Luas Cross City Christmas work schedule

The LUAS Cross City Team of the National Transport Authority and Transport Infrastructure Ireland were invited to attend the Dublin Town September Board meeting last week as part of programme of routine updates on the construction works in the city. They are working to a very tight deadline in order to be done on O’Connell Street ahead of next years St. Patricks Day parade and 1916 celebrations. A proposed programme of works was presented for the coming months including the Christmas period. There were a number of aspects to the proposals that gave rise to serious concerns for the board on behalf of the business community. These included proposals for works on O’Connell Street outside Eason’s that would reduce traffic to one lane for approximately 50m and works on O’Connell Bridge during the Christmas period. The board considered this to be very problematic. The Board also expressed serious reservations as the proposed end date of works of Sunday December 6th. In addition Dublin Town sought clarification in respect of proposed works on Grafton Street, Dawson Street and Nassau Street during the months of November and December. The Luas/NTA noted our concerns and proposed a follow up meeting.

Following a constructive meeting on Tuesday it was agreed that a number of significant amendments would be made to the original plans with the objective of reducing the impact of works during the critical Christmas trading period; These include

• Planned works on the roadway of O’ Connell Street outside Easons/Penneys will now cease before 27th November (Black Friday) returning the street to 2 lanes for north bound traffic at this location.
• Works on O’ Connell Bridge will now commence earlier in mid-October and will cease by mid- November.
• The works at the junction of Townsend Street and Hawkins Street will be removed for the Christmas period.
• The Clery’s car park will remain accessible and a lane of traffic southbound will be maintained on Marlborough Street throughout December. (Marlborough Street will be temporarily closed at Parnell Street junction from 5th October but will reopen for Operation Open City)
• Track works on the non retail side of Grafton Street (lower) and Nassau Street will commence in early October. Only these works on the non-retail / Trinity side of Nassau Street and Grafton Street will be permitted during the Christmas period and there will be no reduction in footpath space on the retail side of these streets during this period. All existing traffic movements from College Green through Grafton Street and Nassau Street will be retained.
• The major works currently on Dawson Street will cease before the Christmas trading period – other works planned to start on Dawson Street have been postponed until after Christmas, with the exception of one limited work area at the junction with St. Stephen’s Green North.
• Proposed works on Parnell Street will not go ahead until after the Christmas period.

We believe that the above represents a reasonable compromise in order to reduce disruption in the city centre during the peak Christmas period while also ensuring that we have trams running for the Christmas period in 2017.