Ennis Bypass

Fool 5000

Nice new site for the Ennis Bypass

http://www.ennisbypass.ie/ennisbypass/www/

There will be a early opening of the N18 Eastern Bypass from Dromoland to Cragard at the end of 2006 :cool:

nordydan

Fool 5000 wrote:

Nice new site for the Ennis Bypass

http://www.ennisbypass.ie/ennisbypass/www/

There will be a early opening of the N18 Eastern Bypass from Dromoland to Cragard at the end of 2006 :cool:

good news for ennis. i remember driving through ennis last bank holiday weekend, i had grown a beard by the time i got to the other side

Lennoxschips

looks a bit of an overkill to be honest

nordydan

Lennoxschips wrote:

looks a bit of an overkill to be honest

have to disagree, ennis is riddled with traffic problems and is in dire need for this bypass. coaches heading to the cliffs of moher/clare coast cause a mountain of problems for the local residents

smythmark

Plus it is a key part of the eventual motorway from limerick to galway.

nordydan

the next two from oranmore to crusheen are not so urgent as the ennis section, but form the limerick to tuam road

MT

Lovely website – just a pity that the pictures in the ‘progress’ section can’t be enlarged. I have to agree with Dan this dc is definitely needed due to both the bottleneck that Ennis is and more importantly the strategic importance of the connection between Galway and Limerick.

Good to see that a concrete barrier is being installed in the medium as opposed to the armco variety. This should result in excellent maintenance on the part of Clare CC.

Is much of the N85 being realigned as part of this project

Victor

Map included here Environmental Impact Statement: Non Technical Summary Vol 1

Chris_533976

I'm all for the overkill

Needs a bit of futureproofing... with this and the M9 it seems this country is finally deciding to sort for the future rather than current traffic levels.

Lennoxschips

I don't disagree that Ennis needs a bypass, but that thing is massive. Why we need a Limerick-Galway motorway is beyond me. There are more pressing issues in Ireland surely.

The main futureproofing in transport should be trying to reduce oil dependency. I suppose we could electrify all these motorways and run Moscow style buses on them...

Tis a great time to be in road contracting, that's for sure.

Fool 5000

Lovely website – just a pity that the pictures in the ‘progress’ section can’t be enlarged

MT,
You can if you save them on to your computer and then view on the cyberlink.Thats the way I did it anyway.

corktina

i will be surprised to see this road open at end of 2006...it is a long way from completion at the minute.....

it doesnt just bypass Ennis...also Clarecastle and Barefield which accounts for the major length of it....a huge timesaver without a doubt.

GospelGroupie

Glad to see so many Clare people on this site. How can we get a Boards board under Regions | Mid-West? Otherwise it's just a case of going in under the Limerick City banner. Pity.

mysterious

Lennoxschips wrote:

I don't disagree that Ennis needs a bypass, but that thing is massive. Why we need a Limerick-Galway motorway is beyond me. There are more pressing issues in Ireland surely.

The main futureproofing in transport should be trying to reduce oil dependency. I suppose we could electrify all these motorways and run Moscow style buses on them...

Tis a great time to be in road contracting, that's for sure.

LOL

We need infastructure at this side of the county, not going to explain, there are bizzillont reasons as to WHY IT SHOULD be going ahead..

3 mile tailbacks suit you?

Lennoxschips

No, I agree that Ennis needs a bypass - just not one on the scale that's being built. If they cut back on it they'd have more money to spend on other Clare roads.

There is no reason for it to be a grade seperated near-motorway. In most countries you need at least 40,000 vehicles a day to warrant a motorway, in Ireland it's 40,000 votes.

I'd like to hear your bizzillont reasons why this massive motorway bypass is being built instead of a more conservative one that would do the job just fine. It can't be just about wanting to drive fast, surely...

mysterious

Lennoxschips wrote:

No, I agree that Ennis needs a bypass - just not one on the scale that's being built. If they cut back on it they'd have more money to spend on other Clare roads.

There is no reason for it to be a grade seperated near-motorway. In most countries you need at least 40,000 vehicles a day to warrant a motorway, in Ireland it's 40,000 votes.

I'd like to hear your bizzillont reasons why this massive motorway bypass is being built instead of a more conservative one that would do the job just fine. It can't be just about wanting to drive fast, surely...

First of all.

It's a standard dual carrigeway, Not HQDC.

Traffic flows are around 20,000 average per year.
More than any section than either the N7 or N8 south of Portlaoise, yet these section are get near motorway????
Now before I answer all your questions, explain why it's not needed at this scale...:p

Lennoxschips

More than any section than either the N7 or N8 south of Portlaoise, yet these section are get near motorway????

i don't agree that those should be motorway either

nordydan

in the long term interests of the state, and to try and make it less dublin-centric, these roads are much needed and should be seen as a good future investment.

Lennoxschips

don't get me wrong, i think they're great, but there's many rural roads that need attention too, not to mention the railways.

mysterious

Lennoxschips wrote:

i don't agree that those should be motorway either

Why? You are contradictory, cudn be arsed to qoute what you said before:p

Well Ennis itself is the largest town in southern Ireland. it is the fastest growing town in Ireland in the 20,000 to 30,000 bracket along with Naas and Swords. Fairly large population there. All the infastructure and more is needed, if not welcomed...

Secondly there are a number of national routes that converge in Ennis which are a regional importance and nationally. As the N85 etc, are huge tourists routes to places like Kilkee, shannon estuary and the Cliffs of moher.

The N18 is one of the most important routes that make up the spine of this country. This routes links all the major national routes along the Atlantic seaboard such as N20,N24,N17,N19,N21 etc..

It links the three largest centres of population outside of Dublin, and promoting an economic and infastructural hub as a counter balance to the Eastern seaboard.

Over 20,000 vehicles is totally appropriate for a standard dual carrigeway, the interchanges are fairly simple to, nothing spectacular.. In this country we are notorious for bad planning, please don't knock the planners for building a road that is up to the design and spec. Why build a single lane road that already exist, ehem the N18?

Only a few miles lies an international Airport?? with this airport doubling in numbers in near future, will put extra traffic onto the N18





Before I make any other point

Your alternate suggestion to a Bypass you would desire for the town of Ennis? great to hear it..:cool:

Lennoxschips

basically a 2+1 job following an alignment slightly closer to the town. the bridges/embankment could be built with motorway in mind. the alignment being built with the long access road perpendicular to the bypass is actually quite a long route distance wise for the ennis-limerick commuters

Why? You are contradictory, cudn be arsed to qoute what you said before

yeah, my point with the limerick/cork roads is that if you are going to go and spend all that money on a HQDC, then you may as well call it an "M" road

nordydan

Lennoxschips wrote:

don't get me wrong, i think they're great, but there's many rural roads that need attention too, not to mention the railways.

i take your point however that not just national primary routes need upgraded, the N52 from mullingar to kells being a primary example

mysterious

Lennoxschips wrote:

basically a 2+1 job following an alignment slightly closer to the town. the bridges/embankment could be built with motorway in mind. the alignment being built with the long access road perpendicular to the bypass is actually quite a long route distance wise for the ennis-limerick commuters



yeah, my point with the limerick/cork roads is that if you are going to go and spend all that money on a HQDC, then you may as well call it an "M" road

Well what a wassssssssssssssstttee.
Seriously why would you waste all this money your talking about on half building a motorway with embankments for future needs?

OMG. Man the road as it stand is choked.... bringing it nearer to the town will only attract more traffic from the town, and will ultimaley fail.

Blunder, Plunder.

This route as it stands is over 20,000 cars a day and is growing at a phenomenal rate.
Secondly there is already a dual carrigeway south of Ennis why bottleneck it for your sake.
finally your plan sucks.


Your second comment on commuting was not thought about.
Limerick/Ennis commuters won't use it. it's a bypass? get your thinking caps on. There is already a splendid DC opened for business the whole way for the lucky Limerick/Ennis commuters.

Scruff

Cant wait for this to open. Its regularly a giant traffic jam from about a mile before clarecastle until out the gort (galway) road. My only problem is the relief road to the lahinch\ennistimon road should have been a 1/2 mile further out. As it is it'll be ending in the middle of an increasing urban sprawl.

Lennoxschips

Your second comment on commuting was not thought about.
Limerick/Ennis commuters won't use it.

oh yes they will, i assure you

nordydan

Lennoxschips wrote:

oh yes they will, i assure you

yes a lot of cars from north ennis will use this to head to limerick. if ever a town needed a bypass its ennis, and DC is entirely appropriate given the nature of the route.

dubhthach

If one needs to get to Shannon Airport from Galway City, the largest bottleneck is Ennis. It means I can get to Shannon Airport in about an hour guranteed, the sooner they start the Crusheen <-> Gort section the better if ye ask me!

invincibleirish

lennoxschips have you ever travelled thru Ennis? the town is crying out for a bypass, assuming your from Cork due to your username, its as bad as ballincollig was and fermoy is in terms of gridlock.

in fact given that the road is in clare, i'd give it full motorway status to protect it from those nutters on Clare. co.co. who insist on giving permission to houses to have access to the existing N18 DC.

but having said all that i dont believe the crusheen-gort section should be a priority in the NRAs road building programme, not least until the Dublin radial routes are completed.

Bards

Ennis has to be one of the longest towns ever... it goes on and on and on... took me over an hour to get through it once... and it wasn't even a Friday!!!

Victor

invincibleirish wrote:

in fact given that the road is in clare, i'd give it full motorway status to protect it from those nutters on Clare. co.co. who insist on giving permission to houses to have access to the existing N18 DC.

Bards wrote:

Ennis has to be one of the longest towns ever...

I think these two points are directly related.

GospelGroupie

Lennoxchips, I don't know why we dissagree so much, between this and foriegn reg drivers...

Lennoxschips wrote:

The alignment being built with the long access road perpendicular to the bypass is actually quite a long route distance wise for the ennis-limerick commuters

The choice of having the main N18 artery running so far east of Ennis, bypassing Clarecastle and that road with the windy bridge... I forget it's name... basically, it's giving room for expansion for Ennis. to the east. Handy to have.

As for the long access road...that'll be taking a substantial amount of traffic away from Clarecastle and that sweeping road south past Carnelly House. It's not the most direct, but it's the safest. It may not appeal to everyone, but will to the vast majority, I wager.

Certainly the link from Claureen beside the Esso station (which is planned, apparantly, to be redeveloped in the same vein as Rosslevin Arms complex, moving the One Mile closer to the junction of Shanaway Rd and the Lahinch Rd.) to the Maxol station on the Limerick Rd. will be a blessing. Traffic coming from the growing residential areas along Lahinch Rd, Kilmaley Rd. and Kilrush Rd. all piling onto Mill Road/Carmody St. just to head to Limerick is causing that corridor to be regularily blocked. The link-road will alleviate such log-jams.

There is also room, due to responsible rezoning, to allow the link-road to extend across Lahinch Rd., bisect Drumcliff Rd., and swing back to the Gort Road creating a contiguous ring-road around this rapidly expanding town. It will help to corral the future growth to within a defined boundary instead of allowing a shapeless sprawl.

Finally, some people are never happy!!! If they built a 2+1 akin to those built in Scandinavian countries, people will criticise. You can please all of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, etc. Future-proofing is the objective, while we have the money. We may not have infrastructure funds forever, but we have them now. Get it right first time is the key.

Otherwise we will have another M50 experience where there is constantly some road-works along its stretch.... they now have to try to squeez another lane each way between Blanchardstown and the Red Cow. More traffic chaos. Ridiculous. It's better to put it right now before any cars are allowed on it.

Chris_533976

Rumours have been spread that the eastern bypass, the part of the scheme that will take traffic out of the town, is to open before Christmas.

Its official now.

In Ennis today the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern T.D. announced that the new 14km N18 Ennis Bypass would be officially opened on December 14th this year signifying “another major landmark in the Government’s commitment to a modern, time-saving, and safe road network in Clare and throughout the West of Ireland.”

http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/index.asp?locID=404&docID=2884

The western parts of the scheme open later on, but 99% of people just want to know about this.

At least Ennis will be easy to pass, let the traffic jam move to the Crusheen railway S-Bend bridge :rolleyes: Why they never decided to extend by 2km and bypass Crusheen I'll never know.

Anyone known when Crusheen - Gort is due to start construction??? And then Gort - Oranmore?

jank

I travelled from Cork to Galway on Thursday and back again on the Friday.

**** me but the road is terrible! At least there are plans there to upgrade it in parts. The sooner the better. It just shows you that investment in roads should have happened long long ago.

nordydan

The delay in building the Mallow-Croom section of the Cork-Galway route is inexcusable. I believe Gort-Oranmore will not finish until after Ballinasloe Oranmore in 2010

In an aside, would anyone have the details of what type of junction will occur where the N20 and the Limerick Ring Road Phase 1 (N7) and Phase 2 (N18) will meet??

jank

Thats the thing with this Atlantic corridor.

They say they will do it but no timetable is after being drafted for doing it.

corktina

nordydan wrote:

The delay in building the Mallow-Croom section of the Cork-Galway route is inexcusable. I believe Gort-Oranmore will not finish until after Ballinasloe Oranmore in 2010

In an aside, would anyone have the details of what type of junction will occur where the N20 and the Limerick Ring Road Phase 1 (N7) and Phase 2 (N18) will meet??

the N20 and the N7 already meet of course and there is plenty of land taken to allow for a major interchange...and it is needed ...it is ridiculous that City traffic backs up on to the bypass and impedes the Dublin bound traffic at the interchange....

PhilipFromBosco

nordydan wrote:

The delay in building the Mallow-Croom section of the Cork-Galway route is inexcusable. I believe Gort-Oranmore will not finish until after Ballinasloe Oranmore in 2010

In an aside, would anyone have the details of what type of junction will occur where the N20 and the Limerick Ring Road Phase 1 (N7) and Phase 2 (N18) will meet??

I wonder will it be some version of this

corktina

no it wont because you also have the road into the city......so I imagine that there will be a flyover with a roundabout under it or over it.....

spacetweek

The N18 Ennis Bypass was supposed to open yesterday (21st), but has been put back to January.

The opening of Section 1 N18 Eastern Bypass – Dromoland to Barefield has been postponed until January.
It has now been confirmed that the first section of the N18 Eastern Bypass - Dromoland to Barefield will not be opened to traffic prior to Christmas.
It is now anticipated that this section of the new bypass will open to traffic in mid to late January 2007, the exact date yet to be confirmed.

Wishbone Ash

Some more discussion here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055026331

Chris_533976

Damn it

Not a delay per se, they originally planned to open it in April 07, but thanks to nice weather last summer they got ahead and siad they could open it before Christmas 06. Unfortunatly they got hit with the rain and it'll now be Jan 07. Still ahead of schedule anyway I guess.

Drove by it a few days ago, tie-ins at the northern end still have a fair bit of work to do, tie in at the south looks more or less done (it was foggy). The signposting of the roundabouts at the southern end is the worst I've ever seen though..... three arms of the roundabout pointing within 45 degrees.... only one of them labelled Ennis.... so you dont know which of the three they ACTUALLY MEAN....

Means I'll have to play through the chaos at least once more on my way back up to Galway

Zoney

Chris_533976 wrote:

The signposting of the roundabouts at the southern end is the worst I've ever seen though.....

You're not kidding. Some of the signs heading south appear to be from the earlier layout (where one proceeded under the bridge) and seem to show two lanes heading south. This is very dangerous, as one is now sent up the slip road with opposing traffic coming down also. Having proceeded to Ennis from Limerick for the first time in months, we had no idea what the new layout was on the return journey - and had had no idea on the outward journey either that the Dromoland west northbound slip was now two way. It was less clear too due to it being night-time.

All rather hairy - I pity any tourists... not to mention occasional visitors to Ennis.

1huge1

Sorry not entirely up to date on the situation

is it planned that there will be a dc all the way to galway from limerick? we already have all the way to ennis

Ham'nd'egger

1huge1 wrote:

Sorry not entirely up to date on the situation

is it planned that there will be a dc all the way to galway from limerick? we already have all the way to ennis

Try Donegal to Cork, man! It's government policy to have a high class road from Letterkenny and Derry to Cork and the Ennis stretch is just part of it.

nordydan

Hamndegger wrote:

Try Donegal to Cork, man! It's government policy to have a high class road from Letterkenny and Derry to Cork and the Ennis stretch is just part of it.

I think of the overall route, only Cork-Tuam and Cooloney-Bundoran are planned as DC. The other parts will still be high quality road though.

1huge1

oh yes i know of the atlantic corridor alright but was unaware as to how much of it would be dc
though nordydan just cleared that up
thanks

thats a lot more dc than i expected

Chris_533976

Crusheen - Gort and Gort - Oranmore are the two schemes to finish Limerick - Galway DC.

Gort - Oranmore will tie in with the Galway - Ballinasloe scheme for the N6 to Dublin.

Dont expect either Limerick - Galway scheme to start anytime soon tho, not till the interurbans are done. Probobly wont be started till 2010. Plus its silly to build Gort - Oranmore until the Galway - Ballinasloe scheme is done, as they join. Would be a DC to nowhere

Victor

nordydan wrote:

I think of the overall route, only Cork-Tuam and Cooloney-Bundoran are planned as DC. The other parts will still be high quality road though.

Do you have a source for this?

Zoney

Victor wrote:

Do you have a source for this?

Try the the NRA website. As far as I know, there are no plans to upgrade the N20 between the N21 junction and south of Croom (wide two lane), or Mallow to Cork (wide two lane and retrofitted 2+1, short bit of dual carriageway and then standard four lane urban road). I think the problem with Mallow to Cork is that it isn't so long (early 1990s?) since the extensive wide two lane road was built (although I think according to the original Roads for the 1980s plan published in the late 1970s, it was planned as DC before the country went to pot).

It's unknown when the N18 north of Ennis dual carriageway will be constructed, but there is an official Gort-Crusheen website here and a PDF map of Oranmore (actually near Athenry)-Gort here.

No public *online* map of the N17 Tuam to Oranmore (actually, really near Athenry on new N6) but you can see the proposed N6 future junctions with N18 and N17 near Athenry on the official N6 Galway-East Ballinasloe website here.

Anyways - there's plenty of references for most proposed road projects in the State; a bit of research on the NRA website, council sites and Google will fill in most details. Also asking the authorities for information can provide details of schemes where they aren't online (there are maps for some of the proposed schemes that exist but aren't online).

Chris_533976

Cork - Galway will eventually all be DC. (EVENTUALLY being the operative word). Theres also plans for Galway - Tuam DC. Dunno about the other section.

Edit: Posting at same time

Croom bypass is GSJ single carriageway. I dont think it would be too hard to upgrade it to DC. Its certainly wide enough to just carve it down the middle and make a smaller hard shoulder. Bridges are wide enough too I think.

Zoney

Chris_533976 wrote:

Cork - Galway will eventually all be DC. (EVENTUALLY being the operative word). Theres also plans for Galway - Tuam DC. Dunno about the other section.

Edit: Posting at same time

Croom bypass is GSJ single carriageway. I dont think it would be too hard to upgrade it to DC. Its certainly wide enough to just carve it down the middle and make a smaller hard shoulder. Bridges are wide enough too I think.

Aye - but I think "eventually" might be a long time indeed. Even the sections that have concrete DC plans (the ones on the NRA planned projects page) may not start until after the "inter urban" routes are done (2010). "Inter urban" - as if that only applies between Dublin and the other cities, rather than Galway-Limerick-Cork, Limerick-Waterford and Cork-Waterford!

It's not about the practicalities of upgrading the likes of the Croom bypass - it's about the politics of it. We're lucky enough that the Nenagh bypass is being dualled on the N7. If the Croom-Mallow project is built (again this may well be post-2010; if we still have money then) then perhaps the Croom bypass might similarly to Nenagh bypass be upgraded (to avoid having two lane section of grade-separated road sandwiched between two DCs).