Future delivery of Dart Underground could be jeopardised by Dublin City Council’s Wood Quay housing plans
Dublin City Council’s (DCC) proposals to develop housing on its Wood Quay site would make it more expensive and difficult to build Dart Underground, according to a leading transport expert.
Trinity College Professor of Transport, Brian Caulfield, said that the delivery of large numbers of housing before building out the major transport artery, as proposed by DCC, “wouldn’t make sense”.
“From international research that’s been done on it, and what’s logical, it wouldn’t make sense to put housing on that site if Dart Underground is still to go ahead,” Prof Caulfield said.
“The worst thing that could possibly happen is that they would have to change the alignment of Dart Underground because these apartments were in place,” he said.
“There isn’t a huge amount of wriggle room in terms of where that line could go, because it’ll be much bigger than the [Metrolink] project, because Dart is proper heavy rail, whereas metro will be essentially a big Luas.”
The transport scheme, most recently referred to as Dart+ Tunnel, is an underground train line that would connect Heuston Station with Christchurch, St Stephen’s Green, Pearse Station and Docklands Station.
The line was granted planning permission in 2011, but never advanced. A 2021 feasibility study on the route estimated its cost at between €5bn and €6bn.
In the National Transport Authority’s (NTA) latest transport strategy, the project is scheduled to be progressed “post-2042”, but the route alignment is to be “preserved and protected” in the meantime.
The tunnel is also being kept under “periodic review” to determine whether an earlier implementation date is required.
DCC’s early proposals for the Wood Quay site
The entrance to the approved scheme’s Christchurch station would sit between DCC’s two “bunker” buildings close to the cathedral, and its more modern offices along the River Liffey.
However, in presentations to councillors in recent months, DCC officials outlined early plans to replace the existing Wood Quay offices with a housing scheme of more than 500 apartments.
Proposals show four apartment blocks between six and eight storeys tall that stretch far beyond the footprint of the existing office buildings.
These apartment blocks also sit on top of the proposed entrance to the Dart’s Christchurch station.
The Wood Quay plans are to be further developed once the council moves to Camden Yard, currently scheduled for 2030, and vacates its existing offices.
But DCC chief executive Richard Shakespeare and councillors have been clear that housing is the intended focus of the redevelopment.
The design concept illustrated capacity for 532 homes on the site, assuming the existing civic offices are demolished.
Prof Caulfield said that while it is technically feasible to build apartments on the site first, and shoehorn a new station in afterwards, it would make Dart Underground far trickier to undertake.
“It would make it a lot more expensive because the tunnel would have to be built a lot deeper ... that’s why putting housing there first is not a good idea,” he said.
“[Dart Underground] is on the list of things to happen. Why make it more difficult and more expensive for it to happen when it does?
“If we were to plonk 500 apartments on top of an [existing] Dart station, that’s exactly what we should be doing, but we can’t jeopardise the Dart project.”
He said remedial works at Wood Quay, which could mitigate the impact of Dart Underground on any future development, should be taking place before any homes are built.
“They did this at the Mater Hospital before [MetroLink], so there’s a massive, essentially concrete box underneath the new extension, so that when metro happens it won’t interrupt [the hospital],” he said.
A spokesperson for DCC said the purpose of the design concept was to “assess the overall development potential of the Wood Quay site at a high level”.
“Any future development of the site will be subject to further detailed design, technical assessment and ongoing engagement with relevant stakeholders, including the NTA and TII, to ensure that any future strategic infrastructure is appropriately considered,” they said.
The site’s final development strategy will be subject to consultation with councillors and the public, and will need to follow “all statutory processes”, they added.
An NTA spokesperson told the Irish Independent that DCC had not been in touch with them about the Dart+ Tunnel project, but that the housing proposal would not prevent a station being developed on the site “in principle”.
They said while the alignment of the route is protected, several details of any future underground scheme, such as the number and location of the stations, are “yet to be determined”.
“In relation to the redevelopment of Wood Quay for housing, the NTA is directly involved in the land use planning process in Dublin,” the spokesperson said.
“To this end the NTA has inputted into land use plans and proposals at pre-planning stage; by making submissions at application and draft plan stage; and by reviewing compliance with relevant planning conditions.
“In this manner, land use development, including major housing schemes, have progressed through the planning system while protecting and facilitating MetroLink, DART+ and BusConnects.
The spokesperson said they would “anticipate the same approach” for Wood Quay as that site’s development moves forward.