Monday 29 September 2008

Impact of Ballsbridge scheme 'minimal', hearing told

The combined effect on traffic of Sean Dunne’s development on the former Jury's and Berkeley Court hotels site in Ballsbridge and the proposed high density scheme on the neighbouring Veterinary College site would be “minimal”, An Bord Pleanála has been told.

Developer Ray Grehan of Glenkerrin Homes is seeking to build a 15-storey tower, apartments, office blocks, shops and cultural centre on a 40,000sq m site adjacent to the hotels site. The development was the subject of an oral hearing earlier this year and is currently awaiting the decision of the board.

Mr Dunne’s traffic expert Donal McDaid of Arup consulting this morning told the An Bord Pleanála hearing on the hotel site development, which also includes plans for offices, apartment, shops and cultural buildings, that he had analysed the combined traffic from both sites.

“The relative cumulative impact is minimal in terms of the average length of queuing and the degree of saturation, that is the ratio of flow to capacity on the road.”

Mr McDaid was replying to cross examination from Dublin City Council’s legal representative John Gallagher, who asked if the roads surrounding the site were already at capacity.

Mr McDaid said that in his view they were not.

There were some “flash periods” of congestion but the city council had the technology to deal with this through its traffic control systems and could in the future “penalise” the development’s traffic in favour of vehicles using the main routes from the city.

Irishtimes.com

www.buckplanning.ie

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