N5 Ballaghaderreen Bypass

Mr Cumulonimbus · 23-11-2012 11:40pm

Report from the Roscommon People on the commencement of the scheme.

Geogregor · 17-02-2013 6:28pm

So, how is this project going? Any major works done this winter?
Maybe some local folks could check it out and post some pictures.

antoobrien · 18-02-2013 1:46pm

Geogregor wrote: »

So, how is this project going? Any major works done this winter?
Maybe some local folks could check it out and post some pictures.

I've been talking to a lad that's part of the project, they're doing a lot of heavy digging. can't give any more detail than that really.

macker16 · 18-02-2013 8:02pm

they are heading down into a bog at the moment with fill .they are fairly moving

Geogregor · 18-02-2013 9:01pm

Are there any significant structures (bridges, overpasses) or is it fairly straightforward project?

serfboard · 19-02-2013 2:24pm

macker16 wrote: »

they are heading down into a bog at the moment with fill

I'd say there'd be a whole lot of bog on this project.

spacetweek · 19-02-2013 4:59pm

Geogregor wrote: »

Are there any significant structures (bridges, overpasses) or is it fairly straightforward project?

The new route does not cross the old one so I would imagine there are not too many bridges.

antoobrien · 19-02-2013 5:06pm

spacetweek wrote: »

The new route does not cross the old one so I would imagine there are not too many bridges.

There would also be bridges if it's crossing rail lines (don't know if there is one), minor roads & rivers. There are 50+ structures along the M6 Galway - Ballinasloe, it crosses the old N6 once.

Neworder79 · 19-02-2013 7:56pm

R293 Ballaghaderreen-Sligo is the only "major" road crossing, will become the new junction for the town. It crosses several minior link roads, and the Lung river near where it joins Lough Gara so there could be a wide structure there.

Ballaghaderreen-Kilfree rail line pulled up in 60s. Some of the embankment remains but not much else in the area.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/5994423216/

L1011 · 19-02-2013 8:02pm

Occasionally former trackbeds are still boxed to allow for potential reopenings/greenways/paths.

spacetweek · 20-02-2013 11:21am

antoobrien wrote: »

There would also be bridges if it's crossing rail lines (don't know if there is one), minor roads & rivers. There are 50+ structures along the M6 Galway - Ballinasloe, it crosses the old N6 once.

True, but I'd imagine most or all of the minor road crossings would be at-grade considering it's only the N5.

antoobrien · 20-02-2013 11:50am

spacetweek wrote: »

True, but I'd imagine most or all of the minor road crossings would be at-grade considering it's only the N5.

True - I've no idea what kind of standard this road is planned to (SC/DC), but after driving on the A1 to belfast a few wekes ago I'd rather not see at grade junctions.

joujoujou · 20-02-2013 2:44pm

antoobrien wrote: »

[...] what kind of standard this road is planned to (SC/DC), [...]

[...] The scheme which comprises of 13.6km of standard single carriageway will provide a bypass to the north of Ballaghaderreen town. The project will include realignment/bridging of local road junctions and a major grade separated junction at the N5/R293 interface. [...]

serfboard · 21-02-2013 2:15pm

Good to see they're putting in a grade-separated junction with the R293. The junctions work well on the Claremorris and Knock bypasses (N17) which are also single-carriageway.

joujoujou · 22-02-2013 12:35pm

Here ya go, lads.

Fresh photos, shot this morning.

Pictures are not perfect, as I noticed too late I have ISO set way too high, so photos are quite grainy.

Also, for obvious reasons couldn't get onto a site, but it's still better than nothing.

View to the East from R293. Presumably the new N5 will go under R293, as they're digging very deep. Couldn't shoot opposite side of R293, as the road is very narrow there (no shoulder at all) and I didn't want to take a risk and walk in quite heavy traffic. Sorry for that.

Going West - local road parallel to R293, closed to through traffic.

Big BOOM to be expected today!

That's what you can see behind a sign...

...and this...

...and finally this:

More pics in a minute.

joujoujou · 22-02-2013 12:42pm

More, as promised. :cool:

Comment not necessary:

Going more West, next local road, forest already gone, preparations in progress, view to the East...

...and West:

And deeper to the East again, you can see dust made by really hard working people and their powerful machines:

And close-up of above:

Irish and Proud · 22-02-2013 2:14pm

Wow, they're not wasting much time!!!

Great Pictures!

Geogregor · 22-02-2013 3:35pm

Wow, great shots, thanks.
Do they have a lot of blasting to do? I wasn't expecting blasting at all in this part of Ireland.

In general I'm surprised how often it seems to be used in Ireland. In Poland even where they have to do big cuts for roads they never really use it. Of course we have mostly soft postglacial soils but even where they remove rocks they don't blast.

antoobrien · 22-02-2013 3:41pm

Geogregor wrote: »

Wow, great shots, thanks.
Do they have a lot of blasting to do? I wasn't expecting blasting at all in this part of Ireland.

It's to do with the rock type. We have a lot of Limestone in Ireland (especially in the west) that blasting is the only really effective way of moving the rock in the large quantities required.

serfboard · 22-02-2013 4:55pm

antoobrien wrote: »

It's to do with the rock type. We have a lot of Limestone in Ireland (especially in the west) that blasting is the only really effective way of moving the rock in the large quantities required.

Have a look at this, on the Knock bypass.

Serious amounts of rock removed here, and I'd say it would take forever were it to be done by conventional rock breaking.

Sponge Bob · 22-02-2013 5:20pm

You can blast away if there are no houses nearby. That Knock stone ( a blue/yellow limestone) made its way onto many a Galway house facade around 2002 or so.

I heard a story about Folan coming across blue granite (original rockbreaker breaker) with only one house nearby. The oul fella living in the house was treated to a visit to England to see his brother and while he was away they blasted it.

He got an extra treat on his homecoming, a full set of new windows.

JupiterKid · 07-05-2013 12:05am

Just wondering does anyone know how this scheme is progressing?

Any updates from anyone passing through Ballaghaderreen lately or even some pics?

joujoujou · 07-05-2013 12:41pm

Goes quicker than I'd expect. I was thinking about taking some photographs yesterday, but forgot my camera.

But live close enough to take some pics later this week (if weather allow).

macker16 · 07-05-2013 8:28pm

HERE YOU GO

IMG_3585.JPG

IMG_3586.JPG

IMG_3587.JPG

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IMG_3590.JPG

joujoujou · 11-05-2013 8:23am

Shot some photographs yesterday, to keep you updated.

Just to remind you - previous photosession starts here: [post]83343564[/post]

=====================

Note #1: entire area looks very quiet at the moment. Contractor's employees I talked to explained that is due to recent heavy rainfalls - ground became swampy, so it's unsafe to heavy machinery. Works will hopefully resume right after weekend.

=====================

Note #2: my trip was planned to be in the same order as the previous one, so easy to compare before vs. after.

=====================

R293 crosses new N5, view to East:

R293 will be on top of N5, bridge built-up in progress.

And close-up:

Note #3: there's nothing to see further to the East - went there later - groundworks end where you see them on pictures above.

======================

R293 crosses N5, view to the West:

======================

Site #2 (where the BOOM sign was last time), view to the South (across new N5):

And view to the West:

More pics soon.

joujoujou · 11-05-2013 8:33am

Site #3 (minor changes here), view to the East:

View to the West:

Site #4, view to the North:

And close-up:

joujoujou · 11-05-2013 8:43am

Site #5, view to the East:

And West:

Site #6:

View to the East:

And West:

Heavy vehicles gathered here:

One more post to follow.

joujoujou · 11-05-2013 8:52am

Site #7, view to the East:

View to the West:

Close-up. Old N5 at the centre of the photo:

Site #8. This is the place where new N5 will meet old N5. View to the East:

veryangryman · 12-05-2013 1:35am

joujoujou wrote: »

Site #7, view to the East:

View to the West:

Close-up. Old N5 at the centre of the photo:

Site #8. This is the place where new N5 will meet old N5. View to the East:

Journey time wise are we really going to see much improvement here? Safety wise great. Dublin mayo that bit safer but otherwise not much

lamaq · 12-05-2013 9:48am

Bypass is on OSM now http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.9086&lon=-8.5596&zoom=13&layers=M

joujoujou · 12-05-2013 10:36am

veryangryman wrote: »

Journey time wise are we really going to see much improvement here? Safety wise great. Dublin mayo that bit safer but otherwise not much

Both time and safety worth fighting for.

L1011 · 12-05-2013 1:40pm

veryangryman wrote: »

Journey time wise are we really going to see much improvement here? Safety wise great. Dublin mayo that bit safer but otherwise not much

Dublin - Mayo, not a huge amount normally, but it will be quicker and likely have more overtaking opportunities.

Mayo - Dublin I've been held up for 45+ minutes before, one indecisive driver who can't understand hand signals can cause 5 minutes on their own.

This was the last place with common traffic caused delays on the way, the remaining issues are where you can be delayed by one driver...

veryangryman · 12-05-2013 8:58pm

Just been checking the map, It seems that it falls short of linking in with the Charlestown bypass/Flynn Expressway. Couple of miles of shoddy road remain towards Roscommon/Mayo border after its construction. Am i incorrect?

L1011 · 12-05-2013 9:12pm

veryangryman wrote: »

Just been checking the map, It seems that it falls short of linking in with the Charlestown bypass/Flynn Expressway. Couple of miles of shoddy road remain towards Roscommon/Mayo border after its construction. Am i incorrect?

Nope, it meets the Charlestown Bypass. The border is the purple line, you can see where the bypass deviates from the old road just before that.

Neworder79 · 12-05-2013 9:15pm

veryangryman wrote: »

Just been checking the map, It seems that it falls short of linking in with the Charlestown bypass/Flynn Expressway. Couple of miles of shoddy road remain towards Roscommon/Mayo border after its construction. Am i incorrect?

The new road joins at the end of the narrowest section of N5, the very short section between there and the Carracastle/Charlestown bypass was already wide and straight with hard shoulder. I'd imagine it will be blended in.

streetview

spacetweek · 13-05-2013 1:35pm

Yes, online widening of the existing N5 at the tie-in is likely. I went over it on Streetview last night in detail and I'm pretty sure the tie-in is right where the width starts to narrow.

JupiterKid · 17-09-2013 1:13pm

Any updates on the progress of this project?

macker16 · 26-09-2013 2:40pm

all bridges nearly built .well ahead of time

veryangryman · 26-09-2013 3:21pm

macker16 wrote: »

all bridges nearly built .well ahead of time

Another fecking year before finish, cant imagine much progress updates for a bit. Not much to see from the mainline id imagine

macker16 · 26-09-2013 6:12pm

I will try and get a few pictures up

macker16 · 29-09-2013 6:19pm

here ye go:cool::D

macker16 · 29-09-2013 6:22pm

some more:p

30-09-2013 6:11pm

At least its Looks like it should be ready for next years All-Ireland final. Straight non stop road from Frenchpark to Castlebar

JupiterKid · 30-09-2013 7:07pm

Thanks for posting those pics up Macker 16 - it looks like the Ballaghderreen bypass is making great progress.

SeanW · 30-09-2013 11:55pm

Deleted User wrote: »

At least its Looks like it should be ready for next years All-Ireland final. Straight non stop road from Frenchpark to Castlebar

If ye get that far :pac:

yop · 18-11-2013 2:34pm

How are they progressing with this now? Have they an ETA on it? 2014 I presume

joujoujou · 18-11-2013 3:37pm

NRA.ie wrote:

[...] It is anticipated that the road will be open to the public towards the end of 2014. [...]

Fingers crossed.

godskitchen · 03-12-2013 8:40pm

Does the road look very narrow to anyone else? In all the places I have come into contact with it, it looks to be one lane each way with no hard shoulder......

L1011 · 03-12-2013 9:12pm

godskitchen wrote: »

Does the road look very narrow to anyone else? In all the places I have come into contact with it, it looks to be one lane each way with no hard shoulder......

That's fairly normal now, one (wide, but not what you're used to past Charlestown) lane and one metre hard strip each side. The wide lanes with wide shoulders are extremely dangerous as people get lulled in to a sense of them being high speed roads and start overtaking as if they're duallers.

road_high · 03-12-2013 11:14pm

Why didn't they amke this 2+2? I thought all National Primaries were heading that way these days. Surely wouldn't have cost a whole lot more really.

N5 Ballaghaderreen Bypass

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