COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, February 11, 2008

QUESTION NO. 8

QUESTION: Councillor G. O'Connell

To ask the Manager responsible to report on progress and efforts to date to achieve the Objectives in the current 2004 -2010 County Development Plan that refer to provide for :

-(A) an outer road and a new crossing of the River Liffey West of Lucan

-(B) a connection to the M50 at Cloverhill

-(C) a Library for Palmerstown.

REPLY:

A) New Crossing West of Lucan

The long term objective of a Western Outer Distributor Route described as "North South Road West of Adamstown SDZ linking N7 to N4 and on to Fingal" on Table 13.7 of the County Development Plan has been the subject of Preliminary Route Selection by the Council’s Road Design Section and consulting engineers and a number of route options have been identified within the county boundaries.

The recent Lucan Traffic Report has shown the need for a second Liffey Crossing close to Lucan Village to relieve traffic congestion in the Village.  This report indicated a bridge crossing the River Liffey just west of Lucan with a connection to the Leixlip Interchange on the N4 and a road link to the Fingal County Road Network east of Leixlip.

Work to date on the Western Distributor Route and second Lucan Liffey Crossing has consisted of identification of route options and Preliminary Route Selection.

It is estimated that the construction costs of this route at current day costs would be in the region of €30 million.

Co-ordination of the advancement and prioritisation of the project with Fingal County Council and the identification of funding for the link road have yet to be addressed

 B)    M50 at Cloverhill

The National Roads Authority has indicated in recent correspondence that it is not in favour of an interchange connection to the M50 at Cloverhill and would reject any application to construct such an interchange.

 It is the policy of the NRA not to allow the development of any additional junctions on the M50 because existing junctions are already very closely spaced and spare motorway capacity to facilitate additional junctions is not available on this strategically vital motorway corridor.

 C)    Library - Palmerstown

Objectives for the provision of a Digital Hub/Virtual Library in Palmerstown have been included in the infrastructure section of the Library Development Plan 2007– 2011.

A special meeting of the Council has been arranged for 21st February to consider the 3 Year Capital Programme 2008 - 2010 and the availability of capital finance resources to support the Programme.The provision of the Library Project in Palmerstown together with other Community Infrastructure Projects  etc will be considererd further in the context of this 3 year Capital Programme.