Luas ground construction set to continue right into the New Year

Dubliners who had hoped Luas construction work would be finished by Christmas are set to be disappointed again as the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) has acknowledged that ground construction will continue into the new year.

Although the RPA had originally hoped to have trams running in Dublin by the end of 2003 ( the advertisements read "next tram 2003 and after that it's every five minutes"), this was later changed to the "hope" that all ground construction work would be completed by Christmas.

Yesterday, the RPA said it was still hoping to "break the back" of the ground construction work by the end of the year, but admitted that it could not say when the metal fencing around the Luas sites would eventually come down.

A number of sites in the area of Harcourt Street, St Stephen's Green and Lower Abbey Street remain to be completed, while the final "wear" - or surface on the line - at these sites also remains to be fully installed.

After that, there are road resurfacing works on the sides of the street where Luas will not run, but where underground services may have been rerouted or where construction work has damaged the existing surface.

This represents a particular problem at Harcourt Street, where the road may have to be substantially relaid. Basements of Harcourt Street properties which extend under the road collapsed during construction of the line, and there are fears that substantial work relaying the road could lead to a repeat.

In addition, the overhead cabling remains to be installed in the city centre. The RPA said yesterday that it may be in a position to remove high metal barriers and replace them with smaller "crowd control" barriers in the New Year. Such barriers are preferred by traders, according to the RPA, because they do not obscure views of shops and businesses along the street.

However, despite the ongoing works, the RPA said the latest deadline - for fare-paying passengers on the Sandyford line by next June - remains in place. Up to three months have been set aside for the testing of each line, with the Sandyford line seeing all construction works competed by March. The Tallaght line is not set to open for three months after that.

Meanwhile, Dublin Bus has said it will double its services in the vicinity of southside DART lines, when the service shuts down after Christmas.

There will be no southside service from 9 p.m. on December 24th until the first train on the morning of January 5th. The northside DART service will return on December 27th.