Castletown Concert Committee Report

Report >> 4.1 Traffic

Complaints relating to traffic were received from 220 patrons. In examining the complaints through the process as previously described, we are satisfied that these break down to:

1. Access to the site of the concert, and

2. Access to the car parks.

3. Complaints from car parks will be dealt with under 'Car Parks'.

The site chosen for the event, Castletown House, was approved initially by MCD and CPI and, as the licensing process continued, by the local authority, Kildare County Council. The site was laid out in a manner that allowed for one main entrance for patrons. It was located at the north end of the Castletown House estate. The other entrance was located in Celbridge and was restricted to minimal traffic, e.g. VIP traffic, emergency access, etc. It was a necessary requirement to provide for emergency access and to lessen the impact of traffic on the residents of Celbridge.

The main entrance was intended to service five large car parks, which were described as Car Parks 1,2,3,4 & 5. With the layout provided the intention was that as cars entered through the main entrance they would be filtered left and right into car parks 1,2 & 4, a short distance from the actual entrance. As these car parks filled up, traffic would then move up the entrance road nearer Castletown House and the actual arena to car parks 3 and 5.

At this point it is important to understand the volume of traffic MCD expected at the concert. With an initial projected attendance of 25,000 patrons, it was anticipated that car spaces for at least 10,000 cars would be required. With the actual attendance of 17,000, the car parks were more than adequate for such volumes. In fact, the resultant car parks 3 & 5 provided adequate spaces for the 7,000 cars that did attend the venue.

To understand the traffic difficulties one must consider the approach roads to the entrance to the venue. The entrance road was serviced by the interchange crossing the M4, which in turn had to accommodate traffic to the concert from two lanes off the M4 from the east, i.e. Dublin, two lanes off the M4 from the west, a road from Maynooth and a road from Celbridge. Emerging from the interchange, traffic was reduced to two lanes and entered the concert site in that format. It was then intended that traffic would peel off left and right to car parks 1, 2 and 4, thereby creating a fast flow of traffic to the venue.

As outlined earlier in the report, a few days prior to the concert, car parks 1, 2 and 4 were lost to the promoters due to the extremely bad weather, with only car parks 3 and 5 being available. These, as already described, were at the end of the entrance road and beside the arena, which meant that traffic had to stay on the relatively narrow entrance road for much longer than anticipated, thereby resulting in a slower than anticipated entry to the venue.

The gates were opened at 4.30pm and immediately there was a steady stream of cars. No particular issues or problems were evident at this time though the ground conditions did mean that drivers were being very cautious traversing the grass areas and this resulted in a slower than usual parking process.

While closed circuit cameras show a constant flow of traffic from the main entrance down to the car parks there is no doubt this process was taking more time than it would usually take had the ground conditions been in the condition you would expect for a July event and all the planned for car parks been operational.

Later on in the evening the traffic flow from the entrance to the car parks was further slowed due to pedestrians walking down that roadway. Some of these were pedestrians who had parked their cars on the roadside and decided to walk into the site. Many of them were unaware that the concert had been delayed by 50 minutes to facilitate latecomers to the show, as a tailback of traffic began to develop right back on both sides of the M4.

It is important to point out that the difficulties that arose with traffic were anticipated to a degree by all concerned on the eve of the concert. The committee is aware of the unsuccessful efforts made for alternative and hardcore parking at Hewlett Packard, which was close by to the entrance. Unfortunately this did not become available.

The committee has reached the conclusion that the traffic problems on the evening were caused by the following:

1. The loss of three car parks, i.e. Numbers 1,2 and 4 due to the ground conditions.

2. Entry to car parks 3 and 5 being delayed due to their location.

3. Many patrons did not allow themselves sufficient time, bearing in mind the location and promoter’s advice to leave plenty of additional time when travelling to the venue. (See appendix 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3)

4. Patrons walking to the site along the roadway from the entrance to the arena.

The committee is of the view from a traffic perspective that while one would expect that such a venue for an outdoor concert in the month of July with 5 car parks would be ideal, the fact is, access to a venue through just one entrance and that entrance being serviced within 100 yards by the M4 and two outer roads was too big a risk in terms of adequate traffic flow to the venue.

<< [back to chapter 4] | [to contents] | [on to chapter 4.2] >>