Newlands Cross Upgrade EIS - European Investment Bank

South Dublin County Council N7 Newlands Cross Upgrade
Environmental Impact Statement
Arup Consulting Engineers
provided on the Belgard Road southbound. Curiously, there is no cycle lane or the
northbound carriageway of Belgard Road despite the presence of sufficient space for such a
facility. In comparison, there are few pedestrian crossings given the absence of much
housing, community facilities or employment in the area immediately south of the Naas Road.
The westbound bus stop on the west side of the junction provides one of the main reasons for
pedestrian crossings of the road. Bus users alighting from (arriving at) the stop who are
heading to (arriving from) Clondalkin must cross both Belgard Road and the Naas Road via
five sets of lights (six if they are heading to the west side of the Fonthill Road). Although a
few of these crossings involve single lane slip roads, the waiting time is inevitably long. Most
pedestrians observed during the fieldwork for this report did not wait for each light change
and a few crossed on the west side of Newlands Cross where there is no signalised crossing at
all.
3.12.2.2.3 Community Facilities
Residential areas:
The large residential suburb of Clondalkin is located to the north of Newlands Cross.
However, the only residential area in the immediate vicinity of the junction is an estate to the
east of Fonthill Road South comprising Newlands Road, Newlands Drive, Newlands Avenue
and Newlands Park. The estate is served by a bus route. Other residential estates are served
by distributor roads linking onto Fonthill Road, Boot Road or Convent Road. Signalised
pedestrian lights link Newlands Road with the west side of Fonthill Road at the traffic lights
beside a retail centre. The pedestrian lights themselves are located on the north and east of the
junction where demand is greatest, but not on the southern approach. Nevertheless, a number
of pedestrians were observed crossing the Fonthill Road between the traffic lights and the
Naas Road and many were not prepared to wait for the full light sequence.
Community facilities:
There are few community facilities in the immediate vicinity of Newlands Cross. Most such
facilities are located in Clondalkin Village and the centre of Tallaght. St. Josephs Parish
Church and St. Joseph’s Primary School are located on Convent Road in Clondalkin Village
along with a secondary school. Another church and secondary school are located on St John’s
Drive. Each of these churches and schools is situated a short distance from Newlands Cross
junction, but there is no significant interaction between these and the junction given that so
few people live south of the junction.
There is a small shopping centre immediately to the north of the junction on the east side of
Fonthill Road South. This centre contains a Londis store, hair/beauty salons, restaurants, a
stationers, a betting shop, small furniture store and a car dealers. A garden centre is located
just across Newlands Road, while a Statoil petrol station and associated grocery store is
located on the opposite side of the Fonthill Road. An Aldi store has recently opened to the
west of the junction on a cul-de-sac off the Fonthill Road beside the Naas Road. Bewleys
Hotel is located Newlands Cross with an entrance off the same road.
The area to the south-west of the junction is taken up by the Newlands Golf Club. There are
no other community facilities on the southern side of the Naas Road for at least a kilometre
and a half along Belgard Road.
Golf course:
The Club is long established, has a sizeable membership and was quite busy on the weekday
afternoon when it was visited for this assessment. Enquiries suggest that members normally
time their arrival to allow for peak traffic periods, but problems with journey times for those
unfamiliar with the area have led to a discontinuation of tournaments for outsiders at busy
traffic times.
December 2007 Page 56