More West Link madness

Ham'nd'egger

I'm glad I won't be using this bridge anytime soon!

Dear Eazy Pass Customer,

As you may be aware, the National Roads Authority (NRA) project to upgrade the M50 to three lanes in each direction and the upgrade of the interchanges has commenced.

Construction will initially focus on the section of the M50 between the N4 Liffey Valley Interchange, immediately south of the West-Link Bridges, and the Ballymount Exit. In addition to adding extra lanes, the Liffey Valley and Red Cow interchanges are to be upgraded to free flow interchanges enabling greater traffic movement on and off the M50.

In order to facilitate this, a construction zone will be created in the middle of the motorway, resulting in the loss of the fast lanes from south of the Ballymount Exits to beyond the N4 Liffey Valley Interchange, and a change of speed limit to 60 kmph. Traffic will be directed on to the left hand lane and the hard shoulder, to ensure that two lanes remain in place.

However, the lane restrictions will extend onto the West-Link Bridges and will affect Eazy Pass users at West-Link. Eazy Pass customers using the southbound dedicated lane will have to taper left after the Toll Plaza, as the right hand lane on the bridge will be closed. The other issue to note going southbound is that currently there are two lanes on the West-Link Bridge for the N4 off ramp. During the upgrade this will be reduced to one lane while two lanes will be maintained for M50 traffic. It will be important for customers needing to exit at the N4 to keep left before the Plaza and use the tollbooths on the left-hand side. Eazy Pass is accepted in all lanes.

Northbound the dedicated Eazy Pass lane will operate as usual, but will commence a little further up the bridge. Eazy Pass customers should exercise caution when entering this dedicated lane as construction vehicles may periodically exit from the construction zone into this lane.

We have been informed by the NRA that the new road lining and guard barriers will be installed in the coming week. Should we receive any additional information in the coming weeks and months regarding the upgrade, we will communicate it to you immediately.

Information on the M50 upgrade is available at www.m50.ie or by calling 1800 24 34 54.

Moanin

Thats old news

Seth Brundle

whats a 'fast' lane?

bazzer

What hope have we in trying to educate idiot motorists when institutions like the NRA refer to the overtaking lane as a 'fast lane'? Anyway, the word 'fast' in relation to the M50 is a contradiction.

Seth Brundle

maybe its a 'going nowhere fast' lane

_Kaiser_

In fairness guys, you're arguing about semantics .. the reality is the outside lane is treated by most drivers (including an off-duty Ambulance that came tearing up behind me at 120kph+ in a 100 zone yesterday during an overtaking maneuver) as a "fast" lane, just as the right-hand lane on the M50 is now treated as a driving lane because of the volume of traffic now on it, and the Gardai seem to be in no hurry to enforce the rules anytime soon (too busy camped out shooting fish in barrells with speed cameras on those same roads)

What's more of an issue here is the massive disruption all this is likely to cause -not just on the M50 itself but the surrounding back roads as well as frustrated motorists try to find an alternative route.

... and all because it wasn't planned properly in the first place! :rolleyes:

daymobrew

bazzer wrote:

What hope have we in trying to educate idiot motorists when institutions like the NRA refer to the overtaking lane as a 'fast lane'?

The letter/email appears to be from NTR (WestLink operators), not NRA.