Completed ‘School Street’ works on Laurel Hill Avenue to benefit three Limerick schools

School Street to benefit pupils in three schools with walking, wheeling or cycling to class in a safer and calmer environment

Pupils in three schools will walk, wheel or cycle to class in a safer and calmer environment following the completion of Limerick’s newest ‘School Street’

Pupils in three schools will be in a position to walk, wheel or cycle to class in a much safer and calmer environment this new academic year following the completion of Limerick’s newest ‘School Street’.

The innovative project on Laurel Hill Avenue has been undertaken by Limerick City & County Council’s Active Travel team and funded by the National Transport Authority (NTA) through the Department of Transport.

The works that have been completed include areas built out for traffic calming, a raised table area at the school entrance gates; a new raised pedestrian crossing and raised table at the entrance to Laurel Hill Avenue; new tactile paving; and signage restricting traffic to “local access only” during school operational times.

advertisement
advertisement

advertisement
advertisement

advertisement
advertisement

The project will benefit all three schools on the street: Laurel Hill Coláiste FCJ, Laurel Hill Secondary School & St Clement’s College. It follows a successful funding application from Laurel Hill Coláiste FCJ directly to the NTA for inclusion in the first round of the Safe Routes to School Programme, which is an initiative led by the NTA and Green Schools and delivered by local authorities nationwide.

Director of Service for Transportation and Mobility at Limerick City and County Council, Brian Kennedy, commented, “This is the latest in a number of ‘school streets’ that have been delivered by the Active Travel team in recent years and I’m very pleased to see these works at Laurel Hill Avenue come to fruition. The rollout of high-quality infrastructure to enable students to walk and cycle to school in a far safer manner is continuing at pace across the city and county.”

He continued, “Facilities like these are creating environments for our children, grandchildren and future generations to engage in active and sustainable travel modes from an early age, hopefully continuing that habit as they progress in life.”

The scheme intends to prioritise the safety, accessibility and visibility of students walking and cycling on Laurel Hill Avenue, along with providing traffic-calming and vehicle restrictions to address congestion and driver behavior.

Senior Engineer with the Active Travel department at Limerick City & County Council, Sean McGlynn, said, “We’re continuing to make progress in delivering a transformed network of safer cycling and pedestrian infrastructure throughout Limerick. A key part of this is implementing the Safe Routes to School programme, where schools have applied directly for assistance to make their pupils’ journeys to the classroom safer and more accessible.

“Delivering this scheme in Laurel Hill Avenue is triply effective, with three schools all deriving benefit from it. We look forward to seeing similar infrastructure developed across the city and county over the coming months and years.”

Signage to be displayed on completion of the works will display two times for the ‘school street’ to be in operation:

08.00-09.00 (Monday-Friday, during term times)
14.30-16.00 (Monday-Friday, during term times)