The actual story is more reasoned. The residents support Metrolink, but were asking if any small green space could be found for residents during construction... the current plan will take all of the available greens. A fair and reasonable request.
Thats it! cancel the entire thing!
Something that occurred to me yesterday. Over its nine year construction period, the cost of building Metrolink would work out at €35 per week for each inhabitant of Dublin City, or less than €15 per week for those living in County Dublin.
If you want to run the train off the tracks and into the station box proper scalextrix style, you need an incline as you approach, hence "breaking in"
Howdya mean "breaking into them" out of curiosity?
E: only after I posted did I realise you meant "braking", leaving it up in case anyone else was similarly puzzled
Judicial review is less likely for metrolink and any plaintifs who actually have grounds for JR will likely be paid to go away. The JR fiasco is also likely to be closed by legislation soon
Its a good question but difficult to answer with anything other than "how long is a piece of string"
There have been very few major project Railway Orders in recent times to compare it to.
If you take the M28 as an example, which although it is a road rather than a rail project follows the same approval framework, that was approved by ABP in June 2018. There was a two year and nine month delay as it worked its way through the legal process (Judicial Review and subsequent appeals). Preliminary work commenced in 2021 and continues (fencing, scrub clearance, archeological survey, utility diversion, etc). The main contract went to tender in late 2023 and has not yet been awarded. Currently construction is expected to start in late 2024. So that was 6.5 years from ABP approval to construction commencing. The legal decisions in this case were somewhat delayed, on the other hand neither the Court of Appeal nor the Supreme Court heard the case, nor were the opponents granted approval to "take it to Europe". SO the legal process could actually have taken a lot longer. And a further three years have elapsed since the legal process ended. Will there be a Judicial review of the ABP Metrolink decision ? Will the decision from that be subject to further appeals ? Will other issues arise to accelerate or delay the project ? It's simply impossible to tell.
And that's before any political considerations. Look at the NCH, all set to go back in the days of the Bert and Cowen, change of Government, and hey presto ten year delay ensued. Nothing to say that that couldn't be repeated. And that's before ever factoring Ryan into the equation.
So at this relatively early stage, given that there are further hoops to jump through and further pitfalls ahead, it's anybody's guess. Hopefully, with a fair wind, it will be underway by the end of the decade.
Queue vociferous cries of shrill indignation.............
That makes a lot of sense. If not being done already, I wonder could they adopt that strategy for other underground stations too. Reducing the dept of station boxes by 1 or 2m could give a pretty big construction cost saving.
Being discussed now on NewsTalk.
That would be awesome. This is probably the biggest threat to the project though so I won't exhale until some significant works have started: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Irish_general_election
Sounds great. With a bit of luck we'll see builders moving in this time next year, at which point we can all exhale, perhaps pop some reasonably priced prosecco, tremendous progress.
Once construction starts I think it'll move along more rapidly than predicted, there's usually a lot of padding in tunnelling project timelines because of the geotechnical variables. Might even see it finish up around 2031.
Thanks for these regular updates - they’re very much appreciated.
Took a look at the schedule for the oral hearings there again, and it looks like Module 1 of the oral hearing has finished*. Module 1 was where proper engineering issues were to be raised, so stuff like issues with electromagnetic interference, vibrations & noise, property damage, existing pilings being missed in the plans, etc. Module 2 is where all other matters should be raised. They specifically mention property acquisition, so expect to hearing from Hedigans and the College Gate apartment people. I'd also guess that you'll hear people complain about the chosen route in this module, but little else.
So far, it's been enormously positive. If any major issues where to be found in the plans, it would have happened in module 1, and all of the issues that were raised so far have been really minor/easily solved.
*So says the schedule issued on Monday. It's possible that it ran over, but they seem to be ticking over pretty well so far.
It should actually help. If I recall correctly, the central line in London was built with slopes up to stations to aid breaking into them and acceleration out of them.
Maybe a silly question but I wonder does this have any effect on the performance of the metro train? Ie it now has a steeper gradient to traverse?
Probably doesn’t matter I’d say.
A relatively easy fix. Again, TII taking the path of least resistance on things that are easy to fix.
Before and after. Shame this wasn't caught.
Dartmouth Square Resident's Association have been busy.
TII have now uploaded the new plans to get around this issue, and as promised, it's slightly deeper. Means a pumping station is now required.
I believe that it needs full cabinet approval again before contracts are signed. That's a potential banana skin, and having seen the arguments put up against this project at ABP so far, I'd say I'd class that as a more likely worry. Politicians don't like long expensive projects, as they might not be around for the grand photo op opening, but would be open to criticism of any overspend.
I think it's at the ministers discretion
Excellent thanks.
Any idea how long it takes from ABP RO approval to clear DEPR PSC?
I presume that’s it then…..shovels in the ground?
So what’s the DEPR PSC?
@tom1ie
DEPR is the acronym used for the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform (Previously Public Expenditure and Reform). They monitor and to a large extent regulate and control public expenditure.
PSC is the Public Spending Code which is a set of rules and procedures which govern public expenditure. Among other things this sets out how public capital projects operate. For projects such as the Metro both a preliminary and final business case must be prepared and submitted by the sponsoring authority and the project must go through decision gates (stages of expenditure approval) during planning and approval before it is given final approval to proceed to construction. Essentially it provides the governance by which the Government keep control of Capital Expenditure and related projects
More here: https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/public-spending-code/?fl=en
Page 8 of the following TII document shows the PSC as it applies to major road projects and where the decision gates align with the TII project phases It’s application to major rail projects is very similar
https://www.tii.ie/roads-tolling/projects-and-improvements/major-active-projects.pdf
This didn't either, the chosen tie in at Beechwood was done after the discovery of the sewer. Per NTA, and per TII, the reason the Tie in was culled was due to public opposition to the GL closures and disruption. I'm happy that Ryan has gotten it as far as he has but he did have a part to play in feeding into that opposition.
Also I don't think theres any reason why this can't have its railway order by Q4 2024, at least thats what TII want, in which case I can imagine the government will be very keen to have contracts signed before the election.
Department of Public Expenditure public spending code.
A final case for funding will have to be made by the NTA/TII to that Department and then brought to cabinet for approval.
I wouldn’t be expecting any final decision until next year sometime.
No he didn’t.
The discovery of the sewer under the Grand Canal stopped it.
Well he played his part in making sure the extension south of Charlemont didn’t happen. I won’t trust him on this matter until we have a spade in the ground tbh.
The E Ryan who has brought it through cabinet approval and to the RO?
He is not remotely a concern. His replacement might be.
Maybe take a look at where the Glounthaune to Midleton double tracking project is at.
Yes, I don't see Eamon Ryan as any kind of obstacle at all, in fact he'd only be delighted to be at the photoshoot signing contracts on this, it's be a real legacy for him and his party. Really goes to show that people and parties out of power are very different to people in power, going from crayon drawings of magical spurs to a full throated supporter of the planned line.
Despite all the talk about how the green party are terrible, and no one is going to vote for them, I'd say that they have a great chance of being in power next time around as well. People talk about how they'll be wiped out, but I really don't see that happening, the climate issues haven't gone away, and they've been quietly effective at doing what they said they would when they went into the coalition. I'd even see Eamon Ryan as party leader too, his main opposition have both hobbled themselves over the years, whereas he hasn't, not really.
