Brennan opens Ballincollig bypass

ulto

RTE link

NRA Link

We should let those turks build all the roads IMO.

Hope they will be kept and moved on to other projects around the country.

seamus

Wow. Government contracts should definitely be taken out of the hands of cowboy Irish companies, particularly those with track records for lateness.

Victor

seamus wrote:

Wow. Government contracts should definitely be taken out of the hands of cowboy Irish companies, particularly those with track records for lateness.

Eh, but look at the price.

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/4054962?view=Eircomnet

Ballincollig bypass gives town back to people, says Brennan
From:ireland.com
Tuesday, 21st September, 2004

The €170 million bypass in Ballincollig, Co Cork, which was officially opened yesterday by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, will be completed in two phases. Olivia Kelleher reports.

Phase one completes 70 per cent of the N22/N25 improvement scheme. Phase two will be a 3.5 km completion link.

The completed bypass will remove 9,000 vehicles per day from Ballincollig, diverting over 50 per cent of the existing traffic onto the new road.

Speaking at the opening of phase one of the bypass yesterday, Mr Brennan said the new route "will give the town back to its people and allow for faster journey times and safer driving conditions for those taking the new route.

"Before the end of 2004, two other notorious traffic bottlenecks, at Monasterevin and Cashel, will be bypassed as major new schemes are opened to traffic."

The Ballincollig project was funded by the Government and by the European Regional Development Fund.

Mr Brennan said that rapid progress is now being made on rolling out a major national roads building programme as a result of a number of recent developments.

The main development is the securing of the multi-annual funding arrangement for infrastructure projects that guarantees State investment of almost €7 billion over the next five years.

"When this is combined with up to €2 billion in private investment, the result is that in the region of €9 billion will be poured into building new motorways and dual carriageways on a scale never before envisaged," Mr Brennan said.

dmeehan

this road is brilliant, thats an extra two times i can hit the snooze button every morning :-)

maxheadroom

Sweet Jebus - €9 billion into roads over the next 5 years? Wonder what the equivalent figure for rail is.

De Rebel

Shouldn't this thread be titled "Brennan opens a bit of the Ballincollig bypass" ?? And interesting that he chose to open the bit that he did just when he did.

When the other bit is opened, presumably by his sucessor, expect the thick brown gooey stuff to hit the fan - there is no way the bandon road roundabout will cope. Expect to see queues back to the viaduct on the Bandon side anybody? And of course that opening will be a few weeks aead of another traffic magnet on the South Ring - the opening of Mahon Point. And in another funny coincdence, work on the Kinsale Road roundabout is (as ever) about to start.

2005 could well be the year that the entire stretch from the tunnel to the bandon road grinds to a halt.

Does anybody care?

Flukey

It is the same with most new road developments. Bottlenecks are not got rid of, just moved to the next town. A bit of better planning could at least help if not totally remove those problems.

MG

De Rebel wrote:

Shouldn't this thread be titled "Brennan opens a bit of the Ballincollig bypass" ?? And interesting that he chose to open the bit that he did just when he did.

When the other bit is opened, presumably by his sucessor, expect the thick brown gooey stuff to hit the fan - there is no way the bandon road roundabout will cope. Expect to see queues back to the viaduct on the Bandon side anybody? And of course that opening will be a few weeks aead of another traffic magnet on the South Ring - the opening of Mahon Point. And in another funny coincdence, work on the Kinsale Road roundabout is (as ever) about to start.

2005 could well be the year that the entire stretch from the tunnel to the bandon road grinds to a halt.

Does anybody care?

Got to agree with you Rebel. The Bandon Road roundabout is going to be terrible. I actually think it will be worse when they sort out the Kinsale Road roundabout as traffic will move on the Sarsfield and Bandon r/a quicker!

And Mahon point! Who gave planning permission for that? On busy days, cars will be queuing back to the CSO just to get onto the slip road. Have you ever tried to get down there on a busy day - just wait til the shops open. Madness.

Capt'n Midnight

De Rebel wrote:

Shouldn't this thread be titled "Brennan opens a bit of the Ballincollig bypass" ?? And interesting that he chose to open the bit that he did just when he did.
....
Does anybody care?

Don't forget he's goto "open" the Tallaght Luas too before reshuffle amongst other things.

Victor

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Don't forget he's goto "open" the Tallaght Luas too before reshuffle amongst other things.

He's reserving that honour for Bertie, the day before the reshuffle.

O_o, what if one breaks down with Bertie on board? Brennan, would end up as sports minister.

parsi

MG wrote:

Got to agree with you Rebel. The Bandon Road roundabout is going to be terrible. I actually think it will be worse when they sort out the Kinsale Road roundabout as traffic will move on the Sarsfield and Bandon r/a quicker!

And Mahon point! Who gave planning permission for that? On busy days, cars will be queuing back to the CSO just to get onto the slip road. Have you ever tried to get down there on a busy day - just wait til the shops open. Madness.

Yes we all got a nasty taste of that before they blocked traffic doing and "up and over" using the slip to jump the queue to the tunnel.. traffic from Skehard Road made very little progress...

do you also notice the way the road "skews" at the traffic lights into the centre - there you are driving down the outside lane and next minute it leads into a traffic island - there are definitely going to be accidents at that junction..

MG

parsi wrote:

do you also notice the way the road "skews" at the traffic lights into the centre - there you are driving down the outside lane and next minute it leads into a traffic island - there are definitely going to be accidents at that junction..

Yes the junction into the half way up the hill is very strange as is the one at the top of the hill at the slip road .........and why two lanes on the slip road for only 50 metres before merging......... and the cycle lane looks dangerous too. To the admittedly untrained eye, it looks hopelessly laid out. Between the layout and the traffic that section of road between Mahon and the Tunnel will be dreadful.

dmeehan

well at least they actually "upgraded" the road and the junction before opening the shopping centre

imagine how bad it would be if they hadn't

MG

As an aside, there was an oil spill in the southbound lane (it always feels East-West to me but nevermind) of the Jack Lynch Tunnel yesterday. This effectively blocked traffic on the roundabout going into the tunnel and gave Northbound traffic a virtual free passage through the tunnel and the roundabout. I haven't seen it move so well in a long time.

It emphasised to me how ridiculous it is to have a roundabout at one side of a tunnel.