In Drimnagh, council rolls on with plans to remake Suir Road junction

As stormy winds swept through Drimnagh on Tuesday afternoon, a Luas bound for Saggart came to a halt at the Suir Road stop.

Waiting across the junction were two long lines of traffic, both travelling north from the Dolphin Road and the adjacent Slievenamon Road.

While the cars, vans and lorries paused, a few cyclists took the opportunity to cross the road.

It’s a difficult spot for cyclists, says Colm Ryder of the Dublin Cycling Campaign on Tuesday evening. “It’s a multi-faceted junction. The orientation is very difficult.”

It’s a car-dominant junction with a poor layout, only two controlled-crossing points for pedestrians, and none for cyclists, said Gráinne O'Brien, a council senior executive engineer, at a meeting of the council’s South East Area Committee on Monday afternoon. 

“This junction has been described as terrible to cross, and notoriously dangerous,” O’Brien said. 

Between 2016 and 2023, a total of 11 collisions at the junction that links up the Suir, Davitt, Dolphin and Slievenamon roads were reported to the Road Safety Authority, according to a presentation shown to councillors at the meeting.

Two of those involved pedestrians, and another two cyclists, with the remaining seven being vehicular collisions, the presentation says.

Now, the council is planning a redesign to make the junction safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and less congested for buses, Luases, and private-vehicle drivers. “Overall, it would be safer for all modes,” O’Brien said.

The presentation Monday showed councillors the current version of the redesign, incorporating feedback from a public consultation. The plan, now, is to start construction next summer, the presentation said.

Losing a few arms

Right now, the Suir Road junction is operating at its capacity, said O’Brien, the council senior engineer, at the on Monday. “And it has an awful lot of delays.”

Daily, it gets 800 cyclists, more than 5,000 pedestrians, and 87 buses travelling north and southbound, according to slides shown to councillors.

The junction at the moment is like a giant asterisk, with several roads intersecting, as well as a Luas line, and the Grand Canal – with walking/cycling paths alongside it.

The junction now has five road “arms”.  The council is planning to reduce that to three, O’Brien said. “The three arms here would be the Davitt Road, Suir Road and Dolphin Road.”

A section of Slievenamon Road which connects directly into the junction would be closed off to make way for a walking route with planters, benches and cycle stands on a small grassy island, according to slides shown to councillors.

Just before the junction and what’s now a grassy island, the road also links into the adjoining Dolphin Road, and this small stretch would remain in use for vehicles, slides show.

By closing off part of Slievenamon, the aim would be to give the three remaining arms of the main junction more green-light time, O’Brien said. “And we’ll optimise the traffic signals and rebalance the timings of all the traffic flowing through the junction.”

That would reduce a lot of delays, she said. Bus services right now are heavily impacted by congestion at the junction, she said. “Information that we’ve got there from the bus operator has told us of up to twenty-five minutes delay on this bus service.”

Closing one arm of Slievenamon and adding in a northbound bus gate on the other would allow buses to jump the queue, she said. “They’ll get a green light to get priority to get out into Dolphin Road.”

That should enable them to travel across the junction more efficiently, she said.

Controlled crossings

Many of the pedestrians currently using the junction are going to the Suir Road Luas stop, yet there are only two existing controlled crossings – across Davitt Road and Suir Road, O’Brien said. “They’re very long crossings.”

But there are no controlled crossings over either Slievenamon or Dolphin Road, she said. “These locations have no tactile paving, and there’s no connection to the canal tow path here from Dolphin Road.”

As part of the new upgrades, there would be signalised pedestrian crossings, including tactile pavings for people with visual impairments at all three arms, she said.

To better the area for cyclists, the proposed upgrades would put in protected crossings across the junction, a signalised crossing over Suir Road, as well as better links to the Grand Canal, and the future Portobello to Blackhorse route, she said.

Currently, there is a future active travel route linking Drimnagh to Portobello that will see upgrades to the path, she said. But that is still at the feasibility and option stage. “But our design here will connect into the existing facility that is there.

The next step for the works is for the council’s consultants to complete a detailed design, she said. “And then the plan is to go out to tender in the Spring of next year.”

Construction is then hoped to begin in the summer, she said. But before then, they will need to do a community event and some leaflet drops to residents in the area.

Two or 900 opinions

The council carried out a public consultation between June and August 2024 on the plans, and there is still a lot of anger about that among residents in the area, said Independents 4 Change Councillor Pat Dunne. “Their views have effectively been ignored.”

The council counted 273 submissions, Dunne said, citing numbers from a council report on the results of the consultation.

Of those, “61 percent were broadly in favour” of the proposed changes, Dunne said. Then there were 16 percent that were neutral, and 23 percent that were broadly opposed, he said.

The problem was, there were two submissions with very large numbers of signatories, Dunne said.

According to a council report on the consultation, one extensive, detailed email submission from local residents’ group Dynamic Drimnagh had 570 signatories, and a further postal submission supporting Dynamic Drimnagh Group included 223 signatures.

These submissions welcomed upgrades to the junctions, but were not in favour of closing off Slievenamon Road as the gateway into Drimnagh, the report says. 

“The submission notes lack of consideration given to residents living on Slievenamon Road, Dolphin Road, Mourne Road or Galtymore Road in terms of increased traffic from Dolphin Road east resulting in a heavier flow of traffic along Slievenamon Road.”

The majority of residents believe the closure of part of Slievenamon Road is unnecessary and will lead to chaos, Dunne said.

It would block off the main artery into Drimnagh, says Patricia Ryan, Dynamic Drimnagh’s liaison officer, speaking on Monday night after the meeting. “They could still go ahead with their plan. Just re-design Slievenamon Road. Even move the road slightly so that you create a safety barrier.”

Slievenamon Road isn’t the issue, she says. “The problem is Dolphin Road. It’s not the cars or the buses travelling from Slievenamon Road. They’re nearer the junction, they can get through it quicker.”

At the meeting, O’Brien said the council is committed to doing surveys before and after the works, to see what effect the bus gate and the closing of that segment of Slievenamon will have on the network, O’Brien said.