THE €60 million Samuel Beckett Bridge across the river Liffey in Dublin opened to traffic yesterday with mixed reports about its effect on traffic flows in its first day.
While AA Roadwatch said it had not heard of any specific problems with traffic, a handful of callers to RTÉ's Livelineprogramme complained about it.
A spokeswoman for AA Roadwatch said the only problem it had been made aware of was that some motorists had attempted to turn left at the bridge from North Wall Quay. But within “about an hour” this information seemed to have filtered through to motorists.
Callers to the radio show complained at the fact that turning left on to the bridge from the direction of the Port Tunnel and the O2 is not permitted. There were also complaints that no right-turn is permitted coming off the bridge on either side of the quays.
One caller said the arrangement meant the first time a motorist coming from the south side could legally make a right turn was at North Circular Road and Ballybough “which is bringing you right back into all the traffic you are trying to stay away from”.
He said there had been a queue of traffic back to the O2 at 8.40am because there were gardaí at the bridge informing motorists that they could not turn left at the bridge.
A spokesman for Dublin City Council said arrangements in place on the bridge were in accordance with conditions laid down by An Bord Pleanála.
“An Bord Pleanála granted permission for the bridge but they had a number of conditions attaching, one of which was the no right-turn in both directions over the bridge and the other one was no left-turn on to the bridge if you’re coming from North Wall Quay.”
The bridge was also to facilitate pedestrians and cyclists, and any changes to the arrangement would necessitate changing all the traffic light sequences.
In 1998, the bridge was projected to cost £10 million, but costs later rose to almost €60 million.