N4 - Lucan bypass upgrade news

MicraBoy · 21-02-2006 10:19am #1

ONE of the country's most notorious bottlenecks for tens of thousands of motorists is finally being removed.

The N4 dual-carriageway between Lucan and the M50 in Dublin, is getting an extra lane in each direction and all traffic lights are being taken down.

But it is not all good news. The project is likely to cause more traffic chaos on the Lucan Road before it is finished.

Peak-time traffic jams on the Lucan road are among the worst in the country, with drivers frequently forced to spend up to two hours in long tailbacks.

As part of a major upgrade announced yesterday, the traffic lights at the Newcastle Road/N4 junction, which causes tailbacks stretching for miles each morning and evening, are finally being removed. The traffic lights are a constant source of criticism from drivers and are being replaced with a fly-over, while traffic on the main road will get free-flow conditions.

Michael Egan, National Roads Authority corporate affairs manager, said yesterday that the new look road would mean a continuous three-lane highway from the M50 west to the M4 motorway, heading towards Galway. Currently there are only three lanes in each direction from the M50 as far as the Foxhunter and Hermitage golf club.

Mr Egan said: "The project will create greater capacity and a much-improved level of service for traffic using the road."

Traffic lights are also being removed from the Palmerstown roundabout. Mr Egan said he did not expect huge disruption to traffic during construction of the extra lanes.

The project was not as big as that currently under way on the Naas Road where more lanes and flyovers are being built.

Dublin Co Council yesterday sought tenders on the government website for consultants to design and build the extra lanes each way between the Foxhunter and the M4 motorway.

The project will also involve the closure of all median crossings in the centre of the road, the removal of all traffic lights, full flyover at Newcastle Road, the closure of all existing crossings and extra bus facilities.

Conor Faughnan, AA spokesman, welcomed the move, saying the traffic jams on the Lucan Road were "spectacular".

Linky linky

MT · 21-02-2006 3:18pm

Good stuff. But the question is, who will get the signage contract? Will it be another Rennicks mess like the job they did on the South Eastern stretch of the M50? I wonder if one of the major sign manufacturers in the UK would be interested in entering the Republic's market?

Either way it should be a stipulation of the contract that all those tendering must consult the Poor Road Signage thread at Boards.ie.

And on that note we'll have to do something on misleading gantry signs.

Saruman · 21-02-2006 3:40pm

It may have been posted....
Anyway i read today in the metro that work is underway to make the N4 (lucan bypass) 3 lanes!! More importantly though the removal of the traffic lights will also be a major part in relieving this bottleneck.. im hoping that will involve removing the newcastle junction traffic lights. And especially removing the M50 roundabout lights. That will probably happen much later if/when the spaghetti junction is completed removing the roundaout.. like on the Naas road junction.

yoman · 21-02-2006 4:10pm

Its about bloody time they did something with the lights at the Newcastle junction, I don't know how many years of my life I have wasted sitting at them lights waiting and waiting and thinking if I had the money I would build the bridge myself

murphaph · 21-02-2006 4:50pm

Indeed, a long overdue scheme this one. Closing the median at the Foxhunter is also long overdue-always crashes there.

It's going to be technically quite difficult to do this one and keep the roads open, given the confined space available at Newcastle Road. I imagine local traffic will be diverted for at least some of the construction phase.

MT, I'll post a pic in the signs thread of an 'improved' gantry.

Saruman · 21-02-2006 4:56pm

yes i posted this earlier... read the article in the metro... It will certainly needed when Adamstown goes into full swing... that is going to add so much traffic to the poor N4

bazzer · 21-02-2006 4:56pm

murphaph wrote:

Closing the median at the Foxhunter is also long overdue-always crashes there.

That median has been closed since summer 2005.

murphaph · 21-02-2006 6:00pm

Jaysus bazzer, just shows you the last time I got petrol in there! I take it it's shoddy journalism when they refer to median crosings then as the only median crossing is the Newcastle Road!

coward · 21-02-2006 6:12pm

they have been planning this for a long time.
good to finally see them give the go-ahead.
the details and proposed layouts with some pictures
of what it might look like are here:
http://www.sdublincoco.ie/index.aspx?pageid=939&pid=775

MicraBoy · 21-02-2006 6:20pm

I take it it's shoddy journalism when they refer to median crosings then as the only median crossing is the Newcastle Road!

Well it is the Indo after all.

MT · 21-02-2006 7:25pm

http://www.sdublincoco.ie/index.aspx?pageid=939&pid=775

The proposal show long slip roads with two lanes, which is a good thing.

But could tiger tails not be used for this busy stretch to separate merging traffic and improve safety. These were used on the last section of the M50.

Would dumb bell junctions have been a better idea for the flyovers than two sets of cross roads?

Finally, is it just an error or has road marking policy been changed for this upgrade? Those mock ups show white lines along the hard shoulder.

sweeper4 · 21-02-2006 7:26pm

MicraBoy wrote:

Well it is the Indo after all.

There is another crossing at the SPA Hotel.

murphaph · 21-02-2006 7:49pm

MT wrote:

The proposal show long slip roads with two lanes, which is a good thing.

But could tiger tails not be used for this busy stretch to separate merging traffic and improve safety. These were used on the last section of the M50.

Would dumb bell junctions have been a better idea for the flyovers than two sets of cross roads?

Finally, is it just an error or has road marking policy been changed for this upgrade? Those mock ups show white lines along the hard shoulder.

Dumbell junctions might not be so clever as if traffic flow is heavy enough (which it is) from say Lucan towards Newcastle, then Lucan/Newcastle bound vehicles exiting the N4 may back up down the off-slip and cause issues there. With adaptive traffic lights (as all new installations are) the inductive loops can be located on the off-slip to ensure that once vehicles back up to a certain point that they get a green regardless of traffic conditions on the R120.

Road markings can't be changed without a Statutory Instrument as the markings are laid down in law. It's just a mistake-probably a UK compny did the photomontages and assumed the markings would be the same. Take a look at the front cover of the Irish Driver Theory Test book for a laugh-UK road markings and the only number plate in sight is yellow!

bazzer · 21-02-2006 8:03pm

MT wrote:

Finally, is it just an error or has road marking policy been changed for this upgrade? Those mock ups show white lines along the hard shoulder.

Maybe they are bus lane markings?

MT · 21-02-2006 8:33pm

Yeah, the adaptive traffic lights sound like a superior solution, Murphaph. But will there backing boards be maintained as is so often not the case down there?

The road markings most likely are a mistake, as you say a UK company could well be at fault here.

Maybe they are bus lane markings?

Unlikely as the shoulder is disrupted by on and off slip roads.

Tiger tail: in case anyone's wondering.

murphaph · 21-02-2006 8:50pm

MT wrote:

Yeah, the adaptive traffic lights sound like a superior solution, Murphaph. But will there backing boards be maintained as is so often not the case down there?

Backing boards are a bit of a waste of time IMO. Germany doesn't bother with them at all. Dublin City Council has never installed them (neither does TfL incidentally!) and it's not a problem. They can look tatty when one part is broken/missing though and the LA's are unlikely to do anything about it of course.

Maskhadov · 21-02-2006 9:09pm

good to see this project going ahead. ITs a necessity.

spacetweek · 21-02-2006 11:37pm

murphaph wrote:

Indeed, a long overdue scheme this one. Closing the median at the Foxhunter is also long overdue-always crashes there.

It's going to be technically quite difficult to do this one and keep the roads open, given the confined space available at Newcastle Road. I imagine local traffic will be diverted for at least some of the construction phase.

MT, I'll post a pic in the signs thread of an 'improved' gantry.

Guys, everyone's getting waaay too excited about this. Firstly, this one has been "about to start" for nearly 4 years now - I attended the info evening in Lucan in summer 2002! They said it would be complete by 2005. Secondly, if you look at the NRA's project list for this year, it's not on it so we're looking at next year at the earliest.

It's also important to note that this represents a slight downscaling of the original plans. There was supposed to be a two-way road linking the old Leixlip road near the northside of Tandy's Lane with the Leixip interchange on the M4. This would have reinstated the old road between Lucan and Leixlip and removed lots of local traffic with its attendant weaving from the N4. In addition I'm not totally sure they're closing off the left-in-left-out access at Esker anymore. This access has not been necessary for a long time.

All that said though it's a totally essential project - not GS'ing the Newcastle junction was a huge mistake even back in 1989 when the bypass opened.

FYI at the info meeting all the staff were English so I think the design firm were English, which would explain the mistakes in the photomontages that some people have pointed out.

N4, N7, new N2 - while we're at it how about 6 lanes on the N3 at Blanch?? And close those silly local accesses.

Victor · 22-02-2006 12:10am

Actually the N4/M50 interchange will be the best of them.

they just have to make sure they build the pedestrian / cyclist bridge first.

Saruman · 22-02-2006 2:40pm

Wow those images show massive changes!!! Unfortunatly to make it look like that it will be a lot worse the the N7 upgrades i reckon while they are upgrading.

mysterious · 22-02-2006 3:17pm

The N4 is impressive ! It will be Ireland's only free flowing slip! what a plack

It's a pity it's brother the Mad cow didn't get it's free flowing status , but someday it will end up with no other option but to do it all over again!

the bridge for the Outer ring road at the Lucan road dosn't seem like much modifcation or changes considering the ORR will be a very important trunk route traversing west Dublin.

MT · 22-02-2006 3:44pm

Murphaph wrote:

Dublin City Council has never installed them (neither does TfL incidentally!) and it's not a problem. They can look tatty when one part is broken/missing though and the LA's are unlikely to do anything about it of course.

If in doubt leave them out! I agree that if they can’t be maintained or installed everywhere they’d be better off not used at all. However, I think this is a pretty poor state of affairs as there seems to be no difficulty in keeping traffic lights up here in reasonable nick – what’s gone wrong down there?

One solution to the lack of maintenance would be to install the versions of the more modern LED lights that have tighter fitting and more robust backing boards – example in Limerick. The other approach is the use of tech-miracle(?) lights as Dublin has recently. These have the white strip of a backing board incorporated into the set – which is what you’re after for the increased visibility.

As for their usefulness, I feel they can increase the visibility of a junction particularly when reflective. Anyway, I was about to post something on this subject in the road signs thread a while back but didn’t for some reason – I’ll stick it up today.

Oh, those tech-miracle lights in Dublin should give the City council some good experience of proper maintenance as they’re apparently prone to failure – the lights themselves being the very thing you can’t ignore when broken.

MT · 25-02-2006 12:35am

I was about to post something on this subject in the road signs thread a while back but didn’t for some reason – I’ll stick it up today.

/\done/\

N4 - Lucan bypass upgrade news

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