N7 - Newlands Cross upgrade

Went through today at 4 o clock going northbound M50. Followed the signs kept left and flew through a fairly empty double lane on the left hand side. Mean while large queue of cars in the 2 right hand lanes were not moving.

Got through to the other side were lots of cars trying to jump into the left hand lanes after being stuck on the right hand side

Was home 10 minutes earlier due to following the signs. I know which lanes I'm taking everyday till actual bridge is finished.

When traveling inbound towards the M50, the road splits before Newlands into two pairs of two lanes. The right hand pair are signposted with the left one for going straight and the right one for turning up the Belgard Road. BUT at the last moment the right lane splits again for no reason allowing the option of not turning right but instead going straight ahead into an almost dead end, this “lane” was carrying as many cars as the correct straight ahead lane, with drivers illegally trying to merge left into those who had queued patiently. It is a disaster of near misses and horn blasting that is dangerous and badly thought out.

The "use any lane" signs are very misle

Use Any Lane was also showing on M50 gantries todayading. Should be turned off until they can think of something helpful, or at least not completely wrong

Mitch Connor wrote: »

unless I was being thick yesterday - you needed to be in the left lane to head towards the M50N and M50S - middle lane and right split to the right hand side (see the pic of the truck 'merging' above).

left lane M50N, second from left lane M50S (altho you can continue straight on in this lane to town)

the signs are correct

BUT even tho i was in the correct lane for M50N there were a few moments of "OMG its taking me somewhere else" i can see why people panic and change lanes, But if you hold your nerve it works out just fine

they just need a few more reassuring signs along the route to advise people they are still in the correct lane i think

Came through again yesterday Still a nightmare, still a traffic plan designed by someone with drool coming out the side of their mouth.

Case in point : there has always been a straight on access to the city if you kept in the right hand lane up to newlands x inbound . Now there is not. it is a forced right turn to the belgard road .

Now you might say "well if you read the signs".... and I was so frustrated I went back and looked

1. Yes it is signed. By crappy orange signs as above which most people just think "Roadworks ahead". No LCD banners, nothing on the M7 inbound banner overheads, zero. Are those signs even compliant with RUS type signage ?

are they clear ? No, not at all. Too small and you are past them too quickly.

SO : if you are at lane speed ( and worse, full old lane speed , i.e. 80-100 up to the lights as a lot of people still do, yes I know it is 60 up to the lights

1. Assume you havent seen the orange signs
2. Assume you are still in the Right lane
3. Assume you want to go straight ahead

you are now up the creek because you will be landed straight into a bollard with NOWHERE to go ( you will NOT be expecting a wall and have to very suddenly turn right or merge.

Accident ( and a bad one ) waiting to happen because BAM cannot be bothered to put in place proper measures.

My 0.02c anyway.

Does anyone know what the intention is for traffic joining inbound from Belgard rd and fonthill rd? i.e. Will it be allowed to merge before the red cow or will it continue outside the ramp and new lanes and join the m50 or city bound lanes past the bowstring bridge?

I'm really hoping that it's the latter and they won't allow mad dashes across the m50 bound N7 traffic to meet the city bound lanes. Or do folks think there's room for this in a free flow arrangement?

why the lack of cycle infrastructure to link clondalkin to liffey valley?

mackerski wrote: »

Newlands Cross doesn't feature in that journey.

I mean Tallaght to Liffey Valley, there doesnt appear to be any cycle lanes on the fonthill road through the scheme

gk5000 wrote: »

They are not planning any noise protection barriers between newlands cross and the red cow/M50.

They would make the structure look even bulkier. Apart from Bewleys Hotel and 1 house on the far side, there is little need for them anyway. I'm sure they are well used to the sound by now.

Seen this video





For a bridge carrying 3 lanes each way it doesn't very wide.

Cookiemunster wrote: »

It won't have hard shoulders and will have a concrete central barrier so it will be perfectly wide.

As Cookiemonster said it's plenty wide when the just the basic services pass over it (same as many overbridges on the motorways if you keep an eye out). Also if you want to see some graphics of it, I'm sure there is drawings of the junction/layouts etc on this thread somewhere I just cant find them at the minute.

Here's the skyscraper thread with some early visuals on page 2 of the thread.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1599158&page=2

paulbok wrote: »

They looked to be gearing up to pour concrete on the bridge this morning. At this rate, it's not impossible to see the new road (flyover) open by Hallow'een, taking the through traffic off the temp roads, leaving re-aligning the access/ Belgard Rd roads for X-mas.

The entire project may well be finished way ahead of schedule.

Concrete being pumped this morning

No madness to be had