Redesigned 'orbital ring' road signs to take effect next week

More than a year after the first scheme collapsed in confusion, Dublin City Council will try again this weekend with a new series of direction signs for its "orbital ring" routes.

Among the main changes the new signs will have less information than the cluttered originals. The colour orange - traditionally used to warn of roadworks - has been replaced by light blue as the code for the inner orbital route. And this time, the English version of An Lár, the city centre, will be included.

Another major change concerns the numbering of junctions. These will now run consecutively - 1-50 on the inner route and 51 upwards on the outer - to avoid confusion caused by the same numbers occurring twice, with only colour-coding to differentiate them.

According to the council, the redesign has cost €20,000 on top of the €200,000 for the original scheme, the poles for which remain in place and will be used for the new directions.

But unveiling the redesign yesterday, the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, said it could be used by any of the 34 local authorities implementing orbital routes as part of traffic management.

As with the first version, the new Dublin signs will aim to divert cross-city traffic via an outer orbital - based largely on the North Circular Road and Grand Canal - and an inner orbital, incorporating St Stephen's Green, Merrion Square, Mountjoy Square and Blackhall Place.

Signs on either route will be headed by the junction number, from J1 (Custom House Quay/Talbot Memorial Bridge) on the inner ring, to J81 (Sean Moore Road/Beach Road) on the outer.

The outer orbital signs will have arrows pointing inwards to the city centre, and outwards to regional route numbers, with the names of identifying suburbs to help those unfamiliar with the route numbers

The blue inner ring signs will include directions to particular city centre destinations and to parking facilities.

As before, there will be separate, predominantly white signs, on the approaches to the orbital routes. These will be headed with the colour-code of the route ahead, and the junction number .

Traffic restrictions introduced with the original signs have remained in place during the past year. But one major new restriction has been imposed to coincide with the relaunch.

From Tuesday, traffic approaching the city centre on Pearse Street will be forced to turn right at Tara Street, rather than continuing towards College Street, except where local access is required. The change does not apply to buses, taxis, motorcycles and bicycles.