A few of Live Drive's listeners have recently asked why there is "No Right Turn" off Samuel Becket Bridge and "No Left Turn" off North Wall Quay onto Samuel Becket Bridge. We put the question to Dublin City Council.
As part of the Planning Application process for Samuel Beckett Bridge an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was required. An Bord Pleanála granted the permission with a number of conditions attached, one of which was the ‘no right turn’ in both directions off the Bridge, and ‘no left turn’ onto the Bridge off North Wall Quay.
Dublin City Council implemented the ‘no right turn’ and ‘no left turn’ in accordance with the conditions imposed with the planning permission granted by An Bord Pleánala. The bridge was intended to facilitate the orbital route traversing the City from North to South and visa-versa. It was never intended that traffic which uses the Eastlink daily, travelling from North to South of the Liffey, would divert onto the Bridge. This would increase the volume of traffic in the South East Inner City and have an adverse effect on residents there considerably.
It should also be noted that during the public consultation phase held at the time, traffic noise and volume levels would have been a factor for consideration for residents living in the vicinity of the Bridge with regard to the EIS.
The new bridge was the biggest waste of money then. When coming from the south side to the north side, the first turn you can make is at the 5 lamps, a junction allready clogged with traffic. this is causing traffic nighmares. Its quicker to use the Talbot Memorial Bridge. Going from north side to south side is something similar, the trraffic lights are not sequenced and not giving priority to traffic heading towards the bridge, also cars are blocking the road by trying to turn right on Oriel street towards the train station. Once your accross the south side, Macken street is still a building site and traffic crawls.
ReplyDeleteIt's a disgrace. Me, like many others I've already seen, will be coming across the bridge from south to north and doing a U turn further up the road so that we can access the roads that you are not allowed access from the other way. The same goes for crossing over from north to south when coming from the O2 direction.
ReplyDeleteRidiculous.