#NorthCircularRoad Cycle Scheme

Dublin City Council will, over the next five years, undertake the planning and implementation of 140km of cycling and walking infrastructure. In March, I provided details of the 31 new projects to be delivered across the city including projects within the North Inner City.

New cycling projects will include:

• East Coast Trail
• Parnell Street to Prussia Street via Grangegorman
• Bolton Street to Parliament Street
• Drumcondra to Parnell Street
• and the North Circular Road.

Across the coming weeks, I hope to share further details of the progress being made to advance of them. It is my intention to seek details of the work being undertaken to prepare the scheme, how long it will take to finalise the detailed design works; whether formal planning permission is required through a Part VIII planning application and the indicative timeframe for their delivery.

This update focuses on the North Circular Road project. Padraig O’Brien, Senior Executive Engineer with the Environment and Transportation Department has advised me that a dedicated cycle route will be designed incorporating Infirmary Road, North Circular Road, Portland Row and Seville Place. The objective is to provide a segregated cycle track along the orbital route linking Parkgate Street and Guild Street. In recent days, I came across active travel infrastructure designs in the UK and other European cities. I have posted below an image detailing a design that Dublin City Council should examine for the North Circular Road cycle scheme.

I believe such a design can provide enough space to accommodate continuous cycle tracks that is protected by some built green infrastructure as well as an adequate amount of residential car parking space. The City Council has started developing a dedicated team to devise initial thinking and designs for the North Circular Road cycle scheme including an indicative timeframe for the statutory approval and delivery phases of the project.

I hope to have further information on the North Circular Road scheme in the coming weeks and post those details here. Please get in touch with me if you have any questions or queries about the details outlined above.