[Carawaystick]

I drove down to Loughrea from Dublin on the 23rd, then into Galway and back on Christmas Eve and back East on St. Stephen's Day.

It was dark heading down but I thought the new road was very smooth.

The speed limits either side of the tollpike are set much further away than other schemes. The limit drops to 80 about 150m before the toll 1km ahead sign, and then drops to 50 before the plaza widens out.

As has been mentioned the layby before the N65(Loughrea) junction is right at the advance signage for the junction. This is symmetrical, as heading east there is a layby at the signage fro the same junction. This is probably a screw up. on the continent these'd be on the more sensible side, i.e. after the junction.

The new N65 has a few bends at the start and then is fairly straight. There are 2 staggered junctions before the loughrea bypass. These are signed for the local townlands, several of the people in Loughrea hadn't ever heard of them, but they are linking very minor roads, Boreens really. This section has a hard shoulder all the way, barring acceleration/deceleration lanes at the junctions.

Approaching the rab on the Loughrea bypass is a little wierd at first, the exits are all on the diagonal from the new N65 section and signed Bullaun, Portumna, Loughrea, Gort.
Portumna direction is signed N65, Gort direction is signed N66.
The Gort exit off the rab is signed for Gort and Kilcreest, nary a sign for Craughwell, which is wierd. Kilcreest is smaller than Kilrickle.
It's far quicker for traffic to go through the centre of Loughrea, than take the N66 route, which goes to the west end of the Loughrea bypass, back east to the town and then out by the lake towards Gort again. There is a plan to extend the loughrea bypass from it's west end to across to the existing N66. This will be faster alright.

Heading to Galway on Christmas Eve, the road was fine, even though the temp was -7, there was no worries with traction as the dry cold left most of the salt doing it's thing.
The signage before the N18 junction is wrong, it's green before the motorway ends. And the signage approaching the Douiskea rab is misleading. It shows two lanes, one for the rab and one for the slip left. but the 2 mainline lanes go to the rab and a slip lane goes left, needing an unexpected lane change, and a short enough merge onto the old DC heading to the Galway clinic rab.

[Aidan1]

Have driven this road a few times now - for the most part it's excellent, but there are a small number of places where the surface is less than ideal. There's a stretch in the driving lane just after the scheme commences heading west where there's a distinct ridge about 1-1.5m in from the yellow lines for a bit. It almost looks like the surface is lifting. Then again, run flats tend to amplify everything, so I'm probably overstating it.

The improvement to journey times and safety are incredible. I started to drive to Galway less than 10 years ago, and it took over 3.5hours pretty much all the time. Now it is an easy cruise that takes 2 hours (door to door in my case). It's good to see the emergency access provisions too - there are long sections between junctions on this scheme.

Oh, and Roryhy, please read the rules of the road. In this country we drive on the left and overtake on the right.

[justindublin]

Anyone on here know the travel time from Dublin M50 to Galway CC since this opened?

[BluntGuy]

Originally Posted by tech2

Lads, this is getting way off topic. Can we get back to discussing the scheme? Discussing driving behaviour can be done over on the motors forum.

I'm going to re-iterate this.

Please take the (admittedly interesting) driving habits discussion elsewhere otherwise I'll just start deleting posts.

[DanielI]

I propose to close this thread and move further posts to the "Completed Sections" thread. The M6 - Ballinasloe - Galway Section is completed.

[Tech3]

I'm locking the thread for now, I will open it again for any photo uploads or reviews of the scheme when requested.

I moved some of the posts to the M6 Motorway (for discussing COMPLETED sections)

[oddiot]

I took a few pics heading westbound last week when I was a passenger, full list of images available at:
http://pix.ie/oddiot/album/361255

It's a fantastic scheme, and M50 to the end of the scheme is a nice sub 2-hour journey.

Some of the interesting shots are:

Damaged metal barrier between Athlone and Balinasloe.


End of metal barrier and tie in with jersey barrier for Balinasloe to Galway section:


Typical route confirmation sign:


Cool rock formation:


Wide view at Athenry exit, Athenry is just to the right of this photo:


Very wide hard shoulder between J17 and J19. Could this be where J18 will be constructed in the future?


Approaching end of motorway regulations at J19:


Approaching Coolagh roundabout, end of scheme at J20:

[KevR]

Got a few pictures yesterday (Sunday). Was a pretty dull day and, typically, the only 10 mins of sleet Galway got all day was the 10 mins I was on the M6! Quality isn't brilliant; I'll have to get some proper photos on a dry, sunny and frost/snow-free day sometime.

Click thumnails for full size images.

Heading East from Doughiska to Athenry.

Doughiska:



Rock cutting near Doughiska:


Signage approaching Junction 19/start of motorway:



Getting nearer J19:



At Junction 19/start of motorway:


Ice warning VMS and SOS phone + destination signage:



Wide median section + wide bridge over wide median section:


Heading East:

[KevR]

And some more heading East.

Approaching Junction 18 (Athenry):


Approaching Junction 18 (Athenry):


End of Motorway at Athenry:

[KevR]

Heading West towards Galway City at night. Pretty poor pictures but I'll post anyway.

First photo doesn't really do the Cat's Eyes justice. Trust me, it's like being on a runway. Second photo shows signage; a bit blurry but you van see how well dipped headlights illuminate the sign.


Approaching Doughiska. Second photo is quite blurry, sorry!


At Doughiska: