COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, March 13, 2017

QUESTION NO.8

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

To ask the Chief Executive to provide a detailed response to the recently published TII N4-N7 Study and to advise on any actions which this Council intends pursuing or recommending arising from the Study?

REPLY:

The N4/N7 Corridor Study undertaken by Transport Infrastructure Ireland and its consultants examined the existing National and Regional Road Network in the South Dublin County Council Area in the context of traffic volumes on Main routes and the future traffic demands in the area based on projected population growth.

The objectives of the Study, which was very much focused on the Road network, were to:-

1. Describe and quantify the existing transport network in the Study Area, and the factors that influence existing behaviour;
2. Understand the future growth in population, employment, retail, leisure uses and underlying economic activity that will drive future increases in travel demand;
3. Develop and assess alternative approaches for responding to future demand using a combination of control measures and infrastructure investment on National and Regional/Local Roads to facilitate growth in population and employment, and corresponding increases in economic activity; and
4. To achieve this in a way that seeks to address on-going capacity issues, provide for short term growth and facilitate the future provision for public transport and other modes.

However, it should be noted that the Study concentrates on road capacity and does not take into account the transportation benefits associated with investment and improvements in Public Transport Infrastructure. The Study itself recognises this and Section 2.2 of the Final Report States:-

“The publication of the NTA Transport Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area 2016–2035 provides a context within which this N4-N7 corridor study should be framed. The NTA Strategy was published in April 2016 and therefore this study could not consider all aspects of the measures proposed, or their impacts. However, it is acknowledged that the medium and long term strategies for responding to future travel demand in these areas will have a strong public transport focus. The delivery of major public transport projects are generally medium to long term initiatives, therefore the focus of this study is to consider measures which seek to address on-going capacity issues, provide for short term growth and facilitate the future provision for public transport and other modes.”

The Study is of most use in that it examines a number of interventions in the Strategic Road Network and their impacts and benefits. In particular the potential impacts and benefits of (a) Demand Management on the M50 and (b) the Long Term Road Objective contained in the County Development Plan of an N4 to N7 Link Road to the West of Lucan and Grangecastle. It should also be noted that TII consider the provision of this latter objective to be a local, as opposed to National matter, at this point in time.