Construction of a €17 million pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Liffey has been put on hold for at least 15 months because of uncertainty over the Dart Underground.
Dublin City Council last year announced plans for the new bridge to connect the old London and North Western Railway Company station on North Wall Quay to Forbes Street on Sir John Rogerson's Quay on the south of the river.
The Victorian train station was the planned location of a proposed Dart Underground station for the north docks.
However, last September the government said the development of the 7.6km underground line would be shelved until after 2020.
The then minister for transport Paschal Donohoe said the tunnel element of Dart Underground as currently planned would have cost €3 billion, and the proposal had been drawn up a decade ago when the country was in a very different position regarding growth projections and travel patterns.
The council continued its plans for the development of the bridge, contracting engineering consultants last year to undertake preliminary designs.
It was last January allocated €2.94 million in EU funding for the project.
Review
However, the council’s environment and transportation department said while the consultants’ report was now complete, following a request from the
National Transport Authority
(NTA) it has suspended the bridge project by 15 to 18 months to allow for a review of Dart Underground.
A NTA spokeswoman yesterday said the proposed bridge interacted with the existing alignment proposed for the Dart Underground tunnel.
“It’s important that both the bridge and Dart Underground are designed on an integrated basis – ie, that the position of the bridge support piles doesn’t constrain the tunnel options.”
The NTA has told the council it anticipates it will have determined an “appropriate revised solution” for the Dart project within 15 to 18 months.
The proposed bridge would be less than 250m from the Calatrava-designed Samuel Beckett Bridge, but would provide a more direct pedestrian link from the northside to the Grand Canal Docks and relieve pressure on the Beckett bridge.
