Hospital bridge was built “too soon”

Last April, Community Voice exclusively revealed that the newly completed N3 entrance to Connolly Hospital would not be allowed open for a number of years due to the proposed new upgrading works on the M50/N3 interchange.

Now the National Roads Authority (NRA) has finally acknowledged this delay. In a letter to local Labour Party TD Joan Burton, the NRA’s head of PPP Commercial Operations and Strategic Planning, Hugh Creegan has confirmed that “it is not possible to open this bridge access route at present.”

Mr. Creegan blames the delay on the fact that new road into the hospital has “recently been completed well ahead of the originally envisaged schedule.“

According to Mr. Creegan “as part of the M50 upgrade scheme there will be significant enhancements to the N3 junction which involves a major reconfiguration of the N3 on its approach to the M50. The present roundabout will be removed and the whole junction remodelled. New road links will be built from the current roundabout to cross the M50 motorway. The new bridge from the hospital will connect into this revised layout.”

Mr. Creegan argues that “if this access were to be opened to traffic at present there would not only be serious health and safety issues for traffic using the new entrance but there would also be a significant detrimental effect to through traffic on the N3 through the need to provide additional traffic signals.”

Deputy Burton has criticised the present situation saying “there seems to have been a complete lack of joined-up thinking when it came to the scheduling of the completion of the new bridge. It should have been built to coincide with the completion of the road works nearby since the opening of the bridge is dependent on their completion.”

The M50/N3 junction is scheduled for completion in 2010, so it seems likely that the new hospital entrance, which cost €6m to construct, will have to remain mothballed for another couple of years.

Meanwhile Deputy Burton has called on the NRA and Fingal County Council to do everything in their power to ensure the most efficient sequencing of the road works is put in place to allow for an earlier opening of the new entrance bridge to the hospital.

“It is important that people using the hospital are able to see the benefit of this piece of infrastructure rather than having to watch it standing idle as they travel around the world to enter the hospital,” she said.

Community Voice, Media House, Church Avenue, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15
Phone +353 1 822 1432 -  Fax +353 1 640 4444
info@communityvoice.ie

All content and images are © Perceptions[Publicity and Event Management] Limited. All rights reserved
Site developed by Vincent Cahill