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Challenging Projects around Blackrock

dublinman1990

If you're familiar with living or working Blackrock; you may be noticing a few changes. It is good to see something happening with the way the economy has been going.

One project starting tomorrow (Tuesday 9th July) is the building of a new temporary school prefab which is being catered for all staff & students; who will come back in late August; at Newpark Comprehensive School. The prefab is being built beside the Avoca Hockey Pitch with the basketball & soccer courts behind it. It is temporary accommodation for the actual building itself.

The Newpark Sports Centre is also going under a refurbishment for the duration of the new school building.

The new school buildings are to be completed in a timeline of 2 years.

http://newparkschool.ie/home/new-school/briefing-note-11/

Next up is just nearby the school; namely Guardians Angels Church; in Newtownpark Avenue. The projects happening there are a reconfigured car park; which is done in 2 phases; & rebuilding of the church roof.

The aim of the new look car park is to provide a safe passage of all staff; schoolchildren & parents. I understand that phase 1 of the work will begin at the front of the church. It is to provide something like new footpaths; new gated entrances & new parking spaces.

The next phase of that project with an extra car park at the back of the church; is beginning sometime next year; with the inclusion of a new parish centre.

The other project happening there is the rebuilding of the church roof. The roof on the entire left hand side of the church has been leaking water since the 1970's. You could be surprised that it has been like that for so long. The estimated cost for that project is believed to be at €100,000 alone. That is being done with church donations and the like.

I understand there is some controversy about the church car park itself which I found out at Mass there last Sunday. It is to be used for 'Restricted Parking' only for church services and parents & teachers of Guardian Angels School.

This is happening at the same time the new building is being built for Newpark. The same issue also applies to people who work in other locations around the area.

That means that students who attend either in the day or the night school classes need to find alternative arrangements to get there. It means that there is going to be little or no space for car parking in the school.

I also know that Newpark have also bought the CEMEX site next door sometime around last year. The builders have been working there over the past week for clearing out work. I think that is being used for more extra temporary classrooms or a new car park.

I believe that the contracts for the projects in Guardian Angels were also signed off last Wednesday to carry out their own work.

The third project is nearly in the completion stages with an targeted opening date of December 2013. That is the new Blackrock Further Education Institute formerly Senior College Dun Laoghaire in Eblana Avenue.

I see that work is on that project is progressing very slowly. I am hoping that it would be finished for December or January.

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PeterR1016

Shame there isn't anything more live live music in the park during this summer...Disappointed with the council's lack of entertainment for its locals...

Dubl07

Glad to see them revamping Guardian Angel's carpark. They drive swarm out of it like lemmings after school and masses. This might put manners on the yummies in the urban tanks.

Millem

dublinman1990 wrote: »

If you're familiar with living or working Blackrock; you may be noticing a few changes. It is good to see something happening with the way the economy has been going.

One project starting tomorrow (Tuesday 9th July) is the building of a new temporary school prefab which is being catered for all staff & students; who will come back in late August; at Newpark Comprehensive School. The prefab is being built beside the Avoca Hockey Pitch with the basketball & soccer courts behind it. It is temporary accommodation for the actual building itself.

The Newpark Sports Centre is also going under a refurbishment for the duration of the new school building.

The new school buildings are to be completed in a timeline of 2 years.

http://newparkschool.ie/home/new-school/briefing-note-11/

Next up is just nearby the school; namely Guardians Angels Church; in Newtownpark Avenue. The projects happening there are a reconfigured car park; which is done in 2 phases; & rebuilding of the church roof.

The aim of the new look car park is to provide a safe passage of all staff; schoolchildren & parents. I understand that phase 1 of the work will begin at the front of the church. It is to provide something like new footpaths; new gated entrances & new parking spaces.

The next phase of that project with an extra car park at the back of the church; is beginning sometime next year; with the inclusion of a new parish centre.

The other project happening there is the rebuilding of the church roof. The roof on the entire left hand side of the church has been leaking water since the 1970's. You could be surprised that it has been like that for so long. The estimated cost for that project is believed to be at €100,000 alone. That is being done with church donations and the like.

I understand there is some controversy about the church car park itself which I found out at Mass there last Sunday. It is to be used for 'Restricted Parking' only for church services and parents & teachers of Guardian Angels School.

This is happening at the same time the new building is being built for Newpark. The same issue also applies to people who work in other locations around the area.

That means that students who attend either in the day or the night school classes need to find alternative arrangements to get there. It means that there is going to be little or no space for car parking in the school.

I also know that Newpark have also bought the CEMEX site next door sometime around last year. The builders have been working there over the past week for clearing out work. I think that is being used for more extra temporary classrooms or a new car park.

I believe that the contracts for the projects in Guardian Angels were also signed off last Wednesday to carry out their own work.

The third project is nearly in the completion stages with an targeted opening date of December 2013. That is the new Blackrock Further Education Institute formerly Senior College Dun Laoghaire in Eblana Avenue.

I see that work is on that project is progressing very slowly. I am hoping that it would be finished for December or January.

Newpark didn't buy cemex next door a builder/developer did and they are building 8 town houses I think! The temporary classes will be on site at back of school in between music centre and sports centre. I read the planning notice a couple of weeks ago when passing.

dublinman1990

Millem wrote: »

Newpark didn't buy cemex next door a builder/developer did and they are building 8 town houses I think! The temporary classes will be on site at back of school in between music centre and sports centre. I read the planning notice a couple of weeks ago when passing.

Duggan Brothers Ltd who are the contractors for the new school are to build a new pedestrian entrance to the temporary school building on the Benamore Road.

All communications with Newpark School are to made via email only as their telephone lines will be cut off temporarily for a few days of this coming week or it could be right now. I don't know the full story on that yet.

There will also be no canteen facilities available for the year either for students or staff due to the restricted size of the temporary building. Students are advised to bring a healthy lunch to school every day.

Parents are also advised from the school to avoid dropping off/picking up students at the school grounds as parking facilities there will be for staff only.

http://newparkschool.ie/home/new-school/briefing-note-13/

There was also a letter sent from the Castlebyrne Residents Association which had noted that the contractors will still be able to use the current school entrance on Newtownpark Avenue to continue work to clear & demolish the old building.

There will be also be significant changes to the layout of the current school entrance over the coming months.

I will type that letter up for you whenever I have it.

Tabnabs

Millem wrote: »

Newpark didn't buy cemex next door a builder/developer did and they are building 8 town houses I think! The temporary classes will be on site at back of school in between music centre and sports centre. I read the planning notice a couple of weeks ago when passing.

http://planning.dlrcoco.ie/swiftlg/apas/run/WPHAPPDETAIL.DisplayUrl?theApnID=D12A/0272&backURL=%3Ca%20href=wphappcriteria.display?paSearchKey=1149480%3ESearch%20Criteria%3C/a%3E%20%3E%20%3Ca%20href=%27wphappsearchres.displayResultsURL?ResultID=1267600%26StartIndex=1%26SortOrder=rgndat:desc%26DispResultsAs=WPHAPPSEARCHRES%26BackURL=%3Ca%20href=wphappcriteria.display?paSearchKey=1149480%3ESearch%20Criteria%3C/a%3E%27%3ESearch%20Results%3C/a%3E

Permission is sought for the demolition and removal of all ancillary structures including stores, concrete pens and concrete ground slab of disused cement works; removal of front boundary wall along Newtownpark Avenue and replacement with low wall and railing; reduction in height of southern boundary wall from 3.800 to 2.000 metres and the construction of a residential development of 8 No. 2.5 storey 4 bedroom dwellings with dormer windows to front, consisting of 1 detached and 7 terraced houses in two blocks, ancillary site works and new access road from Newtownpark Avenue all on site of 0.255 Ha.

Interesting to see new residential developments once again.

dublinman1990

Tabnabs wrote: »

http://planning.dlrcoco.ie/swiftlg/apas/run/WPHAPPDETAIL.DisplayUrl?theApnID=D12A/0272&backURL=%3Ca%20href=wphappcriteria.display?paSearchKey=1149480%3ESearch%20Criteria%3C/a%3E%20%3E%20%3Ca%20href=%27wphappsearchres.displayResultsURL?ResultID=1267600%26StartIndex=1%26SortOrder=rgndat:desc%26DispResultsAs=WPHAPPSEARCHRES%26BackURL=%3Ca%20href=wphappcriteria.display?paSearchKey=1149480%3ESearch%20Criteria%3C/a%3E%27%3ESearch%20Results%3C/a%3E

Interesting to see new residential developments once again.

Have the developers mentioned in what way the houses are going to be sold on the market either it be rented out or via a mortgage.

Given the high amount of mortgage arrears in place; it would be logical for them to be on the rental market.

zagmund

I passed there today at about 1215. It was mayhem. Cars parked left, right & centre outside the school. The big truck parked up didn't help. There was one bloke trying to pull out from the wrong side of the road, against the flow of traffic, into a flow of traffic that was obscured by the van. It looked like an accident waiting to happen. I sincerely hope the pupils don't cross other than at the pedestrian lights or there's going to be an accident if this keeps up. However, this is the real world and I know people will cross that traffic because it saves them 90 seconds.

z

ted1

dublinman1990 wrote: »

Have the developers mentioned in what way the houses are going to be sold on the market either it be rented out or via a mortgage.

Given the high amount of mortgage arrears in place; it would be logical for them to be on the rental market.

Plenty of cash buyers youth there and people with mortgage approval. It'd be illogical for them to rent them as the developer would need to have all the funds available and his accounts will have a huge amount of debt.

They only need short term access to finds when selling. At the moment there is an under supply of houses in Douth Dublin

homer911

dublinman1990 wrote: »

Given the high amount of mortgage arrears in place; it would be logical for them to be on the rental market.

given the much higher level of arrears on BTL loans than Home Loans, I sincerely doubt it

dublinman1990

I passed through over the past two days & something that was a noticeable part of the school entrance for years had disappeared. Those big giant trees that were in front of the building.

The builders had them cut them down over that period & they have all gone now.

The school has also released some photos of the new school prefabs in the grounds including the new side entrance on Rowanbyrne Road.

http://newparkschool.ie/2013/08/29/photographs-of-temporary-new-school-buildings-august-2013/

dublinman1990

According to the Dun Laoghaire Gazette newspaper; I have read that dlrcoco had proposed a development to build high-rise apartment blocks consisting from four to five storeys for each block between Temple Road & Newtownpark Avenue which was overwhelmingly rejected (and rightly so) by local residents.

http://www.gazettegroup.com/news/residents-slate-plan-for-high-rise-blocks/

A disgraceful decision to think of actually building them I'll bet. Why would you put them in these locations for a start?

The proposed development is contained in chapter 3 of the draft local area plan for Blackrock entitled Urban Structure & Character.

http://www.dlrcoco.ie/media/media,9396,en.pdf

ted1

5 stories is not high rise.

dublinman1990

I had noticed the new development of townhouses being built beside Newpark Comprehensive School has it's new signage up since this morning.

The development is being named Melfort. It is ''A Luxury development comprising of 8 quality Four Bedroom A Rated Houses''.

The website is here: http://www.melfort.ie/

The property developer for the project is Knight Franks.

Work had begun some time ago along the front of Guardian Angels Church for it's new car park. The work is stretching throughout the whole front end of it right beside the main road.

A trojan amount of work has been going on at Newpark itself with the old building nearly entirely demolished in a space of 3 to 4 weeks.

EricPraline

ted1 wrote: »

5 stories is not high rise.

Depends entirely on the context of the local area. In Manhattan it's clearly low-rise. In an area of Dublin which consists almost entirely of two-storey semi-ds, it's far higher than the norm.

lolo62

zagmund wrote: »

I passed there today at about 1215. It was mayhem. Cars parked left, right & centre outside the school. The big truck parked up didn't help. There was one bloke trying to pull out from the wrong side of the road, against the flow of traffic, into a flow of traffic that was obscured by the van. It looked like an accident waiting to happen. I sincerely hope the pupils don't cross other than at the pedestrian lights or there's going to be an accident if this keeps up. However, this is the real world and I know people will cross that traffic because it saves them 90 seconds.

z

I work in the music centre. The new school building has taken over where parking for the music centre used to be. This means parents can't park at the school any more, permanently.
Teachers are having to park around in rockfield and just on the road outside.

Three car crash yesterday, luckily no one was hurt
It's an absolute nightmare and isn't going to get any better I'm afraid as once the school reopens, the few spaces that are at the music centre are going to be taken by the secondary school staff.

dublinman1990

I see that the October newsletter for Newpark has included more photos of the demolished school building including poems & stories from some of the students.

http://issuu.com/newparknewsletter/docs/newpark_newsletter_oct_2013

An update on Melfort btw!

The material to be used for the new housing development will be a mix of Grey & red brick (Grey brick for the interior & Red brick for the exterior). The builders on that site have undertaken a huge amount of work so far during the past week which is also great news.

schemingbohemia

lolo62 wrote: »

I work in the music centre. The new school building has taken over where parking for the music centre used to be. This means parents can't park at the school any more, permanently.
Teachers are having to park around in rockfield and just on the road outside.

Three car crash yesterday, luckily no one was hurt
It's an absolute nightmare and isn't going to get any better I'm afraid as once the school reopens, the few spaces that are at the music centre are going to be taken by the secondary school staff.

How many of those people really really need to drive there? That's the problem, most of them probably live within a 10/15 minute walk of the place.

Fratton Fred

schemingbohemia wrote: »

How many of those people really really need to drive there? That's the problem, most of them probably live within a 10/15 minute walk of the place.

Newpark is the only church of Ireland secondary school in the area. Wyvern in Killiney, St Patricks in Dalkey and Kill o the Grange are all feeder schools for it that I know of.

Thanks to the ridiculous school set up in our area, kids are forced to travel a long way to go there.

lolo62

schemingbohemia wrote: »

How many of those people really really need to drive there? That's the problem, most of them probably live within a 10/15 minute walk of the place.

Agreed, but from my experience working at the school, music tends to be one several 'activities' each day and parents are chauffeuring three and four kids around from one thing to the next.
I could go on a whole rant about my opinions on that but it's probably for another thread!

It wasn't very neighbourly of the secondary school to just build on all of the parking and leave the music school with nothing, but there seems to be a whole parochial political set up there that I'll never understand.

annoyed mum

you will be glad to hear the the guards are now putting parking tickets on the cars of Teachers & parents of the school since today .
There is now no parking on a public rd out side the school if you park you get a ticket even though there are no double yellow lines.

lolo62

annoyed mum wrote: »

you will be glad to hear the the guards are now putting parking tickets on the cars of Teachers & parents of the school since today .
There is now no parking on a public rd out side the school if you park you get a ticket even though there are no double yellow lines.

I know, its gas...luckily I'm not one of them but if I was I would not be happy!
Still no sign of a solution either

annoyed mum

I actually rang Traffic Corps. in Blackrock today cars are still parking outside the school,two Garda vehicles passed by ignored the parked cars ,i was so annoyed the Guard said it is residents that are kicking off and they have to be seen to act on complaints ,as i pointed out to him i drive up Deans grange every day road layout similar to Newtown pk ave.and cars parked by Garages all along the rd and no Guards issuing tickets gas really:mad::(

lolo62

annoyed mum wrote: »

I actually rang Traffic Corps. in Blackrock today cars are still parking outside the school,two Garda vehicles passed by ignored the parked cars ,i was so annoyed the Guard said it is residents that are kicking off and they have to be seen to act on complaints ,as i pointed out to him i drive up Deans grange every day road layout similar to Newtown pk ave.and cars parked by Garages all along the rd and no Guards issuing tickets gas really:mad::(

Well then its not illegal to park there and people should continue to do so. The tickets are invalid if no law has been broken. If people allow the Garda to bully them with these tickets the problem just gets moved on from Newparks doorstep when its theirs to resolve
Sorry if you got fined didn't mean to seem like I was poking fun...its an alternative to total infuriation!

Dubl07

When I've been passing Newpark recently there are generally a number of cars parked almost entirely on the pavement on the side opposite the school (offside wheels 6" from pavement). It may leave more space for road users but it's entirely illegal.

annoyed mum

I do agree about that. These are people who are dropping children to after school swimming & musicthey jump out of the car and the kids run across the rd by themselves. I think the only way to solve this is to put double yellow lines on the rd opposite the school,at least Residence would be happy or speed ramps there will always be traffic chaos outside schools and motorists should expect to drive slower when passing the same i believe there are going to be speed cameras on that stretch of rd very soon according to the Guard i spoke to in the traffic corp.

lolo62

annoyed mum wrote: »

i believe there are going to be speed cameras on that stretch of rd very soon according to the Guard i spoke to in the traffic corp.

I hope so, speed bumps would also be good

unfortunately double yellow lines wouldnt be any good for teachers commuting from the other side of the city (some from outside dublin) needing to park at their place of employment
kids running across the road is not ideal either

schemingbohemia

lolo62 wrote: »

I hope so, speed bumps would also be good

unfortunately double yellow lines wouldnt be any good for teachers commuting from the other side of the city (some from outside dublin) needing to park at their place of employment
kids running across the road is not ideal either

Needing or wanting? The school is within walking distance of the DART, the 4 and the 7, both very frequent bus services. It is also not a huge walk from the most frequent bus services in the city the 46a/145 on the N11.

Everyone seems to want someone else to make the sacrifice, as long as it's not them that have to give up their parking space.

lolo62

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Needing or wanting? The school is within walking distance of the DART, the 4 and the 7, both very frequent bus services. It is also not a huge walk from the most frequent bus services in the city the 46a/145 on the N11.

Everyone seems to want someone else to make the sacrifice, as long as it's not them that have to give up their parking space.

Im not sure you know what you are talking about there with public transport
I did it for two years and would happily sell my car and get the bus if it was a viable option. I personally hate driving.

When using Dublin bus leaving home at 1 to get a bus to town I would then wait for a 4 on oconnell bridge that might or might not come, get that out to blackrock to start work at 3 o'clock
finishing at 8.30 walk to the bus stop ( the 7 at that time of night randomely wont go all the way into town stopping at rds which means a three bus journey home) to get the next 4 which is at 9 o'clock into town and wait on aston quay for another half an hour for a bus that would get me home for 10.
that's 3 and a half hours travelling time for 5 hours work, and that would be on a good day, by that I mean busses showing up on time (or at all)
dart is nowhere near me

also some teachers commute from arklow, ardee etc so obviously public transport not possible in these situations

so to answer your question, needing.

spillit67

annoyed mum wrote: »

I actually rang Traffic Corps. in Blackrock today cars are still parking outside the school,two Garda vehicles passed by ignored the parked cars ,i was so annoyed the Guard said it is residents that are kicking off and they have to be seen to act on complaints ,as i pointed out to him i drive up Deans grange every day road layout similar to Newtown pk ave.and cars parked by Garages all along the rd and no Guards issuing tickets gas really:mad::(

Newtownpark Avenue is a far busier road and that part has only gotten busier with the Monkstown Ring Road bringing traffic lights down there. I can understand why the residents are pissed off.

What is the schools role in this? Surely they thought of this as a possibility before?

spillit67

lolo62 wrote: »

Im not sure you know what you are talking about there with public transport
I did it for two years and would happily sell my car and get the bus if it was a viable option. I personally hate driving.

When using Dublin bus leaving home at 1 to get a bus to town I would then wait for a 4 on oconnell bridge that might or might not come, get that out to blackrock to start work at 3 o'clock
finishing at 8.30 walk to the bus stop ( the 7 at that time of night randomely wont go all the way into town stopping at rds which means a three bus journey home) to get the next 4 which is at 9 o'clock into town and wait on aston quay for another half an hour for a bus that would get me home for 10.
that's 3 and a half hours travelling time for 5 hours work, and that would be on a good day, by that I mean busses showing up on time (or at all)
dart is nowhere near me

also some teachers commute from arklow, ardee etc so obviously public transport not possible in these situations

so to answer your question, needing.

The 4 comes every 15 minutes. Blackrock has commuter trains that go by doesn't it? The 114 is hooked upto the Green Luas line too.