In Balbriggan, council plans permanent one-way system for Quay Street and Seapoint

Fingal County Council is looking at rolling out a permanent one-way system in Balbriggan as part of its planned coastal greenway project.

On 10 April at the Balbriggan/ Rush-Lusk/ Swords Area Committee, Labour Councillor Brendan Ryan had asked how the Fingal Coastal Way would impact on traffic flows in the coastal town.

The greenway is expected to start in Newbridge Demesne in Donabate, and track about 32 km up to the county border, north of Balbriggan.

The route through Balbriggan is intended to travel up from Skerries via the R127 road, and upon entering Balbriggan, it would run along Seapoint next to the town’s harbour, Ryan said at the meeting.

The council expects to submit a planning application to An Bord Pleanála in 2026 for the greenway, senior executive officer Declan Ryan said.

That will include a one-way system connecting in with the adjacent €15 million Quay Street plaza project, also by the harbour, he said.

As part of that project, being led by Our Balbriggan, the local rejuvenation scheme, the council intends to make permanent its temporary traffic arrangements on Quay Street, according to a report by council senior engineer Linda Lally and Ryan.

Two-way traffic between Quay Street and the junction of High Street would no longer be permitted, said Ryan and Lally in their report.

And as the Coastal Way progresses, the council also expects that Seapoint, which connects directly to Quay Street, will also become one-way, their report said.

But must Seapoint become one-way for the greenway to actually work, Labour Councillor Brendan Ryan asked. “Will planning for the Fingal Coastal Way to the An Bord Pleanála include changes to traffic flows to Seapoint?”

From drawings shown to Ryan and residents, he said these present a one-way system that will continue down the R127 to the new bridge planned in Castlelands.

Would all those traffic-flow changes be a part of the greenway, or are they going to be dealt with separately? he asked. “If residents like the idea of the Fingal Coastal Way, but don’t like the traffic flow changes, will it actually work?”

Hugo van Wyk, a council senior executive engineer, said Seapoint has to be one-way to minimise the number of compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) that Fingal would have to carry out to build the coastal way.

“If we make it a one-way, we save a lot of road space and then we can make it work,” Van Wyk said.

Otherwise, they would need to CPO all the properties along the route to get more land to make the coastal way viable, he said, adding that all of this will be done through the council’s planning application to An Bord Pleanála.

Initially, the greenway was supposed to go through Hampton Cove and the Bower, but the new bridge at Castleland allowed the council to look at more options, he said. “And the more favourable option, with the least amount of CPO will be to make Seapoint one-way.”

This is the proposal that stands, he said. “But that is subject to planning.”

Locals will be able to share their input on all this when the coastal way plans go out for public consultation, Linda Lally said.

As part of the greenway works, the council is also engaging with Dublin Bus to consider how this scheme will impact bus routes, she said.

Ryan, the Labour councillor, said that if changing the flow of traffic in Balbriggan is being done purely to save money on CPOs, that’s hardly the right frame of mind considering this could all affect locals using buses.

“If the only motivation is CPOs, I urge everyone involved in this project to think again,” he said.

But that wasn’t the case, Lally said. “It’s not around CPOs. Not at all.”

The reason for coming along Seapoint is because if they went through Hampton Cove and the Bower, they would be going through the open green space in that area, which is just west of the R127, she said. “The CPO issue is around the extent of the one-way system.”

That goes back to the bus services as well, which the council is discussing with the National Transport Authority, she said. “The last thing we want to do is in any way negatively impact the public transport services.”

Doing fewer CPOs and a one-way system would certainly make the project a lot easier, Van Wyk said. But the council is looking at many options here. “It’s not definitive.”

The NTA is also going to be reassessing the Dublin Bus routes in Balbriggan, he said. “They haven’t looked at that in a couple of years.”

We have flagged to them the possibility of the R127 becoming one-way, he said. But again, “that’s all subject to planning”.