Millennium designs for capital's main street

The remaking of O'Connell Street, including a design competition to find a suitable replacement for Nelson Pillar, is to be Dublin…

The remaking of O'Connell Street, including a design competition to find a suitable replacement for Nelson Pillar, is to be Dublin Corporation's principal millennium project, according to the city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald.

O'Connell Street is to be narrowed to four traffic lanes to make room for more generous footpaths and a major effort is to be made to develop the former Carlton Cinema site, with a new pedestrian link to Moore Street.

An independent board is to be established to run the Municipal Gallery on Parnell Square, ending the practice of councillors deciding whether to purchase particular works of modern art, while City Hall will house a museum telling the history of Dublin.

Other plans include a pedestrian bridge over the River Liffey, west of the Ha'penny Bridge, and a south-facing suspended walkway beneath the north quays between O'Connell Bridge and Grattan Bridge, at Capel Street.

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As for roads, Mr Fitzgerald said the corporation had only two major inner city schemes - North King Street and the Coombe bypass route - and a "very small scheme" for a new road linking Mercer Street with Aungier Street.

He now feels confident that the £175 million port tunnel scheme will be delivered by 2003.

Asked if it was really the first stage of a full Eastern Bypass, he said though this was "not on the agenda" more people now felt it should at least be considered.

He emphasised that the corporation fully supported implementing the Dublin Transportation Initiative strategy and had told W. S. Atkins, the consultants reviewing an underground option for Luas, that it should "unequivocally" be an on-street system.