well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?

@shanekeane wrote:

I like the scale of the big plan for the city centre, but if the planners are reading this, here’s a suggestion:

Limerick this year didn’t have a summer, it rained every day. Same last year. When designing buildings for these streets, incorporate arcades in them, like you see in a lot of Italian cities. This will provide shelter from the rain where people can sit and enjoy their lunch while also smoking a cigarette if they want to. Since every eatery in the country is now putting flimsy tables and chairs in the street and even flimsier awnings over people in a vain attempt to keep them dry, why not incorporate this feature into these new city centre streets to account for a rather big change in the habits of Irish people in recent years. If there’s any place that needs arcades like this, it is Ireland.

Shane, oddly enough I was thinking the same thing myself about use of buildings to shelter pedestrians from the elements. It would be a great idea for new development around the Arthur’s quay area. One slight problem thought is providing line of sight for people when crossing the road.

@CologneMike wrote:

ESTUARY QUARTER (Howard Holdings)

Staus: In Planning
Completion Date:Spring 2010
Value: €22.5 million / £18m
Website: http://www.estuaryquarter.ie

That proposal does look terribly stumpy and awkward, although maybe the developers are having a re-think on the project bacause according to the planning records, the application was withdrawn on the 16th of September!:confused:

07486

Howard Holdings PLC

Description: demolition of the existing structures and the development of an 8-storey office building with two no. ground floor retail units (totalling 1234 sq.m. gross floor area) at ground floor level. The gross floor area for the offices is 6,367 sq.m. The development also incorporates basement car park with 34 no. spaces, plant areas, ESB substation (32 sq.m.), service area with seperate entrance and ancillary site works

Former Top Garage Dock Road Limerick

Status WITHDRAWN

@shanekeane wrote:

I like the scale of the big plan for the city centre, but if the planners are reading this, here’s a suggestion:

Limerick this year didn’t have a summer, it rained every day. Same last year. When designing buildings for these streets, incorporate arcades in them, like you see in a lot of Italian cities. This will provide shelter from the rain where people can sit and enjoy their lunch while also smoking a cigarette if they want to. Since every eatery in the country is now putting flimsy tables and chairs in the street and even flimsier awnings over people in a vain attempt to keep them dry, why not incorporate this feature into these new city centre streets to account for a rather big change in the habits of Irish people in recent years. If there’s any place that needs arcades like this, it is Ireland.

@Dan Sullivan wrote:

Shane, oddly enough I was thinking the same thing myself about use of buildings to shelter pedestrians from the elements. It would be a great idea for new development around the Arthur’s quay area. One slight problem thought is providing line of sight for people when crossing the road.

According to the preliminary plans, a covered pedestrian street is being considered, if you look closely at the CGI attached, it shows an enclosed street extending from the new plaza at the O Connell/Sarsfield Street junction.

The Limerick Leader article states that under the proposal the existing link between Henry St and Rutland St will be diverted underground. If this is the case, full pedestrianisation of the new quarter would be possible, although there were a couple of inaccuracies in the article so we’ll just have to wait for the official plans to be released.

This is a huge opportunity to create a vibrant new city quarter and they really should try and pull out all the stops here and that includes making it a car free zone.

@shanekeane wrote:

What I am proposing is arcades, what they are proposing is a glorified shopping mall. BIG difference! One is classy, one is cheap.

What you are doing is proposing copying Renneisance architecture, which suits it’s surrounding, as it’s surrounded by, ell other Rennaisance structures.
Yopu have no idea what the surrounding buildings are going to look like.
Arcades may not suit in the slightest.

Also there are not going to be any large plazas here, just a few small ones.
In order for there to be arcades, it would close off half of the plaza, making it a tiny little thing, which completely destroys the idea of opening the area up.

I think that you should wait and see the actual plans, rather than assuming it’s going to be cheap.
Not make your mind up on CGI images from almost two years ago now.

Park Canal Restoration Project (Limerick City Council)

4. TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS

4.1 Dredging Requirements

One of the main objectives for the restoration of Park Canal is to restore the navigability of the channel extending 1.6km from the confluence with the River Shannon to Lock Quay and its intersection with the Abbey River.

A significant amount of sedimentary material has accumulated on the canal bed over time that will need to be dredged. Between Lock Quay and Park Bridge parts of the canal have been subject to improvements associated with the Limerick Main Drainage works, such that only minor localised dredging will be required. To the east of Park Bridge the water has become very shallow and stagnant in places due to the build-up of silt behind the lock. The canal banks have also become very overgrown. Within this section it will be necessary to dredge the accumulated silt that has built up behind the concrete weir.

It is anticipated that the dredged material will be deposited as backfill material on land in close proximity to the canal. As it is possible that contaminants may be present, sampling and analysis of the material will be required as indicated in the following Section.

The estimated volume of dredged material to be moved amounts to approximately 16,600 cu.m. It is proposed that the dredging would be carried out by specialist contractor using a pumping mechanism attached to a floating pontoon, in order to help minimise the amount of disturbance to the canal banks and its associated ecology (refer Section 4.2).

Council’s €300,000 Blunder (Limerick Post)

by Marie Hobbins

FAILURE by Limerick City Council to dredge the Canal Bank to recommendations, has resulted in an allocation of euro 300,000 from Waterways Ireland been frozen.

A furious Mayor John Gilligan, said he was not aware that the money had been held back, until informed by the Limerick Post.

“We spent an awful lot of money on the canal already, and still have not got it back into full operation”.

He alleged that somebody was trying to do the work on the cheap.

Work will have to be rectified by Limerick City Council before they will receive the funding required to create a free flow of water in the Park canal, and allow boating, including a waterbus.

Funding for the installation of lock gates was not secured by the council, because, it is claimed, they failed to dredge deep enough.

Mayor Gilligan and Cllr Kieran O’Hanlon, who have been lobbying the council to instal the lock gates, learnt earlier this week, that the Waterways Ireland allocation had never been availed of, but were unaware of the error in dredging the canal.

The canal, deemed Limerick’s jewel in the crown of inner city river development when it was awarded over one million euro for its restoration through an EU initiative, has recently had the first phase of its restoration completed, but the effect is overshadowed by the continuing problem of stagnation of the water.

Repeatedly, Mayor Gilligan and O’Hanlon have urged City Hall to press Waterways Ireland, which has responsibility for all inland waterways, to come up with the money for the lock gates and the removal of a bund erected over 30 years ago by developers to prevent flooding during the construction of local housing.

Although intended as a temporary, preventive measure, it was never removed and the result is constant stagnation of the canal water.

Waterways Ireland director, Ray Dunne, was unavailable for comment, but a press office spokesperson was willing to respond. “The allocation of money was only available to us for one year, and as work was not completed in the canal, it was diverted elsewhere”.

Added the Mayor: ”My information is that Waterways Ireland were to demolish the bund at Troy’s Lock and put in lock gates, but during the initial dredging of the canal the banks became destabilised and this had to be remedied before the lock gates could be installed – meantime the funding was not used – it may have gone elsewhere, but we now want it back”.

City engineer Pat Eyres, acknowledged that the dredging was not up to standard required. “The purpose was to open the canal for boating from the railway bridge to O’Halloran’s Bridge. We did not go as deep with our dredging and have to look at the overall project again and open it up to public consultation”.

A furious Mayor John Gilligan, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . informed by the Limerick Post. 😮 Embarrassing 😮

See images from Plassey to Limerick by water (bjg)

This Limerick Life – Dan Sullivan of An Taisce (Limerick Leader)

Published Date: 18 September 2008 By Nick Rabbitts

Going on a guided trail near UL fostered Dan’s interest in heritage matters and now he finds himself in charge of the city’s branch of An Taisce

Getting involved with An Taisce was accidental really. I went to a ‘walk and talk’ around the Drumroe Village. After that, there was an An Taisce meeting, which also happened to be their AGM.

I suppose I was sufficiently vocal that they thought of me when it came to picking a chairperson. I imagined from other organisations I have been a part of, that the chairperson was more of a figurehead. I could easily find the time to do it. It was only subsequently I found out that they don’t really organise their own PR, and I had to do it.

I think what is really important about An Taisce is the function of it. Members of the public can make submissions with some degree of not being exposed – because lets face it, some of these developments involve an awful lot of money, and there could be for some people who are nervous, the opportunity for intimidation from large developers.

I always find it really hilarious when people, usually in Fianna Fail, but not exclusively, go on about An Taisce being a secret society. I do not remember the last time Fianna Fail published their membership list in the paper! When we have our meetings, all our members are told about them. It’s not a secret society, and the thing that people take most issue with is the power that has been given to An Taisce from the government. If they are so annoyed about it, why do they not take the power away?

If you have your own house and you don’t clean your windows, nobody else is going to do it for you. If An Taisce don’t do it, then who will? That might sound a little bit blase, or a little presumptuous. But there are certain things we need to have done. Depending on someone else to do it for you is somewhat dangerous. There was a lot of talk in the media about the People’s Park, particularly in the lead up to the last general election, and about the various lands the city had bought and used for developments. A number of public representatives, Tim O’Malley in particular, were making a big issue about how decisions had been made. However, they were talking after the projects had been done – after things had been built! I thought ‘why did you not at any point ring the planning board? Did you presume someone else would? You’re a paid representative, and you could not bring yourself do to it!’

It could have been a mid-life crisis , but I reached a point in my 30s, when I decided to run for the local elections in Dublin. This was in 2004. I ran for Fine Gael, but someone else got the co-option for the first choice seat. So I was running as a second candidate in a way. The man who won the first co-option, Terence Flanagan, ended up being elected to the Dail in the Dublin North East constituency.

It was a chastening experience
but one of the greatest things about it was discovering that 99 per cent of the people’s doors you knocked on were fantastically polite. In a sense, it was less so that people rejected you, but rather they went in different directions. The other rather funny thing about was I can’t remember how many votes I got, but I know from the percentages 50 per cent of them had to be females, and a good percentage of them had to be single. So that was kind of reassuring!

As a child, one of my abiding memories is, in winter, watching the Six Nations and having bacon sandwiches. It became synonomous with my youth. But, I am probably more a soccer fan than anything else. My relatives are big into rugby though.

Limerick is the only city in the country that can go out 360 degrees. Cork can’t go South, Dublin can’t go east. One of the things that is regrettable on the whole boundary issue is that there is not just one body in charge. I’m a big fan of the idea of the metropolitan system. I think compared to Cork and Galway, we have a much more cohesive city centre. It is much easier to identify with as an area, which gives us both an opportunity and a challenge to making the best of it. We have a really good basis for building a well managed city.

Hey Dan, just saw this only today. Most of us prefer the “anonymity” behind our sometimes often obscure poster names. Well you most certainly don’t and your political activities would explain that.

But jaysus Dan, Fine Gael . . . . . I mean Fianna Fail or the PD’s are bad enough . . . . . but Fine Gael! I thought I had you sussed, like maybe the Green Party or the Labour Party or the Communist Party or even an Independent but Fine Gael. 😉

At least Dan I would agree with you on the People’s Park and that the city would be bettered managed if it would be allowed to expand out in a 360° manner.

However Dan, Interesting to see that the former “Buckley paper” still has leanings to its old party roots. However it galls me to read in the same paper at the weekend, where one of your party colleagues speaks up for one of his constituents for receiving “third-world” cancer treatment in a mid-western hospital, he himself opted for his life saving surgery in the private renowned Blackrock Clinic last year. Not that I blame him mind! But it still Galls me.

You can tell him that they are too many “pissed-off city slickers!” fed up living in a city mis-managed by three local authorities. Our Health Board is administrated in Galway by people who seem to have enough problems with the supply of safe clean drinking water in their own city than God forbid with the additional responsibility of delivering a high standard of health care for the Mid-West. 😡

@Griff wrote:

Not to be cutting hairs here or anything but I think it was the 4th tunnel element that was floated and sunk last Sunday.The last element will be fitted at the north end of the tunnel where it passes under the river bank I believe.Construction personel will be able to cross under the river by November. I find it hard to believe that the fit-out and commissioning work will take another 2 years based on the speed of progress to date and I wonder are they being conservative with the program in order to look good if its opened ahead of schedule.
I think the next big change the city needs is the boundary extension..

Yeah it was the last element to be secured beneath the river, the (actual) final segment is a much more straight forward affair connecting to the “cut and cover” section at the north portal.

Although it seems that the project is at an advanced stage, traffic tunnels are extremely complex beasts and the next stage, which is the fit-out is an extremely tedious process. The tunnel will also have to go through a rigourous programme of tests before being deemed safe. The Dublin Port Tunnel has been plagued by problems since its opening so they dont want to see a repeat here! Also the local emergency services will have to be specially trained to deal with any incidents that occur in the new tunnel, so theres a lot to consider!

The section from the new Rossbrien interchange to the Dock Road could conceivably open by next summer however there would be little point in doing so as all the traffic would have to exit at the chaotic Dock Road interchange. The sub-standard, lazy design of this interchange means its going to be a real nightmare and will definitely have to be re-visited in the near fuure! Why oh why do we have to be so short-sighted?:mad:

Has anyone seen detailed plans? The station really needs work imo..

New Limerick bus station to get green light?(
PLANS for the €5.5million redevelopment of Colbert Station – to include a new bus station – are hoped to be approved by An Bord Pleanala within the next six weeks, following an oral hearing which took place in the city this week.
It now appears that City officials are satisfied with the revised plans and not as concerned as they were initially with the traffic implications arising from the new bus station.

A planning application was submitted to Limerick City Council in February 2007 to bring Colbert Station up to the 21st century, but was refused by City Hall as they felt the new design would detract from Colbert Station – a protected structure – and conflict with the proposed Orbital Route.

However, under questioning from Philip Jones, deputy planning officer with An Bord Pleanala, it was conceded by council officials and the engineers in charge of the project that the redesigned plans for Colbert Station would no longer pose a traffic problem for that area.

Tony Lynch, Arup consulting engineers who areinvolved in the Orbital
Route, replied that “a bit of give and take will be required on both sides”.