Cycle path plan diverts buses through apartment block

The preferred route for a cycle path along Liffey quays from the Phoenix Park to Dublin docks would divert buses through a site where an apartment block is currently under construction, it has emerged.

Dublin City Council has been developing plans for a segregated cycle route along the river since 2012.

Last March, four route options were released for public consultation and more than 1,200 responses were received.

Just under half the respondents favoured an option which involves moving Croppies Acre Memorial Park, in front of the National Museum at Collins Barracks, down to the quay wall.

This preferred route runs the cycle path through the park and continues west along the river.

Traffic is diverted around the park on a new road, with a bus lane and two general traffic lanes, next to the Luas line.

The two car lanes return to the quays at the end of the park at Liffey Street West, while the bus lane continues along Benburb Street.

The bus lane stays next to the Luas line until Smithfield where it diverts onto Hammond Lane, rejoining the quays at Church Street.

However, just before it reaches Smithfield plaza, the proposed bus lane runs through an apartment block due for completion early next year.

The Dublin Loft Company was last December granted permission by the council for a six-storey apartment building with a restaurant/cafe at ground floor.

Council plans

Gary O’Hare of KMD Architecture, which designed the apartment scheme, said neither he nor his clients were aware of the council’s plans.

“Nobody has been in contact with us. I am the one listed on the planning application . . . The site is very tight to the Luas, and there certainly wouldn’t be room for a bus lane.”

Mr O’Hare pointed out there was an existing planning permission for a building on the site, granted in 2008, before it was purchased by his clients, who bought the site from the city council.

A report from the council’s roads and traffic department dated last July, said it had no objection to Dublin Loft Company development.

A spokesman for the council yesterday said it was not in a position to reply to queries.

Green Party councillor Ciarán Cuffe, chair of the council's transport committee, said there had been "a lack of joined-up thinking" in the design of the route.

Not ideal

However, he said there was a possibility buses could be allowed drive along the Luas line.

“It’s not an ideal solution, and we’re still waiting for the engineers to come back on it.”

A spokesman for Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which has responsibilty for the Luas, said this did “not appear to be an optimal solution”.

Residents on Benburb Street are also opposed to the route.

Elizabeth O’Brien of the Collins Square Management Committee said the council was trying to “sneak through” an “urban highway and new bus way” in the guise of a cycleway.

Residents were also concerned by the changes to Croppies Acre, which is a national monument and site of a graveyard for 1798 rebels .