O’ Connell Street, Dublin

Was just curious whether O’Connell Street had been repaved and fixed etc. after the destruction caused by the cleaning of the ‘self-cleaning’ Spire lol. I believe there was damage done to trees and pavement etc.

Its interesting also to note that in the past week DCC are yet again back on O Connell St with yet another Bicycle Track attempt.

This time it involved a new type of Water Blasting process to erase the Road Markings.
This process incidentally appears to be very effective and certainly less noxious than the burning-off which went on heretofore.

However the entire job yet again shows how Dublin City Council now have a Centrepiece Street which it has little or no cohesive strategy or even creative idea what do do with.

The latest Grand Idea from Civic Offices Professional Planning Suite involves directing Cyclists into a new CyclePath painted along the Nearside(Kerbside) of the Carriageway.

This would in many juristictions be fairly standard stuff and even desirable.

However in the O Connell St context it represents little more than exposure to massively increased danger levels as it now places Cyclists directly into conflict with Buses,Busdrivers and the many thousands of Bus Users whose interface with their service is across the very same space which DCC wishes to fill with bicycles !

The new Cycle Path also adds to the plight of Taxi Drivers and their prospective customers who currently struggle to utilise a Taxi-Rank which,in consumer leglislation terms,is not fit for it`s advertised purpose.
It was already impossible for Taxi`s to make a safe turning manouvere here but the same movement now becomes far more difficult as Buses are moved further over to the Offside,thus adding to the potential for conflict.

Given that one of DCC`s green principles is to Increase Cycle usage in it`s Administrative Area then it beggars belief that it`s Professional branch would actively place this group in a position of such greatly increased danger.

Only an Administrator who is TOTALLY divorced from Reality would see any merit in throwing Cyclists into conflict with Buses along a short stretch of Street which has SEVERAL HUNDRED BUS MOVEMENTS PER HOUR.
Remember that just as with an Aircraft Taking-Off and Landing,the Bus Stop is where the Maximum danger lies and this should be self-evident to any half interested Professional Planner.

However since that same Administrator saw no problem with installing a Taxi Rank which effectively neutered the entire O Connell St IAP ethos perhaps we should not be surprised at all.

This is now DCC`s Third attempt to facilitate Cycling along O Connell St in the short time since it`s rededication.
This fact alone points to a complete mystification at Senior Planner level about what to do with it`s new Boulevard of Dreams.

The current situation with OC St relies on the conspicuity of The Spire and its “Plaza” to define the Street.
The council have singularly failed to make any progressive attempt at extending that definition along the Central Spine or Median which falls into an ever more neglected state with each passing day.

My own belief is that DCC needs to look again at this Central Median,to get it`s inventive stick and beat out some form of plan which actually utilises this space for the public good.

It should not be forgotten in all of this that DCC`s record in relation to Cyclists In the City Centre is disasterous with multiple fatalities in the recent past.
In all cases the Council has responded with poorly concieved but cheap “White Paint” attempts at imposing order on its constructed chaos.
This latest addition appears to continue this process.

@GrahamH wrote:

The entire structure lostexpectation.
Obviously only the front part is the 1818 original, with the enormous side wings stretching down Henry Street and Princes Street constructed from scratch following 1916. Henry Street was the first side to be developed in 1924-26, followed by Princes Street and then the public office completed in 1929. However basement parts of the original building appear to still extend underneath parts of the rebuilt structure and out under Princes Street

The GPO Arcade is not the major cross-block in the middle as initial impressions may suggest, but rather the lower glazed block further west near the end of the building. See how Arnotts now feeds into it too. The top-lighting of all the 1920s stores is also evident.

yeat ta for the info but I asking how much of is being used by an post?

@GrahamH wrote:

All of it I think. It’s their HQ after all – acres of offices.

i don’t think you’re catching my drift, isn’t there shops all along henry street in the wing adjoining the main gpo frontage…so that bit atleast is already shops…

Guess whats making a comeback according to The Evening Herald last night…..? The sacred heart statue formerly at the old taxi rank will be reinstalled over the next two weeks. According to the report it will get a new housing with solar panels and LED lighting at night.

Great to see modern technology applied to such a tradional signature piece!

and if you put 50c in it says ” Welcome to Dublin, please visit the GPO Shoparama. Jesus Loves You. Brought to you by JC Decaux and Foster & Partners”

ugh we’re goin straight to hell…

lol, alonso

Hopefully we’ll get something like this:

😀

The sacred heart statue shouldn’t be embellished. It’s fine just as it is – a piece of retro kitsch catholic iconography, a quaint relic of holy Ireland on the main street of a secular and cosmopolitan city.

No to the noughties-ification of the sacred heart statue!!