Roadworks at St. Joseph’s College, Lucan.

ROLLING UPDATE

26/08/2025: Finally, the curve revision has been carried out by SDCC and this is some improvement on the situation; it is now easier for vehicles to exit Lucan Heights/Esker Lawns road onto the Lucan Road at St. Joseph’s. It is a safter bend that should allow emergency and large vehicles to access the estates behind the school. You can view my summary Reel here.

Interestingly enough, the issue of some cars using the reversed traffic flow of the lay-by to undertake the bus when passengers are disembarking, and when traffic is stuck behind it, is being raised by SDCC to the Department of Education for review, see their response to my question below: “Dear Councillor Farrell,
I refer to representation received on 11/08/2025 in relation to Traffic Management.
Thank you for your inquiry regarding road safety and the recently completed road works at St. Joseph’s College.The road and layby improvement works on Lucan Road, adjacent to St. Joseph’s College, were designed and delivered by the Department of Education as part of the school development project.
The South Dublin County Council has brought the concerns raised — including the reported use of the layby by motorists attempting to bypass congestion, and potential impacts on pedestrian and cyclist safety — to the attention of the Department of Education’s appointed Designer for review. We understand the importance of addressing these issues, especially in advance of the new school term, and we will continue to liaise with the relevant stakeholders.”

However, although the issue of the lay-by reversal seems to have some chance for review by Department of Education (I’ll report back if there are developments), there are many other concerns left to address at this point, and some that I believe will only become apparent in the coming weeks as the traffic patterns test the design. I’m waiting for a wet, school-day morning to see the true outcome of the recent revisions and report back but in the meantime, I’d welcome your thoughts on the overall functioning of the lay-by now, especially from parents who drive their girls to school, bus users who alight/depart from the stops at this junction, and pedestrians and cyclists passing this spot. My email is: hfarrell@cllrs.sdublincoco.ie

01/08/2025: “Why are we waiting, wh—y are we wait-ing…..” the protest song springs to mind at this stage. Constituents have been in touch with me to ask when exactly the agreed “softening” of the radius and safety review will take place at St. Joseph’s junction with the road to Lucan Heights? The answer is, I’d expected progress by now, as things traditionally tend to go quiet in the first two weeks of August, in terms of building works. School is returning at the end of August (exact date TBC) which leaves very little time to carry out the promised revisions of the junction. I have logged an urgent request for the start date of these works and will update this page as soon as I know more. Are SDCC stalling, or is the work scheduled? More to follow as I hear…..

22/05/2025: Some positive news; after repeated representations by myself, Paul Gogarty TD, and other local representatives, and of course many individual residents, SDCC have agreed to carry out improvement works in the coming weeks to the junction at the bottom of the hill at St Joseph’s: “An agreement to change and widen the corner radii has been reached with the design team. The contractor will carry out the works during the school holidays,” SDCC stated.

SDCC says they are confident that the solution agreed will resolve the issues. They say the planned corner changes will resolve the types of incidents that have been well documented over these past weeks.

As such, despite our requests, they say they are satisfied that “no further site visits are necessary and that the designers are fully informed on what needs to happen”. They are also confident that the necessary changes will happen in the school holidays.

We hope that these works will sort the issue at the junction for once and for all. However we do ask residents to keep us posted after these works are completed.

20/05/2025: Many constituents are justifiably frustrated and even angry at what seems to them to be an extreme approach to junction design, taken by SDCC planners in the Lucan area. However, this design approach is coming directly from Government guidance on road design: see an excerpt from DMURS Advice Note 6 – Draft Advice Junctions (Final) (2023) and I’m quoting in particular from section 3.2 “Typical Design Interventions”

Minimise corner radii, to reduce vehicle turning speeds and increase inter-visibility
between different road users
Reduce side road kerb-to-kerb crossing distances
Locate crossings on pedestrian desire lines (i.e. at junction mouth)
Install raised crossings, build-outs or continuous footways where appropriate, to facilitate pedestrian priority
Provide adequate crossing widths (minimum 2.4m)
Provide appropriate tactile paving at crossing points (red tactile solely for controlled junctions)
Minimise carriageway / traffic lane widths on side roads approaching junctions
Provide single lane approaches on side roads, for uncontrolled junctions
Consider installing refuge islands where kerb-to-kerb crossing distances exceed 10m
Consider treating a number of junctions along a route in a consistent manner,
(rather than isolated side road junction improvements), to provide a uniformly tempered main road traffic environment.

In the guidance above, it’s clear that Government wish to use these measure to drastically slow traffic speeds. However, there is still some leeway in terms of the radii chosen by SDCC and I will be challenging this again and again, as junctions to our estates need to ensure emergency and large vehicle access can happen safely and during peak times. I’m 100% behind traffic calming measures that protect cyclists, pedestrians and drivers, but I have concerns that some of the recent measures chosen for the area could actually result in a reduction in protection for them, due to driver issues with the new road layout. The next Traffic Management Meeting for the Lucan area will be happening in a week, on 27th May, 2025, and this issue and related issues will be raised at that, subject to the meeting duration, so I hope to have some further information for you then.

06/05/2025: School’s return today after the May Bank Holiday, in glorious sunny weather. Some reports of issues but I feel to “road test” this properly, we need a busy, wet morning where the stresses on the main Lucan Road, intersecting with the new works’ areas and lay-by, need to be observed at drop-off and pick-up times. Speaking of testing, there has been no date given to Councillors of the proposed audit yet. I’ll be chasing that date up this week and will report back here and on my “socials”. We definitely do not want any delay in carrying out the audit – and any recommended adjustments to the design. Personally, I think that the following areas should be adjusted to:

Allow for emergency access by large emergency vehicles at peak time
Ensure smooth traffic flow on the Lucan Road for all road users and avoidance of localised congestion
Ensure the definition of “wide vehicles” is up-to-date and not the 2006 definition of, given that that is nearly 2 decades past, and cars have gradually been designed wider year-on-year.
Ensure there is safe operation of the lay-by, the merging of traffic to and from same, the safety of pedestrian’s in that area and that buses & coaches are not needing to pull up on the path or back up on the road – which has been witnessed in May 2025 since the “improved” design has opened!

28/04/2025: Today, the school’s are back. I’ll be road-testing the junction myself tomorrow morning at around 8.30am. After the Area Committee Meeting last week, I penned a few points that I feel need addressing by SDCC in their proposed review of the works:

Why was the 2006 definition of a “wide car” used for planning purposes, when cars are growing in design width year on year?
Why are vehicles being allowed exit the lay-by (new configuration reverses the prior traffic direction) across two lanes of traffic going to and from Lucan Heights/Esker Lawns?
SDCC claimed in their response at the ACM meeting that buses were ok at passing each other on the main Lucan Road, however, this has not been the observed behaviour so far. Buses have been seen to struggle to pass safely on either side of the road. This stretch of road needs slight widening to make it safely workable.
SDCC claimed that emergency vehicles would be able to make the turn up to Lucan Heights / Esker Lawns, but this is not the precise issue at stake – if the road down from Lucan Heights is full of queuing cars (all the more likely now that the slip lane has been removed) and if there are yellow box violations at the lay-by merge during school pick up and drop off times, the cars that are queuing would have to back up or reverse in order to allow a fire brigade make the turn, or any other large emergency vehicle. This puts the safety of residents and school-going students and teachers at great risk. It also inconveniences any service, construction or delivery vehicles at this junction.
Will the Road Safety Audit promised by SDCC be carried out during various times with various road / path traffic patterns? It is essential that the audit include school pick-up/drop off times, weekends, weekdays and peak times too, in order to get a good picture of the needs for safe road design at this complex junction.
Will SDCC agree to meet local representatives during or after this review? I will continue to strongly request this of SDCC, along with Paul Gogarty, TD, as our on-the-ground experience is needed here.
The issue of safety during construction being a matter for the Board of Governers, as reported by SDCC management, minimises the clear risks that were observed by concerned members of the public. These reported incidents should have been referred on to the Health & Safety Authority for assessment. Only belatedly I discovered that they would have had jurisdiction there.

23/04/2025: The Area Committee Meeting for Lucan, Palmerstown and North Clondalkin was held yesterday on 22 April, 2005. The issue re. the scheme at St. Joseph’s was debated at length in a motion raised by Councillor Joanna Tuffy, Labour. I supported the motion and spoke in detail of as many of the concerns as I could in the 5 minutes allotted to each speaker. See the whole snippet in the following video from 1.52 mins in: https://sdcc.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/979999 – although long, it is worth a watch for anyone who uses the Lucan Road and the turn at St. Joseph’s. To summarise the response by the manager to our concerns, it was said that:

The St. Joseph’s College scheme and associated works will undergo a Stage 3 safety audit after opening.
The audit will assess issues such as cars hitting kerbs and any hazards in the road design.
The safety audit needs to evaluate the design in operation.
The audit is expected to determine the appropriate category for the curve radii for the turn.
Practical tests of the design have not yet been conducted.
The audit is expected to address practical issues like those above.
South Dublin County Council (SDCC) hopes to reach a suitable compromise for St. Joseph’s, the council, and all stakeholders.
The council apologised for not addressing these concerns earlier.

18/04/2025: No response received to my (and Paul Gogarty, TD’s) request for an urgent site meeting with SDCC at the junction, as yet. A constituent was in touch with my yesterday to show me a response they’d received from SDCC confirming that a review of the junction would happen prior to contractors finishing, which is positive. We will follow up on this.

The design of this junction seems to have been guided by the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets (2019) Govt. of Ireland, see: https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/design-manual-for-urban-roads-and-streets-2019-low-res-2075-mb.pdf pages 93-95 in particular. The corner radii at St. Joseph’s, leading up to Esker Lawns/Lucan Heights, needs to be 4.4-6m, to allow for “occasional larger vehicles“. Otherwise, how will emergency vehicles and deliveries to the estates, school and businesses be able to safely get through this junction?

16/04/2025 -I have submitted an urgent request for a site meeting with SDCC to discuss the issues with the new road layout, traffic calming and lay-by alterations. The situation is complex but to summarise, my major concerns are:

The width of the road seems to have been planned using the 2006 definition of “large car” in terms of safety of passing distance. Car design is increasing car width year-on-year, and using an 19-year old definition of a large car seems unsuitable and may lead to traffic congestion and potentially collisions on the main Lucan road.

The turn off the Lucan Road up to Lucan Heights/Esker Lawns is too sharp and most vehicles can’t make the turn without encroaching on the opposite side of the road. Even when the white lines and stop signs are moved to their planned position, this will still happen and is potentially unsafe.

If an emergency vehicle needs to access St. Joseph’s College / estates during busy times, they will be unable to complete the turn if cars are queuing to join the Lucan road.

Drivers have been observed having to back up on the main Lucan Road to allow other drivers turn into and out of the road up to the estates.

Once the lay-by is in operation, the drivers will be merging across traffic (yellow box) to further increase congestion at this pinch point.

The road narrowing on the Lucan Road appears to be too sudden and too extreme for buses and large trucks to safely manage. Buses have been observed struggling to pass each other and this will greatly add to congestion at this busy spot.

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