‘New town to create traffic chaos’

WORRIED neighbours of the country’s first designer town say they face a traffic nightmare because of the decision to begin the massive development at the same time as major upgrading works on the area’s main roads.

Residents of Lucan, west Dublin, which adjoins what will be the new town of Adamstown, believe the construction work, combined with road-widening along the N4, N7 and M50, will bring already snail-pace traffic to a complete standstill.

“We’re facing into total gridlock for the next five to seven years,” said Tom Dowling of the Finnstown Input Group, one of several community groups which have united to challenge aspects of the Adamstown project.

“We’re told the upgraded roads will help with the traffic from Adamstown but the development at Adamstown should have been postponed until the roads were ready. The infrastructure is so far behind to start with that it will always be playing catch-up and this just makes matters worse.”

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday formally kicked off construction of the new town, known as a strategic development zone, when he laid a commemorative stone at the site of one of the first phases of houses.

When finished in 10 years, Adamstown will have more than 10,000 homes, a railway station, three new schools, extensive parkland, a swimming pool and a large shopping centre.

Mr Ahern described the €2 billion development as historic. “Not only is Adamstown the first, it is also the largest strategic development zone approved in the State,” he said. “It will result in the creation of a sustainable community of more than 10,000 homes, including 1,500 social and affordable units.”

The new town is designed to be built in phases, with infrastructure being put in place each step of the way, but Green Party TD Paul Gogarty called on the Taoiseach to provide guarantees that this would happen.

“The Taoiseach is today making one of his rare visits to Lucan to attend the official stone-laying ceremony of the Adamstown plan. As usual there will be plenty of back-slapping. But amidst all of this camaraderie will be one sobering fact: the Government has not provided the resources to ensure that Adamstown works,” he said.

“The Taoiseach admitted in the Dáil last week that the M50 would be congested even after it was upgraded. Unless the investment is put into a public transport alternative, the whole project will collapse in on itself,” Mr Gogarty warned.