Transport Assessment & Traffic Model for Dunkettle/Ballinglanna Lands, Glanmire, Co. Cork

Mhl were appointed by the Forward Planning and Strategic Development Unit of Cork County Council to undertake a traffic study examining the transportation options available for developed lands at Dunkettle and Ballinglanna, in Glanmire, Co Cork. The lands are jointly zoned as ‘X-01’ in the Blarney Electoral Areal Local Area Plan 2011 with an objective to accommodate a minimum of 1,200 houses, a primary school and playing pitches.

Planning permission to develop the lands has been refused in the past on appeal to An Board Pleanála. Key amongst the reasons for refusal were concerns about the traffic impacts of the development on the national road network, most notably the Dunkettle Interchange, and on the local road network which is deficient in terms of capacity, width, alignment and pedestrian facilities.

The purpose of the report was to inform future decisions in relation to the overall land supply available to facilitate the development of housing in the metropolitan area, and to inform future Local Area Plan reviews. The study sought to examine the options available to provide access to these lands, the scale of development that can be accommodated and the roads and transportation infrastructure needed to deliver such development. The options considered had to have regard to the national and local transportation policies that sought to integrate land use and transport and deliver an efficient, sustainable transport network with an increased role for public transport while protecting the strategic function and carrying capacity of the national road network and the environmental sensitivities of the area.

As part of this study it was required that various traffic microsimulation models be constructed of the study area. In all twenty-five Paramics traffic models were constructed for various scenarios for the design years 2018, 2020, 2023, 2025 & 2028. The models served to assess the impact of various development scenarios and infrastructural changes, in light of traffic conditions. Many of the future design year models included the Dunkettle interchange Upgrade Scheme which is yet to be built.