M17/M18 - Gort to Tuam [open to traffic]

annfield1978 · 30-04-2014 9:26pm

Signing taking place today and tomorrow, expect photo with politicians on Friday

Fact!!

Chris_5339762 · 30-04-2014 9:48pm

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Tenders have gone out for N18 - Oranmore to Gort.

The good news of this is that both schemes appear to be starting next year. Kinda ironic considering that I made that "Which interurban will win" thread - now theres a chance that the N18 will win.

Was thinking also, wouldnt it be interesting if Oranmore - Gort was open before Gort - Crusheen. Can you imagine what a chaotic nightmare Gort would turn into???

I just had to quote my original post from the 20th of July 2007. Only seven years delay!

muchos04 · 30-04-2014 10:05pm

Will there be services on it??

D Trent · 30-04-2014 10:47pm

muchos04 wrote: »

Will there be services on it??

Hahaha

Good one

Reuben1210 · 01-05-2014 12:59pm

are there planned service areas for this route?

antoobrien · 01-05-2014 1:02pm

Reuben1210 wrote: »

are there planned service areas for this route?

There was a proposal that one would be built off the junction of the M6/M17/M18 but ABP refused it permission.

Fianna Fowl · 01-05-2014 1:05pm

From some press on it:

"The new 57km four lane motorway will replace the existing N17/N18 roads, and is expected to reduce end-to-end journey times by around 20 minutes. The overall cost of the scheme is estimated at €550m and the road will be toll-free.

Bank of Ireland and the European Investment Bank (EIB), together with French banks Natixis and Societe Generale, are providing over €300m of debt funding for the project.

The contracts have been awarded to the Direct Route consortium and the roads will be constructed and operated by a group of leading Irish contractors - John Sisk & Son, Roadbridge and Lagan, alongside Strabag, a major Austrian contractor"

I am guessing BOI stake is small and the French banks are taking the lead? Can anyone confirm?

antoobrien · 01-05-2014 1:26pm

Fianna Fowl wrote: »

I am guessing BOI stake is small and the French banks are taking the lead? Can anyone confirm?

The only figures that have been mentioned so far is that the EIB is contributing €144m with €150m to come from the commercial banks.

paddydone1 · 01-05-2014 1:56pm

Not to bad only another 4 years of having to be stuck in evening traffic passing clarinbridge, at least when it's open it won't be tolled.

road_high · 01-05-2014 9:59pm

paddydone1 wrote: »

Not to bad only another 4 years of having to be stuck in evening traffic passing clarinbridge, at least when it's open it won't be tolled.

Hardly take 4 years to build will it? Much of the inter-urbans were done in 2 or less for some stretches.

muchos04 · 01-05-2014 10:27pm

road_high wrote: »

Hardly take 4 years to build will it? Much of the inter-urbans were done in 2 or less for some stretches.

And some of the stretches were longer than this. Why are the lanes so narrow on Irish motorways?

Much nicer drive on UK motorways with the wide hard shoulder and wider lanes...

Zoney · 01-05-2014 10:31pm

Hope it's quicker than 4 years. Looking at Google maps journey planner and comparing to time/distance on existing M18, looks like this motorway should save almost half an hour on the drive up to Mayo from Limerick!

More in fact if including avoiding hold-ups at Claregalway and Clarinbridge at certain times (even the train at Ardrahan can catch you out!)

Now, if only there was something other than a horrible deathtrap of a road to the south down to Cork, we'd be sorted in Limerick for access to the rest of the country. Some bits of the road to Waterford are pretty grim still as well mind you.

f2 · 02-05-2014 8:54am

4 years is just to make the 2017 opening! look ahead of schedule

Zubeneschamali · 02-05-2014 9:22am

muchos04 wrote: »

And some of the stretches were longer than this. Why are the lanes so narrow on Irish motorways?

A lot of them were planned as dual carriageways and upgraded to Motorway without widening.

The M50 had an extra lane added without any extra land take, squeezing the original lanes.

sonnyblack · 02-05-2014 9:52am

Zoney wrote: »

Hope it's quicker than 4 years. Looking at Google maps journey planner and comparing to time/distance on existing M18, looks like this motorway should save almost half an hour on the drive up to Mayo from Limerick!

More in fact if including avoiding hold-ups at Claregalway and Clarinbridge at certain times (even the train at Ardrahan can catch you out!)

Now, if only there was something other than a horrible deathtrap of a road to the south down to Cork, we'd be sorted in Limerick for access to the rest of the country. Some bits of the road to Waterford are pretty grim still as well mind you.

I'd say we can forget about the M20 for a while yet. The tendering process is supposed to be starting soon on the PPP New Ross And Enniscorthy bypasses with Construction planned for Q1 2015. The M20 should be next in line to get going then but they will have to resubmit to An Bord Pleanala and orangise CPO's. If it got on site by 2017 it would be a good result IMO

AugustusMinimus · 02-05-2014 9:59am

sonnyblack wrote: »

I'd say we can forget about the M20 for a while yet. The tendering process is supposed to be starting soon on the PPP New Ross And Enniscorthy bypasses with Construction planned for Q1 2015. The M20 should be next in line to get going then but they will have to resubmit to An Bord Pleanala and orangise CPO's. If it got on site by 2017 it would be a good result IMO

IMO, there's very little chance of M20 North starting construction by 2017. Even less chance of M20 South as this cannot be built without the Cork NRR between the M20 and the M8 being built at the same time.

I'd expect M20 North to go ahead within the next 5 or 6 years and then another nice wait for M20 South which isn't needed as badly.

Nice to see the M17/M18 contract finally getting sorted. Will be another piece of the Atlantic Corridor jigsaw in place.

sonnyblack · 02-05-2014 10:08am

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

IMO, there's very little change of M20 North starting construction by 2017. Even less chance of M20 South as this cannot be built without the Cork NRR between the M20 and the M8 being built at the same time.

I'd expect M20 North to go ahead within the next 5 or 6 years and then another nice wait for M20 South which isn't needed as badly.

Nice to see the M17/M18 contract finally getting sorted. Will be another piece of the Atlantic Corridor jigsaw in place.

Even the M20 north would be an enormous help. Would Buttevant be in the M20 south section though? That is a disastrous area to try and getthrough at the moment. I gave up on the M20 a few years ago and use the back road form Limerick to Cork down through Ballylanders and out onto the M8 at Mitchelstown. FFar faster as you don't have to be messing around comning through Blackpool and the North Ring.
Anyway I digress. Great news on Gort Tuam. We look forward to Direct Route hitting the ground at a rate of knots and maybe opening some sections early where they cross the existing N17/N18

antoobrien · 02-05-2014 10:09am

sonnyblack wrote: »

I'd say we can forget about the M20 for a while yet. The tendering process is supposed to be starting soon on the PPP New Ross And Enniscorthy bypasses with Construction planned for Q1 2015.

The process started over a year ago for the New Ross project.

sonnyblack wrote: »

The M20 should be next in line to get going then but they will have to resubmit to An Bord Pleanala and orangise CPO's. If it got on site by 2017 it would be a good result IMO

The pecking order of new major projects seems to be:

New Ross
Enniscorthy (which will be announced in time to save Howlin's seat)
Dunkettle Interchange (N25/N8)
M20 or Cork North ring road (not sure which).

Given the drip feed of one major project per year outside Dublin - coincidentally both this and the NX/N11 were announced on April 30th - and the announcement of the restart of Dart Underground, I'd say 2018 at the earliest for M20.

AugustusMinimus · 02-05-2014 10:25am

antoobrien wrote: »

M20 or Cork North ring road (not sure which).

I've read before that M20 South can only go ahead if the Cork NRR is already built or if it is being built at the same time as the M20 South.

The North section will almost certainly go ahead before the South as it is needed far more.

mydiscworld · 02-05-2014 10:29am

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

I've read before that M20 South can only go ahead if the Cork NRR is already built or if it is being built at the same time as the M20 South.

The North section will almost certainly go ahead before the South as it is needed far more.

Can someone explain where both the North and South sections are proposed to start and end?

AugustusMinimus · 02-05-2014 10:49am

I've bumped the M20 thread for discussion.

glineli · 02-05-2014 11:53am

Coming off the M18 this morning in Gort, there was a few lads in orange jackets and a few vans down in the disused part measuring and walking around the place. Hopefully the boys getting ready to tear into it

antoobrien · 02-05-2014 12:15pm

glineli wrote: »

Coming off the M18 this morning in Gort, there was a few lads in orange jackets and a few vans down in the disused part measuring and walking around the place. Hopefully the boys getting ready to tear into it

There's a lot of survey work, site compounds and offices (at least 3 different contractors) etc to be done, so I hope they get cracking.

Would anyone have an objection, given the size of this thread, if we started a separate thread for construction updates?

muchos04 · 02-05-2014 12:56pm

Why not keep the construction updates on here instead of creating another thread? Like the Newlands cross thread. That one works well.........

antoobrien · 02-05-2014 1:04pm

muchos04 wrote: »

Why not keep the construction updates on here instead of creating another thread? Like the Newlands cross thread. That one works well.........

Kinda makes my point becuase that thread is
a) 80 pages shorter
b) spawned from another thread (19 pages) that had to be stopped because of trolling
c) a split from the project thread, the arklow - rathnew thread is 53 pages long

If the two splits/stops hadn't happened the NX/N11 thread would be roughly the same size as this.

Plus we wouldn't have the messing of politics (why we shouldn't be building this or why it should be 2 lanes instead of 4) vs actual news that this thread has been suffering from for years if we split out the construction updates.

muchos04 · 02-05-2014 1:40pm

Fair points....well made...

ratracer · 02-05-2014 4:47pm

antoobrien wrote: »

There's a lot of survey work, site compounds and offices (at least 3 different contractors) etc to be done, so I hope they get cracking.

Would anyone have an objection, given the size of this thread, if we started a separate thread for construction updates?

In fairness there has been a lot of surveying/ men in hi-viz along the route from the Gort end to the Kiltiernan exit for the last 4-6 weeks. I still don't see the benefit of the Kiltiernan exit, what is it supposed to be linking up, is it to serve the 'Wild Atlantic Way'?

muchos04 · 02-05-2014 6:33pm

What about people going to Clarinbridge and Kilcolgan?? what exit would they use if the Kiltiernan exit wasn't in the plans??

Chris_5339762 · 02-05-2014 6:38pm

antoobrien wrote: »

The process started over a year ago for the New Ross project.

The pecking order of new major projects seems to be:
New Ross

Enniscorthy (which will be announced in time to save Howlin's seat)

Dunkettle Interchange (N25/N8)

M20 or Cork North ring road (not sure which).

Given the drip feed of one major project per year outside Dublin - coincidentally both this and the NX/N11 were announced on April 30th - and the announcement of the restart of Dart Underground, I'd say 2018 at the earliest for M20.

Throw the Galway Bypass in there if it ever gets approved. Expect that to go to the top at that stage.

irishgrover · 02-05-2014 6:52pm

One of the reasons I bough my house in 2000 was because this road way planned and would be build in a "few" years. Figured it would make commuting easier. Little did I think back then (child free and innocent) that my yet to be conceived daughter would be old enough to drive when it was opened..... :-)

M17/M18 - Gort to Tuam [open to traffic]

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