Commuters on Dublin's southside may have wondered about yet more roadworks on St Stephen's Green, causing additional gridlock in the past two weeks.
This time the cause is the construction of a Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) on St Stephen's Green South in the lane nearest the Green. Work began two weeks ago and is due to finish ahead of schedule at the end of this week.
At St Stephen's Green South, on the side of the Department of Foreign Affairs and University Church, there are four traffic lanes. When the QBC is completed, there will be three lanes for traffic and one lane nearest the green for buses and taxis.
A spokesman for the Quality Bus Network Project office, which is under the auspices of four local authorities and the director of traffic at Dublin City Council, said the section was part of the QBC route from Stillorgan into the Green. It would join the bus lane in Leeson Street.
However, a member of the traffic committee of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Mr Sean Barron, who has a number of businesses in the Grafton Street area, said it was another nail in the coffin.
"If you walk up and actually look at it, you will see that the QBC takes up nearly two lanes. But it's not just that; with Luas the whole area is choc-a-bloc. From the business point of view, there has been a change in the past month with the traffic the way it is. Now they consider that this is the best time to add to the chaos by building the QBC," Mr Barron said. He said the QBC would make the traffic even worse.
The QBC spokesman rejected the idea that the lane would lead to more traffic congestion for other vehicles. He said: "There are so many buses and taxis coming around St Stephen's Green South that the lane will take all that traffic."
One unusual feature of the QBC would be a new bus stop in the middle of the road on St Stephen's Green South. An island is being built for the bus stop and signalled pedestrian crossings will lead from it to the pathways on either side of the road.
The spokesman said that there were 11 QBCs at the moment and there were proposals for a further nine routes. He said the work on this QBC was due to finish ahead of schedule this week.
"We have had people working on the QBC seven days a week," he said. A QBC is a complete bus route whereas a bus lane can be part of that route. There is one other bus lane on St Stephen's Green on the north side, where the buses stop in front of the Habitat store.
Meanwhile, this morning the traffic flow from St Stephen's Green South to Cuffe Street will be restored.
It had been closed due to work on the Luas junction.