Revamped MacCurtain St open for business but buckle up for more Cork City disruption 

Its completion marks not only the end of more than a year of disruption and upheaval in the area, but also the end, for a while at least, of major city centre road works and traffic flow changes designed to reallocate more of the city's at-capacity road network to buses and bikes.

It is the last ‘big intervention scheme’ to be delivered under the city council’s near decade-old City Centre Movement Strategy (CCMS) - an ambitious plan to give more priority to public and active travel.

Several CCMS schemes have been completed over the years - the St Patrick’s St time-regulated bus corridor, which is supposed to restrict private cars from the street between 3pm and 6.30pm but which is being flouted regularly; the Grattan St project; the Parnell Place renewal scheme; the Kent Station to city centre bike and bus lanes; the Pope’s Quay cycle improvement scheme; the UCC to city centre bike lane; and the Mary Elmes pedestrian and cycle bridge.

Further works elsewhere

But if motorists think that’s it, they should think again.

CMATS and BusConnects are now the roadmaps for developing the city’s transport infrastructure and BusConnects is barrelling down the road fast, with more road works, disruption and traffic flow changes on a city-wide scale looming large for several more years to come.

Then there’s the regeneration of Bishop Lucey Park and South Main St over the coming months, the construction of two new bridges on to the event centre site, the Morrison’s Island public realm and flood defence scheme towards the middle of next year, the city-wide flood defence scheme, if approved, and a €1bn light rail system on the horizon.

That's apart from the between 60 and 70 active travel or bike lane schemes in planning, at tender stage, or underway, for just outside the city centre, including a network of bike lanes in Mahon; a greenway from the Viaduct to the Kinsale roundabout; the Marina promenade; new bike lanes to link Glanmire with the city; and a large road improvement scheme in Ballyvolane, which is awaiting a decision from An Bord Pleanala, to improve links to new housing developments in the area.

So for now, it might be worth sampling the atmosphere on MacCurtain St where the new and improved streetscape has helped create a destination experience for its burgeoning food and drink scene.

For Philip Gillivan, who has run the Shelbourne bar on MacCurtain St for almost 30 years, the disruption of the last year has been “absolutely worth it”.

“To be honest, people still kept coming up here during the works, even with barriers and kango hammers going,” he said.

The street looks amazing now. It’s created a much nicer environment, with the wider pavements, the trees, the LED lighting in the old street lamps, it’s bright and clean and people have embraced it.

“New businesses are coming into the area too, with two new wine bars, and more new restaurants due to open soon.” Craft butcher Tom Durcan, who runs Tom Durcan Meats, a famous stall in the English Market, and the Nua Asador food stall in Marina Market, is among those who hopes to add to the street’s buzzing food scene, as he awaits a decision on his planning application to open a second Nua Asador in a former taxi base on MacCurtain St.

The street revamp was a key factor in his decision to locate the new business there.

“I wouldn’t be planning to open on MacCurtain St if it wasn’t for the regeneration project. This is the way we need to go, making Cork more user-friendly,” he said.

Creating jobs

Pending a positive planning decision, which is due within days, he hopes to open the restaurant by next February, creating up to eight jobs in the process.

But it’s not all food and drink, and not everyone in the area is entirely happy.

Michael Wall, who established his fine furniture and antiques shop, Salvagem, in period buildings at 6 and 7 MacCurtain St during covid, was one of the few traders to publicly criticise the work on the scheme which hit his business badly, and he said he believes the money could have been better spent preserving and protecting existing buildings, rather than "ripping up and digging up".

“It looks great on paper but I believe it’s all smoke and mirrors,” he said.

Retail was almost non-existent for me during the works over the last few months. I was down 60% to 70% in the summer months and had just five sales in October. Five.

“This December, I now have to sell four times what I sold last December just to break even in January.

“People just didn’t want to come into the street because of the disruption, and they didn’t want to come to town because traffic is a nightmare, and nobody seems to be patrolling or enforcing the parking situation.

“My delivery drivers can’t use the loading bays. The large Luton trucks can’t reverse or manoeuvre into the spaces. They have to pull into loading bays on St Patrick’s Quay, when they’re available, and then I have to haul large cabinets or bookcases up to my shop on a handtruck.

“And it’s a parking free for all on Sundays.” 

He said people should remember that there are four car parks nearby, and that he has decided to cover his customers' parking costs.

“Look, it’s not all negative. It’s a great street, with award-winning restaurants but we need bodies to come in, we need more people in here. I fully intend to be here 2024,” he said.

Traffic flows

The name of the MacCurtain St public transport scheme was slightly misleading in that it didn’t capture the scale of the works, the vast works area, or the impact it would have on traffic flows.

It has included works on Coburg St and Bridge St, the creation of a new plaza at the bottom of St Patrick’s Hill, and work on Cathedral Walk, the delivery of new bus lanes, bus-only right turns and bus priority at traffic lights, significant pedestrian improvements and a new segregated two-way cycle route on the northern quays.

A number of pinch points and circuitous traffic routes have been removed through the relocation of private buses and coaches from St Patrick’s Quay, the extension of the two eastbound lanes on Anderson Quay, the removal of the traffic island and introduction of the right turn lane from the N20 towards Mulgrave Road, the new two-lane traffic flow from Camden Quay onto the N20, and the introduction of the much-used northbound lane on Brian Boru Bridge and street, which eliminates the need for traffic going towards Summerhill to travel the full length of St Patrick’s Quay, turn right onto Bridge St and then drive west along MacCurtain St.

The removal of the contra flow bus lane on Camden Quay has doubled the capacity for northbound traffic accessing either the N20 or Mulgrave Road and other changes on Penrose and Patrick’s Quay have also significantly improved the flow rates and available capacity on the north quays.

Some of the initial traffic flow changes introduced last year sparked criticism, which peaked last Christmas, particularly from motorists travelling from the southside to the northside.

The restriction on right turn movements on St Patrick’s and Christy Ring Bridges caused particular problems, but it also enabled the provision of a second eastbound traffic lane on Lavitt’s Quay and enhanced the capacity of the junction.

It has also involved works along St Patrick’s Quay, Camden Quay, Christy Ring Bridge, Lavitt’s Quay and Merchants Quay to improve pedestrian, bus and traffic flow.

Logic behind changes 

“The changes have been difficult, and they have been delivered in stages over a protracted period of time but there is a logic behind it all,” the city’s head of infrastructure, Gerry O’Beirne said.

The sequencing of traffic lights in and around the MacCurtain St area will be tweaked over the coming weeks to ensure the entire system runs as smoothly as possible but the fact remains that there is just too much traffic on the city’s road network.

Hence the need for improvements to deliver reliable sustainable transport options.

Changes in work patterns post covid have impacted on traffic flow, with peak-hour traffic now worst on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when many city centre office workers have ‘office days’. Educational facilities like universities and schools are still amongst the biggest generators of traffic in the city.

So buckle up for the disruption that the National Transport Authority's BusConnects Cork programme is going to bring as it delivers 11 sustainable transport corridors (STCs) or super bus corridors running from the suburbs to the city centre.

A new bus network has already been approved, but without the STCs, it just won't work. The draft STC route designs are currently the subject of a third round of public consultation, with community forum meetings taking place over the coming week or so.

Green Party Cllr Oliver Moran said his is the only political party that is prepared to tackle this issue head on.

“Buses don’t run on time because they are stuck in traffic. We have to bite the bullet on this,” he said.

If we are serious about dealing with it, then we have to put in place public transport priority measures.

“We have people who want to use the bus but who want to arrive at work or school or at lectures on time, who want to get out of work and pick up kids from creche on time, but they can’t because the buses are caught up in traffic.

“Every party says 'we want to improve public transport', but how many say they are going to deliver public transport priority measures.” 

And in order to ensure the taxpayer gets maximum benefit from its investment in CCMS projects like MacCurtain St and St Patrick’s St, automatic bollards should be installed and enforcement of parking laws must be ramped up, he said.

“We know from the kind of illegal parking that we see every day of the week that relying on policing by consent, without an engineering solution, doesn’t work,” he said.

“The NTA is talking about installing number plate recognition cameras to police the STCs but that just increases fines – it doesn’t necessarily deal with the problem.

“A better solution is to design the street in such a way that people don’t accidentally or intentionally drive down a bus lane.” 

He said a strong business representative group on MacCurtain St bought into the CCMS vision for their area and “took the disruption on the chin, knowing that when it’s over, things will be better”, and he praised City Hall for responding to what issues arose during the works.

“That engagement was vital. And it will be vital with BusConnects too,” he said.

Labour Cllr John Maher, also praised the engagement but said enforcement of the parking laws must be ramped up to ensure the new MacCurtain St, and all the CCMS schemes, work the way they are supposed to.

“I love MacCurtain Street – it's where I bought my first scout uniform, it’s where I bought my first breast in a bun, it’s where I had my first legal pint, and it’s where I run and eat out regularly – I’m in the area seven days a week and I want to see this project succeed,” he said.

But at the moment, my concern is that the street will be closed off on Saturday for the official opening, all the suits will be there, and it will look perfect.

“But that’s not the reality. The experience they have been talking about, and want to deliver isn’t being lived there in the evening.

“We need to accept that Cork isn’t a nine to five city anymore and our parking enforcement activity needs to reflect that.”