COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM/TEMPLEOGUE-TERENURE AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

MOTION NO. 6

MOTION: Councillor D. O'Donovan

"That the Chief Executive installs a cycle track on the stretch of road from Scholarstown Roundabout to St. Colmcilles National School as a matter of urgency.  Given that there are 1,600 students attending the school, any measure that would keep traffic off the site must be encouraged.  And obviously cycling offers enormous health benefits to the students but at the moment this stretch of road is extremely narrow and dangerous." 

REPORT:

In 2014 the National Transport Authority granted funding to South Dublin County Council for a ‘Green Schools Cluster’ project. This project involves liaison between a number of schools at Ballyroan in the Rathfarnham area, An Taisce Green Schools, the NTA Green Schools Coordinator and South Dublin County Council. The aim of the project is to engage with the schools, assess current levels of walking and cycling to the schools and identify measures that could encourage walking and cycling to the school. The NTA have provided funding to implement the programme and to identify any improvements that may be made to pedestrian and cycle facilities and to improve permeability in the vicinity of the schools. The project description is specifically tailored to examine facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. The schools that are part of the programme were the schools based within the Ballyroan / Ballyboden cluster as follows:

 Ballyroan Boys National School were also surveyed as they were in close proximity to the schools in question.  As St. Colmcilles returned this year to Idrone Avenue, the survey was changed to allow them to feed back information about their new location. The surveys are currently being collated and examined and a report will follow. However preliminary examination shows a number of issues reported in relation to walking and cycling to St. Colmcilles new location at Idrone Avenue, in particular from Orlagh Roundabout and Scholarstown Road down to the new school location.

South Dublin County Council are undertaking detailed design for a section of the Tallaght to Ballyboden Cycle Route which passes close to the school on Knocklyon Road. The National Transport Authority have agreed to extend funding, so South Dublin County Council have requested the consulting engineers to extend their brief to examine and upgrade as required, the provision of walking and cycling facilities north and south from Knocklyon Road from Orlagh Roundabout to the school. Topographical survey is currently underway. It is envisaged that the detailed design of these walking and cycling facilities will be complete by year end. Once completed a further application for funding to the National Transport Authority can be made for tender and construction phases.

In the meantime the Roads Traffic Section have monitored the congestion at the school junction at Knocklyon Road. The junction at Knocklyon Road, Idrone Avenue and Scholarstown Road is a staggered cross road, a signal controller which reacts to traffic conditions is installed. It is configured to insure that the entire junction is prevented from gridlock and the maximum amount of traffic is accommodated given the layout of the roads in and approaching the junction. The junction is operating to maximise traffic throughput consistent with the safety of vulnerable road users. The Traffic section will also examine other issues that were raised by the school-going community in relation to the existing traffic signals and phasing, ‘green man’ times etc.