It was confirmed by Dublin City Council yesterday that new traffic arrangements will come into effect on the north and south city centre quays from Sunday morning 20th August.  These changes are being introduced now to coincide with the Luas Cross City tram testing and to ensure that these permanent changes have time to bed down before regular day time tram testing starts in September.

From next Sunday (20 August) at 10.15 am, following the road closure for the Ironman 70.3 run, there will be no right turn for traffic from Bachelors Walk to O’Connell Bridge, except for buses, taxis and bicycles.

Also on the north quays, there will be a new road layout from Ormond Quay Upper to Eden Quay with additional bus lanes and general traffic reduced to one lane. New bus priority traffic signals on Bachelors Walk, approximately 100 metres before O’Connell Bridge, will control traffic flows and give priority to public transport.

On the south quays, there will be a similar new road layout from Burgh Quay to Essex Quay, again with additional bus lanes and general traffic reduced to one lane.

Head of Technical Services and Transport at Dublin City Council, Brendan O’Brien,  said that these changes were part of an overall commitment by Dublin City Council and the National Transport Authority (NTA) to improve mobility in the city and allow freer movement of public transport as Dublin expands and the number of commuters steadily rises.

Speaking yesterday, O'Brien said, "The additional bus lanes will alleviate the difficulties faced by public transport on the quays, where the worst delays for buses in the city are experienced. At the peak morning time of 8am to 9am, over 7,000 people travel along the north quays on buses. This compares to round 500 cars and the same number of cyclists."

Source: www.businessworld.ie