect the displaced traffic has on the surrounding areas. Locals around Blackhorse strongly - and successfully - opposed some of the traffic plans of the recent past, claiming inevitable gridlock, but I've a feeling it won't be as bad as was/is feared. Ultimately, I'd love to see Chesterfield closed to commuter car traffic, but that's probably a dream too far for now. This might be a decent first step, though.

fletch

The Park was open today? Everyone obviously avoided it too as Castleknock was like a ghost town in comparison to regular mornings.

Edit - I see Chesterfield Avenue isn't closing til 10a.m.

Cookie_Monster

The road is being rebuilt rather than just resurfaced.

Because it's finally been accepted as a valid commuting route they're going to redo the entire road bed seemingly.

you know, why try and solve the problem, lets just encourage it and beef up the road :rolleyes:

bogmanfan

Cycled home through the park yesterday and it was much nicer than usual. Cycle lane was open, but for once there were no pedestrians at all. Whole place was dead quiet at 2.30pm. Now if only there hadn't been a headwind :rolleyes:

Surveyor11

They've started proper this morning, stripping the tarmac at the zoo and working up to the Chesterfield roundabout. The cycle lanes are open ok on both sides, there's a improvised fence that demarcates the road from the grass verge - hopefully this will remain throughout the works. It's a bit hairy passing the áras as traffic is coming straight through from the North Road. And they could also do with opening the cycle lane that leads of this roundabout - you have to duck through the pedestrain path here. Other than that, it's a peaceful cycle!

GSF

Cops out yesterday evening nicking motorbikes going around the road closures (on the grass or pavements presumably) and using the closed stretches of Chesterfield Avenue. Saw one being talked to at the Aras roundabout.

Doctor Bob

Doctor Bob wrote: »

Ultimately, I'd love to see Chesterfield closed to commuter car traffic, but that's probably a dream too far for now. This might be a decent first step, though.

Well I guess it's a start...

As part of the ongoing management of the Phoenix Park a section of Chesterfield Avenue between the Phoenix roundabout and the Mountjoy roundabout (roundabout closest to to Castleknock Gate) will be opened at weekends to pedestrians, cyclists, runners, walkers, toddlers, etc. and closed to vehicular traffic. This will facilitate greater public recreational use of this area and allow pedestrians to cross Chesterfield Avenue safely and utilise the amenities on both sides of the Park.

Alternative routes will be available to allow vehicles access the Park and those wishing to travel in an East/West direction. The Odd Lamp Road, i.e. the road linking the Phoenix roundabout to the Back/North Road, will be opened to facilitate this at weekends.

The specific objectives & actions relating to the restriction of unnecessary and/or through traffic at weekends are recommendations within the Phoenix Park Conservation Management Plan 2011.

The opening of this section of Chesterfield Avenue to pedestrians will commence from April 7th on a pilot basis for the Spring & Summer period. The benefits or impact to the public will be closely monitored and in order to minimise disturbance to commuters, the closure will take effect from 10pm on Friday evenings to 10pm Sunday evenings.

Road: Chesterfield Avenue (Mountjoy to Phoenix Roundabouts).

Dates:Every weekend from Friday, 7th April - Sunday, 30th September 2012.

Times: 10.00 pm on Fridays until 10 pm on Sunday.

http://www.phoenixpark.ie/newsevents/title,18182,en.html

And not unrelated: Mad Hatter's Tea Party on Chesterfield Avenue on Easter Saturday.

Chips Lovell

Oh I don't know Bob. It's not enough having to dodge walkers, joggers and toddlers in the Park cycle lanes, we now have to deal with them on the road too?;)