One of north Dublin’s busiest commuter and tourist routes faces a year of traffic restrictions and diversions, including a 4½-month road closure, from next month.
Clontarf Road, which runs along north Dublin bay, is set for major disruption from February 16th to facilitate the construction of a €25 million water main serving more than 160,000 homes and businesses.
The work will require the closure of the southbound side of Clontarf Road, used by thousands of motorists to access the city on their morning commute, from the junction of Howth Road to Watermill Road, a distance of 1.5km.
The closure will last for 18 weeks, during which time traffic coming into town from Howth and Sutton will be diverted on to the already congested Howth Road for a distance of 3km.
Map: Paul Scott
A stop/go traffic-management system will be in place further north on Clontarf Road from the Howth Road junction to Bayside as well as on part of Watermill Road for more than five months. However, motorists can expect restrictions for about 12 months, Uisce Éireann said. Bus diversions will also be in place.
The work is a “critical project required to stabilise supply” for existing properties and enable the delivery of 12,000 new homes in north Dublin, Uisce Éireann programme manager Jessica Dale said.
“The network in northeast Dublin is over 100 years old in some parts and it’s under pressure. Customers can regularly experience issues of pressure loss due to the demand on the network.”
The work “is going to cause disruption to both the local community and also commuters. We’re very conscious of that and we are making every effort to minimise the disruption,” she said.
“There’s been extensive engagement with Dublin City Council and Dublin Bus, and that is ongoing and will continue throughout the project.”
The road works are just the first phase of construction of the 6km water main. Next year Uisce Éireann will replace the section from the Wooden Bridge to Hollybrook Road. However, this work is not expected to require road closures as the new pipes will be laid in the green area for a 2.6km distance along the Clontarf promenade.
Uisce Éireann said it hoped the cycleway would remain open, but the path next to the seawall would require closure.
The water main project was previously considered in tandem with Dublin City Council’s Clontarf flood defence scheme. However, Uisce Éireann said it could not wait for the council as this would require it to delay water-main construction to the end of the decade. “Such a delay was not feasible,” the utility said.
The council said it planned to submit an application for its flood scheme by the end of 2029 and hoped to complete the project in 2033, “if all goes well”.
Local Green Party councillor Donna Cooney said it was “outrageous” the promenade would be “dug up” for the water main only to be disrupted again for flood defences. “It should not be beyond the council to use joined-up thinking and co-ordinate with Uisce Éireann.”