COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF LUCAN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

MOTION NO. 2

MOTION: Councillor P. Gogarty

Cathaoirleach's Business

"That this Council review the decision to place arrow and signage for 7.5T weight restrictions entering into the Oval at Palmerston in the light of concerns expressed by residents that this actually encourages smaller but still sizeable vehicles to travel along a route towards Turret Road that passes two primary schools and also because this signage does not appear to have formed part of the signage approval sought from An Garda Siochana in November 2013."

REPORT:

These weight restriction advance warning signs are in place on the Palmerston Bypass approaching The Oval. The advance warning signs were requested by An Garda Síochána in order that any dispute regarding the presence of the restriction on Kennelsfort road and the Oval could be eliminated. The signage provided, including the arrow are in accordance with Chapter 6 of the Traffic Signs Manual and are similar to those employed across Europe. They indicate that the restriction shown is on Kennelsfort road and the Oval and HGV's should not use these routes from this direction.

It should be noted that the intention of the HGV weight restriction on Kennelsfort road was also to apply to the Oval to prevent the use of the roads between the Oval and Kennelsfort road, along Turret road as described, by HGV's. This was the case prior to the 2013 modification of the length of the restriction along Kennelsfort Road. The restriction at the oval was required to match the restriction of 7.5 tonnes on Kennelsfort Road as a precautionary measure, otherwise roads such as Turret Road could form an alternative to the weight restricted route. The shorter lengths of restriction also makes the restriction easier to enforce.

Previously no restriction existed at The Oval as it could not be used to circumvent the previous restriction on Kennelsfort Road. It was contained within the Kennelsfort Road restriction zone. Smaller Goods vehicles were free to use roads such as Turret Road and this did not give rise to complaints of heavy goods vehicles on roads between The Oval and Kennelsfort Road.

The restriction applies to HGV's only and smaller vehicles such as "transit vans" are not restricted as such vehicles do not cause a problem. They are generally no longer than cars and do not have high driving positions such as those in HGV's with similar vision characteristics to cars. The Council is also providing a similar advance warning sign at the Coldcut road junction identifying the restricted zone on Kennelsfort road.