Operation Freeflow covers the general metropolitan area of Dublin with particular emphasis on the key arterial routes into the city and the urban villages. The overall operation is being co-ordinated by the Dublin Transportation Office which is also providing a specific financial input through the allocation of funds from the traffic management grants available across the local authorities areas covered by the DTI strategy. Of the total of £7.572 million available under that scheme in 1997, the following grant projects are of specific relevance to Operation Freeflow:
£2.234 million for quality bus corridors £508,000 for Dublin Corporation's CCTU system
£100,000 for the SCATS traffic signal control system
£240,000 to extend the variable passage system
£250,000 for improvement measures on key routes.
Financial and other resources are being imputed by the other organisations involved in the operation, in particular the local authorities and the Garda Síochána.
The second phase of this initiative, which commenced last March, emphasises not just the ongoing need to improve the management of traffic and parking in the city and the urban villages, but also the need to critically analyse the key routes serving the overall area.
The DTO has prepared an interim report on the progress of the second phase of the operation to date. This report will form the basis for a review of the operation and the identification of areas which require a new or enhanced emphasis.
