Dublin City Council and its Standards

Any large city has similar problem in fairness to DCC their legal department are reasonably pro-active with their in house works. The biggest problem are sub contrats where either the contractor or client goes bang.

I think that legislation should be introduced at national level requiring six figure bond for any utitity / roads contracts.

Well,to reinforce this pro-activity let the DCC Legal Dept convene their next meeting at the corner of Drumcondra Rd and Home Farm Road and begin an investigation into the lack of reinstatement hereupon……I have no further questions Justice ! 😉

Shortly before New Years day DCC sent in its “Two Men and a Wheelbarrow” crew to Leeson St.
If anybody is looking for a more modern alternative to the ancien regieme John Hinde Picture Postcard views of Dublin then simply stroll along between Appian Way and Leeson St Bridge and set one`s camera to panoramic……….

NO ! On second thoughts focus in on the Bus lane ………..particularly on the stretch leading up to the Bridge itself……

After having taken the pictorial evidence I would suggest a brief perusal of an Irish Times article by reporter David Labanyi from the 29/Nov/2006.
It`s all about elderly folks being at greater risk of injury from slips,trips and falls on Buses in Dublin.

It appears a TCD Study identified some sort of pattern and the learned lecturers and their earnest students are all agog at why,how,where,when etc etc .
I`m wondering if I should send the Report`s compilers an anonymous e-mail with the words LEESON ST BRIDGE INBOUND written in blood on it…????? 😡

@Alek Smart wrote:

NO ! On second thoughts focus in on the Bus lane ………..particularly on the stretch leading up to the Bridge itself……

I presume you’re referring to the magnificent invisible mending job that was done to the bike path / bus lane? The surface quality on this stretch was appaling beforehand, but it might actually be worse since the interventions.

If there’s an upside to this, it’s that bus drivers and others (but not all drivers, sadly) seem to be quite sympathetic towards the plight of us cyclists now that we have to ride in the middle of the bus lane to avoid the shameful ‘remedial’ works.

To Bloody right Ctes….
I remember many years ago being lectured on Motor Trade Law and the over riding premise that it was all based around the “Reasonable Actions of a Reasonable Man”.

From the state of Leeson St at the moment I can only conclude that Dublin City Council and it`s Senior Executive Branch has staged a putsch and locked up any “Reasonable Men” that were to be found wandering abroad in Civic Offices.

In their place the City Manager appears to have installed complete raving bloody lunatics who own shares in Wheelbarrow Manufacturers.

If I were a cyclist who regularly has to use this stretch of DCC`s finest I would be investing in a Camera.
There is little doubt but if after an accident along this stretch,one was able to produce in court high quality pictures of what amounts to crass bloody negligence then perhaps the City Manager and his closest aides might even get to spend a little time in Jail.

Where is David McWilliams when he`s needed……
A country which has apparently a €2.2 BILLION revenue SURPLUS and which pays men to perpetrate dangerous nonsense on decent ordinary citizens.
Hanging and Flogging is not enough !!!

And YES Ctes,You are correct the damn place was FAR safer in its UNmended state……!!!! 😡

@Alek Smart wrote:

A country which has apparently a €2.2 BILLION revenue SURPLUS and which pays men to perpetrate dangerous nonsense on decent ordinary citizens.

Not to mention €34 billion to be spent on Transport 21 which, as we’ve been told proudly by the gnome, equates to €9.4 million per day across the country. Extrapolating further, this works out at roughly €107.75 per second for every second for the next ten years.
One might argue in reply that Transport 21 is for National projects, but that’s easily countered by the fact that this stretch of Leeson Street is a National route. Does this mean that cycling is not considered as part of a national transport strategy? Or that it’s not ‘strategic’ enough? Or that it just doesn’t need the investment?

Even 10 minutes of T21 – €64,650 – would go a long way towards fixing this. Or am I being naive? Maybe its the existence of all the money that’s the root of the problem- no accountability, etc. It’s certainly one of the key problems with T21, though I’m getting off topic now.

One other question on my mind: given its National designation, I don’t know if the NRA is responsible for its maintenance or if it’s the job of DCC- anyone want to own up?
I ask because, over christmas, I was re-reading some cuttings on the debate around the re-designation of O’Connell Street as a non-national 30 kph road and the NRA refused to do it as it would break the continuity of the national route network (I thought Dublin City Centre did that…?:rolleyes: ). The compromise was the possibility of handing over control of all routes within the M50 ring to DCC, though I don’t know if this has happened yet or if it will.

Be realistic – if they can’t unveil a plaque or attend the opening of something (for the benefit of the press) what’s the point!!! If they could unveil a plaque for sorting out Leeson Street Bridge they would

Maybe they’d come to the unveiling of my headstone?

Only if they could slap a funded by Transport 21 logo on it 🙂

Connecting Cadavers, Promoting Posthumously

Please can someone photo this stretch – it is now truly the most treacherous stretch of cycletrack / road surface in the city… Anyone with a digital camera please?

(And of course, post up here 😉 )

PS How were such works allowed as I thought they were prohibited in the operation go-slow period around Christmas? :confused:

I’ll try to have some by this evening. Assuming the tears don’t blur the lens too much.

Just make sure U get the sunken Manhole cover at the Dartmouth/Leeson Junction….even if it`s after you`ve crashed through it !!!! 😮

Sorry Alek. Next time, eh?

Perhaps these will tide you over in the meantime? I don’t think I need to add any words…

…except maybe to say that, yes, these are the after pictures.

*** *** ***

And another – perhaps more amusing – picture that I snapped yesterday. For the record, I politely declined the request from the sign.

That’s nothing. Try cycling along the “patched up” cycle lane on Eglinton Road (in the direction away from Donnybrook). I’m not using hyperbole to say that I have never experienced anything worse on a bike.

I do Eglinton in the opposite direction most evenings and I’d agree, based on that experience, that it’s appaling- sunken trenches, potholes and builders’ muck being the most obvious culprits. I’ll make the westbound bit my photo project for next weekend if I can.:)

The shame is that, in some places, DCC’s remedial works have actually been of a reasonably high standard- the patches on the outbound Ranelagh stretch and a couple of patches on the outbound N11 opposite Sach’s Hotel in particular seem to be moving in the right direction.

Great Pics Ctes…..And I hope fully available to ANy person who suffers injury as aresult of DCC`s Blatently obvious Professional Negligence at this location.

It also apparent from those images that there is a far greater problem here than can be solved by wheelbarrows full of Bitumen and Chippings.
My take on it relates to the very presence of QBC`s or Bus Lanes.

Has DCC or the DOT undertaken any engineering surveys of heavily Bussed stretches such as Leeson St ?
Since the inception of Bus Lanes we have had a constant development of the Vehicles with almost NO commensurate upgrading of the Road Surface upon which they operate.

The standard Dublin Bus vehicle along this stretch is essentially the AV/AX type which weighs in at around 17 tonnes fully laden.
The 20 Tri-Axle VT type on the 46A route are even heavier.
These vehicles have a very different operating envelope from their predecessors,the erstwhile Bombardier K series and even further back the products of Leyland Motors Limited.

The most modern vehicles now have full disc brakes all round and the full braking and accelerating forces of a 17 tonne vehicle are now transmitted directly onto road surfaces at locations such as Leeson St Bridge.
Add to this the Massive increase in frequency along the N11 QBC and you have the ingredients for a Road Surface meltdown.

I believe this correlation between modern Hi Capacity vehicles used on hi-frequency peak time operations and the condition of the carriageway is an essentially simple one and yet we have here a supposedly professional and foward thinking Civic Authority that continues to practice reinstatement methods which predate Bianconi… 😡

Now…lets see…what reputable Civil Liability solicitors are practicing around that area….. 😉

Very graphic pics ctesiphon.

Re East Link Bridge – there seems to be a thing about cycling across bridges. They put a gimp on Sean O’Casey Bridge when it first opened telling you to get off and walk your bike over. As if!

@Alek Smart wrote:

Are any regulars here aware of or familiar with any set of Standards which Dublin City Council may have when having work carried out on its roads and streets network ?

No Alek, but I know that when it comes to the city’s old granite pavements – which the same dept. are responsible for – there aren’t any!!

Its becoming clear that,at least in the DCC area of responsibility,there is little or no supervision of the finished work of their coterie of regular contractors.

I wonder if there is a break-down available of which firms recieved payment for what contracts etc.

My intention would be to narrow the list down to certain contractors and then to perhaps make enquiries through the Companies Registration Office as to lists of shareholders or their nominees.
( This might entail having to use the FIA and to ferret out the maiden names of spouses etc).

I remain perplexed as to how any supposedly “Organized” City Management could on the one hand pay out for an excellent job such as that along Home Farm Road whilst also presumably paying out for work of the lowest possible standard……I won`t even bother to list these…..:mad:

The sort of disgrace which is Eglinton Rd and environs is simply unacceptable by ANY standards and should be causing some concern in DCC much vaunted Legal dept…….Unless,that is there is something we DON`T Know…Hmmmmm 😮

@Devin wrote:

Re East Link Bridge – there seems to be a thing about cycling across bridges. They put a gimp on Sean O’Casey Bridge when it first opened telling you to get off and walk your bike over. As if!

Dublin’s cycling facilities are poor, but cyclists do themselves no favours by cycling on eminently unsuitable roads and footpaths, which the East Link and Sean O’Casey bridges, respectively, are.

There are many roads in the city that are unsuitable for cycling because of poor quality surfaces – such as those mentioned above – but the surfaces of these two bridges are quite good.

Or was there another reason why you think the bridges are unsuitable? And, if so, how would you propose a cyclist should travel from, say, the Point Depot to Ringsend?

One manouver I don’t recommend is trying to come down East Wall road and going around the roundabout with the intention of getting off at the start of the East Link Bridge path on the West side (so you can cycle over the bridge and cut up through Irishtown ). You catch the railway lines and their gullys side on and it’s a nice gonad-hits-cross-bar emergency stop as you career accross the road. Better to cycle accross the bridge and perfect a nice two lane cross over with a 45 degree angled 10-inch kerb hop to get you out of harms way. Alternatively, you can take yourself all the way down to O’Moore Park.

@ctesiphon wrote:

Or was there another reason why you think the bridges are unsuitable? And, if so, how would you propose a cyclist should travel from, say, the Point Depot to Ringsend?

The Sean O’Casey bridge is a footbridge, and it is therefore illegal for a cyclist to cycle on it – he must dismount. As for the East Link, a basic instinct for self-preservation should lead to a cyclist dismounting and using the footpath. I haven’t been there for a while, but I think it’s possible to avoid the long detour a car must make to go from Ringsend to the bridge by using a pedestrian gate – is it possible to push (not cycle) a bike through that?

I do not think a cyclist should ever have to “dismount”. It is all too easy for the planners to put up a ‘dismount’ sign when they can’t plan roads with cylcists in mind properly.

It is daft that the Sean Casey bridge does not facilitate cyclists.

Cycle paths in Dublin are really lacking in both quantity and quality.

I think cycle paths be everywhere, especially up one way street. contra-flow cycle paths. I’m thinking of North Fredirck Street where the footpath is effectually a contra-flow cycle lane.

Sorry for ranting on the wrong thread.

@Andrew Duffy wrote:

The Sean O’Casey bridge is a footbridge, and it is therefore illegal for a cyclist to cycle on it – he must dismount. As for the East Link, a basic instinct for self-preservation should lead to a cyclist dismounting and using the footpath. I haven’t been there for a while, but I think it’s possible to avoid the long detour a car must make to go from Ringsend to the bridge by using a pedestrian gate – is it possible to push (not cycle) a bike through that?

I’m aware of the illegality re the O’Casey alright (you’ll note it wasn’t me who raised that point initially:) ), but a large part of the problem with that bridge is that the surface is just so, well, suitable for cycling. (It might be worth noting here that the Milennium Footbridge west of the Ha’penny does allow cyclists, which makes the O’Casey rule all the more bafflng. DDDA should be leading the way in promoting sustainable transport, not discouraging it.)

Since posting the picture of the East Link sign, I’ve been told that the reason for it is the occasional high winds coming up the river- apparently a motorcyclist was killed there (don’t know when) by being blown into the path of a lorry. However, the footpaths on both sides are too narrow to allow a walking cyclist to pass a pedestrian.

You’re right- there is a gap in the wall at York Road / Thorncastle Street, but it’s not a pedestrian gate afaik so it’s both possible and legal to cycle through it as I did last weekend. I suppose my original question was how does one get to this gap without using the bridge.

And like ConK, I’ve a real problem with cyclists having to dismount at pinch points or on narrow stretches of road in order to accommodate motorised traffic. This is a perfect example of why there should be an explicit modal hierarchy in the city- pedestrian, cyclist, light rail, bus, etc etc all the way to the private car in last place (and why HGVs should be banned completely within the canals- period). Where conflicts arise between modes, the lower mode in the hierarchy should either have to give way or, better still, shouldn’t be there in the first place. And the existing rule for O’Casey would fit with this general approach, though equally so would permitting cyclists to cross O’Casey on their bikes as long as they keep to walking pace or slower. Sadly there are many cyclists for whom this idea would be anathema.

Anyway, I fear we’re getting too far off topic, and I’m starting to reiterate points I’ve made on the Cycling in Irish Cities thread, where this discussion perhaps more properly belongs. FTR, I think we’re largely on the same page, Andrew.

Back on topic – though to be fair to DCC, this is actually Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown turf – this recent hatchet job has gone straight to the top of the charts. Pictures taken this morning.

It’s the inbound cycle lane of the N11, just before the UCD off ramp.

Textbook stuff.

Christ!!! haven’t been on it in a while. Best dust down the BMX for next time

Crikey folks….Get these snaps over to Pat Kenny ASAP !!
Pat has a long history of concern about the supposed “Planning” which has been used in Cycle Lanes PARTICULARLY the N11 one.

Also remember from an RTE perspective,a researcher could WALK up to suss it out or perhaps Pat himself could stop off on his way into studio.

Either way the pics are a graphic realization that as a country we remain firmly a “Pigs in the Parlour” society.
This sort of butchery masquerading as civil engineering is in NO WAY acceptable even in a temporary manner.
Whatever Engineer signed off on it should be named,shamed and given a bicycle with strict instructions to cycle over and back until the backfilling was of an acceptable nature….and if that engineer refused then he/she should be handed a P45. 🙂

Now….I`m not ascribing it to the power of Archiseek but……..
Within the past 48 hours the reinstatement fairy has visited Home Farm Road…well at least the transverse trench at the Drumcondra Rd end.

It may have taken almost 12 months BUT we have a result !!

Nice tidy job 95% complete (To be fair there may well be an ESB input required here too)

Now all we need is the Road Marking Crew to return and replace the 10 Mtrs of Double Yellow Line which are like a missing tooth….!!!!

Ah well ….off to Paddy Power`s now to see wat odds they`ll offer on a 2007 completion 😡

Sometimes I wonder if I am not going mad….especially when I read stuff such as the following from Dublins Evening Herald on Sat 20th Jan 07.

A tiny little “In Brief” snippet atop of page 8 revealing the following dry statistics…..

“DCC spent more compensating injured parties than they did repairing pavements between 2001 and 2005”

Figures (Compiled by Fine Gael) show DCC spent €8.7 Million in compensation,but spent €7.3 Million on footpath repairs during the same period.

However the DCC (Non Footpath) TOTALS do reclaim some corporate dignity with a compensating payment of €14.9 Million and a total spend of €19.2 Million

Now I have a very healthy scepticism for the fourth estate and its reportage but these figures are matters of record it seems and when superimposed upon the Photog(Very)graphic evidence simply underline how sloppy and poorly managed DCC`s Infrastructural Departments actually are.

I would personally see it as a resigning issue for any chief executive but my opinions are just that …my own.
They certainly did`nt hamper mssr`s Fitzgerald or Keegan in their ascent of the Irish Administrative ladder and I suspect the present incumbents won`t find it any impediment either….. 🙁

@ctesiphon wrote:

Back on topic – though to be fair to DCC, this is actually Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown turf – this recent hatchet job has gone straight to the top of the charts. Pictures taken this morning.

It’s the inbound cycle lane of the N11, just before the UCD off ramp.

To give credit to DLRCoCo, this has now been rectified. I thought it was only fair to mention it, thought by ‘rectified’ I mean they swept it up. That’s all it took, by the looks of things.

Anyway, thanks DLRCoCo.

It appears that DCC have printed & published standards: see here.

It would, therefore, appear to be an enforcement problem.

DCC standards? This says it all really:

😀