The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, has confirmed the compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) for the Dundrum, Wyckham and Ballinteer bypasses, in south Co Dublin.
The schemes - collectively known as the Dundrum by-pass - begin with the widening of the Taney junction on the Dublin side of Dundrum village and will eventually link traffic through a series of new roads and interchanges to Lamb Doyle's pub and restaurant in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains.
Plans for the route were first mooted more than 30 years ago, and there was general relief in the area when Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council held a public inquiry into the route in December 1996. Since then, as the traffic increased in the south Dublin suburbs, there have been repeated calls from public representatives for the Minister to sanction the CPOs.
Confirming the orders yesterday, the Minister left the route of the by-pass virtually unchanged from that announced at the inquiry two years ago. In approving the scheme, he decided that a boundary wall should be provided at the rear of two houses at Ardglass Estate, Dundrum.
Travelling from north to south, the Dundrum by-pass begins at Taney junction, which is to be widened to four lanes in each direction. The route passes behind the Dundrum Shopping Centre and runs parallel to Main Street to its crossing of Ballinteer Road, where the bridge over the Slang is to be rebuilt.
From there the route crosses the Pye lands at Dundrum Castle to a roundabout south-west of Crazy Prices supermarket. At that point the route becomes the Wyckham by-pass and an eastward spur connects it to Sandyford Road.
The Wyckham by-pass continues from the roundabout, passing close to the Lynwood and Ardglass housing estates, before joining Ballinteer Road at its junction with Ballinteer Avenue. The route then runs south to a junction with College Park and onwards to a junction with the proposed South Eastern Motorway.
The timescale for completion of the route is the end of 2001, and while the announcement of the CPOs has been broadly welcomed, some observers have pointed out that work on the road network will be taking place in tandem with work on the South Eastern Motorway, leading to traffic difficulties in the area.
According to the Fine Gael spokeswoman on Dublin traffic, Ms Olivia Mitchell TD, the result will be "total traffic chaos".
While the Dublin South TD described the announcement of the confirmation of the CPOs as an "immense relief", she added that it is "unfortunate that it is now too late to avoid the total traffic chaos which will inevitably result from the simultaneous construction of the C-ring and the construction of the approach roads from Dundrum and Ballinteer".
Ms Mitchell also said a "lack of forward planning in the construction of the Southern Cross route at Knocklyon is presently resulting in a disastrous congestion". She called on the Minister to proceed with all speed in allocating money for the new route.
