The council are progressing well with plans to develop a new park and active travel improvements in Sandyford Business District. Here’s what’s happening…
Civic Park in Sandyford Business District
At the December council meeting we received an update on the proposed new civic park in Sandyford BD at the corner of Corrig Road and Carmanhall Road. There are still negotiations ongoing with the owners of the land there. Once finished, the council will develop this new civic park right in the heart of Sandyford Business District.
This project was chosen to be part of a European project for greening industrial and business parks across Europe (IB-Green) and the council are collaborating with Sandyford Business District to bring this new park to Sandyford.
The council are also looking into purchasing the old Imaginosity building and turning it into a community facility (more here).
New Transport Strategy for Sandyford Business District
The council have also appointed consultants to begin working on a new long-term transport strategy for Sandyford Business District, which I look forward to seeing.
To fit into policies we’ve already put in place, it will have to be an ambitious, progressive strategy. As always, it could prove difficult to get proper political support for its implementation but I will be pushing it all the way.
Active Travel – upcoming projects
There has been a large increase in the number of people from around the area commuting by bike to and from Sandyford Business District or just making daily trips to school or shops. But what’s very clear is that the infrastructure is not there to enable more people to choose cycling as their transport mode. Much of the pedestrian infrastructure has not been properly upgraded in many years too.
A proposal to develop improved walking and cycling infrastructure in Sandyford BD was put out to public consultation by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (DLR) in Autumn 2021 and received 50 submissions, including one from me. I was unhappy with the ambition behind the designs and asked that they be reviewed in full. A report was produced on the public consultation highlighting a few issues to be addressed, including some raised by me such as the Blackthorn Avenue/Burton Hall Road junction needing redesigning.
The National Transport Authority rejected DLR’s application for funding to build the project in 2022/2023 and the DLR Active Travel team decided to undertake a full review of the designs which should lead to a better project. In February 2024, DLR were allocated €0.5m to proceed to construction later this year.
It’s been confirmed to me that the focus for this first phase will be on providing cycle tracks in both directions on Blackthorn Road and on the one-way stretch of Burton Hall Road that currently doesn’t have any cycling facilities. This would, for example, allow you to cycle from Carmanhall Court to the Beacon (1.2km/5 minutes) on safe cycle tracks the whole way where there currently are none.
Below the original drawings for this part of the project to give some idea of the works:
You can view the most recent publicly-available drawings from November 2021 here, but do expect a lot of the design details to change when it goes to construction.
Active Travel improvements to date
October 2021: opened up the new Drummartin Link Road cycle scheme
February 2023: new cycle stands that I requested installed by DLR at Naomh Olaf GAA Club
March 2023: new pedestrian/cycle link opened up between Bracken Road and Drummartin Link Road.
May 2023: changed pedestrian/cycle crossing at Blackthorn playground to go green instantly for people crossing.
2 small bits of good news for Sandyford/Balally:
— Cllr Oisín O'Connor (@OConnorOisin) May 18, 2023
Following my requests, the pedestrian crossing wait times have been reduced and made consistent.
The slide in Blackthorn playground was fixed earlier this week. Ordered back in November, the piece had to be made specifically. pic.twitter.com/nE7hUG6zcb
Autumn 2023: new permeability links opened up on Arkle Road and Ballymoss Road
Sandyford BD Mobility Hub
This week Sandyford Business District announced a new initiative with Trinity College Dublin and the SEAI to develop a mobility hub in Sandyford. Full details are here.
The team at Trinity are looking for people to complete a 10 minute survey as part of their research.
Further updates
I’ll keep providing more updates here on local projects. You can contact me any time if you’ve further questions or sign up for email newsletter updates from me:
