The M4 and how to set an example...

mackerski

I've just paid a visit to the website of the M4 Kilcock-Kinnegad project:

http://www.eurolink-m4.com/

There's a rather pointless Flash gimmick[1] on the home page, which is nothing new. But watch it for a while and see if you notice anything silly about the driving styles depicted.

Is this really how they expect us to use the new M4?

Dermot


[1] sorry for the redundant use of words there

jd

you mean the use of the overtaking lane?

Capt'n Midnight

The PPP contract allows the NRA to reduce public financing dramatically while keeping the right to monitor quality standards during the whole of the 30-year project life.

Don't forget that the other cost saving option on the route saved 1/3 of the cost of it's section. ie. the Enfield bypass has roundabouts and traffic lights instead of being built to motorway std.

€8Bn for the NRA over the next few years, why can't they operate the tolls instead of handing a license to print money to whoever..

Anyone know if there is a buy out clause in the contract ?
Or what penalties will be imposed for causing tailbacks for commuters ?

mackerski

@jd: Yes, I mean the drive-in-whatever-lane-seems-nice-at-the-time idea. I hope these folks are better at building Motorways than they are at (depecting people) driving on them. In fact, I hope they're a lot better at it than they are at selecting web-designers...

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Don't forget that the other cost saving option on the route saved 1/3 of the cost of it's section. ie. the Enfield bypass has roundabouts and traffic lights instead of being built to motorway std.

This would be the Enfield "relief road"? I don't think they've had the guts to claim it as an actual bypass. It's certainly worth having it a few years earlier than the motorway (as it was in Kinnegad), but I think we can all agree that we won't fix the N4/N6 traffic problems by lobbing a road like that around each municipality on the route.

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Anyone know if there is a buy out clause in the contract ?
Or what penalties will be imposed for causing tailbacks for commuters ?

If the toll collectors allow a tailback to build they have to forego their breakfast in Mother Hubbard's until it's cleared.

Dermot

jlang

That Enfield road is great - often it's slower to go around than to go through the town, but having it there makes the sum of both streams quicker than only having the option of going through, if you get what I mean. I tend to mark a van or bus near me going the other way and check whether I get to the other end before or after it. Usually it's very close, the ultimate result being decided by priority at the roundabout so the fastest seems to be going westward, go through the town, going eastward, go around the bypass.

Works quite well as a stop gap until the motorway gets built, but I wonder what kind of industrial estates etc will spring up along it once the M4 is finished.

mackerski

jlang wrote:

I tend to mark a van or bus near me going the other way and check whether I get to the other end before or after it. Usually it's very close, the ultimate result being decided by priority at the roundabout

I've done that - On a small test sample, I came to the following conclusions:

* Village flowing well: Through village is faster unless you get stopped at the pedestrian lights

* Business hours: likelihood of delay from delivery traffic or parking public makes the relief road a better bet.

In most cases, I've found the relief road to be quite predictable and only ever marginally longer than going through the village. One exception - heavy westbound traffic exiting village will cause the relief road to tail back. This is why roundabouts are not always the answer.

Dermot

sweeper4

mackerski wrote:

http://www.eurolink-m4.com/

There's a rather pointless Flash gimmick[1] on the home page, which is nothing new. But watch it for a while and see if you notice anything silly about the driving styles depicted.

Is this really how they expect us to use the new M4?

Dermot

They probably recorded some traffic flows on our existing motorways and got their graphic spot on!

impr0v

jlang wrote:

Works quite well as a stop gap until the motorway gets built, but I wonder what kind of industrial estates etc will spring up along it once the M4 is finished.

It wasn't really conceived of as a road to open up the land south of the villiage post-M4, but the fact that it probably would turn out as such was definitely at the back of peoples minds. It only really applies on the Dublin side of the traffic lights, as nearly all of the other side is too high above grade to provide for access into the lands. There is now a connecting road being built from the new M4 Enfield intersection to the relief road, which will involve the construction of a roundabout on the relief road just the Dublin side of the canal bridge, and that might also facilitate access to the lands on either side of it.

sweeper4 wrote:

They probably recorded some traffic flows on our existing motorways and got their graphic spot on!

The site was put in place by the in-house design team at Cintra, one of the members of the Eurolink consortium, which is based in Spain. So if anything, the flash is more representaive of Spanish driving habits than Irish, though they did get the driving on the left bit right.

LFCFan

If you watch the graphic long enough you'll see a truck rear ending a motorbike in the Overtaking Lane

gibo_ie

the truck just drove across the motorbike!!
Nice

Victor

For posterity