N25 East Cork Parkway....

Chris_533976

Just wondering a bit about the history of this.

This basically connects the Lee Tunnel to the Carrigtwohill bypass down in Cork. Its been mentioned repeatedly as being a candidate for a 120kmh upgrade.

Since I cant find any official documents on this, I am wondering what the deal was with this road. Recently I've noticed that the hard shoulder lines are SOLID yellow, and not the DASHED yellow associated with HQDC N roads. I've always taken it as the telling factor between calling a road M and calling it the fabled HQDC. ie: M - Solid hard shoulder, HQDC N - Dashed hard shoulder.

Anyone know? Was this section built not as HQDC but as M, and then downgraded at the last minute to appease people??? Theres also a clear alternative to the road - namely the old N25, as this was a completely offline build.


Lets not mention the fact that part of the road is sinking into the river and that the bridge near the tunnel is sinking and you almost trash your suspension if you drive it at high speed due to the bump

MLM

It opened in 1997 and always had the continuous yellow lines. As far as I know it was always intended to be a dual carriageway even though it is one of the busiest stretches of roads in the country. The section between Dunkettle and Little Island was upgraded to six lane dual carriageway recently.

deRanged

I remember when it was being built the story going 'round was that it was built to motorway standard, but would be a 100 kmh limit road.
That was supposed to be a deliberate choice, but I can't remember the supposed reasons.

That bump always makes me think of the Dukes of Hazard as I go over it.

Zoney

As far as I know, solid yellow lines for hard shoulders merely denote restrictions on using them. You'll see solid yellow lines on for example, dual carriageway hard shoulders under flyovers, hard shoulders (or strips) on slip roads, etc.

So motorways will always have solid yellow lines (due to the class of road having such hard shoulder use restrictions), but there's nothing to stop the same restrictions being applied to a hard shoulder on a non-motorway dual carriageway.

The ironic thing is, not being a driver, I don't know what restrictions a solid yellow line implies.

The defining factor for motorways is the blue signage. It's wishful thinking all these drivers on HQDCs thinking "ah sure, it's motorway, let's do 120 km/h". There are people under the mistaken impression that the N7 Limerick Southern Ring Road, and the N20 Raheen Bypass are motorway, despite the clearly *green* signs.

mackerski

Zoney wrote:

The ironic thing is, not being a driver, I don't know what restrictions a solid yellow line implies.

Really? It means what any solid line does - that you're not allowed to cross it. Which is also consistent with motorway practice.

Zoney

mackerski wrote:

Really? It means what any solid line does - that you're not allowed to cross it. Which is also consistent with motorway practice.

But hard shoulders exist for people to pull into in the event of breakdowns, etc. so surely it isn't as simple as don't cross it. Do you mean like where tractors, slow vehicles, etc. pull into the hard shoulder to allow overtaking on wide two lane? I.e. such manoeuvres are illegal if there's a solid line, but entirely legal where there's a broken line?

So you see, I am not entirely clear as to what is the formal meaning of the solid yellow line. Also, where there is no hard shoulder, doesn't a solid yellow line mean "no stopping" (i.e. clearway)?

jhegarty

It can't be made a motorway becuase there is sections without an non-motorway alternative... for L platers and non-motorway vechiles...

Bogger77

There's alternative routes for the entire road, from Dunkettle to Barryscourt castle junction, after that the road was simply upgraded to DC by building a road parallel to the old road, it's got too many at grade crossings to be upgraded to 120KpH.

Zoney

Bogger77 wrote:

after that the road was simply upgraded to DC by building a road parallel to the old road, it's got too many at grade crossings to be upgraded to 120KpH.

The projects proceeding this year include some kind of upgrade to that section of dual carriageway don't they?

mackerski

Zoney wrote:

But hard shoulders exist for people to pull into in the event of breakdowns, etc. so surely it isn't as simple as don't cross it.

For sure - in the motorway case, the relevant act mentions something like "except in an emergency". The relevant offence is called something like "driving on part of a roadway not a carriageway".

Chris_533976

Yup. Just to upgrade the thing from the state its in, remove median crossings and replace them with GSJs. If you know the roads well you can get from Barryscourt junction to Midleton on the back roads, for the L drivers etc.

That said, it'd be safer to put L drivers on the DC than send them down the ****ty backroads that exist round there.

Victor

Chris_533976 wrote:

That said, it'd be safer to put L drivers on the DC than send them down the ****ty backroads that exist round there.

I got a bus to Midleton once, that took that route. I felt frightened. :eek:

Fool 5000

And then crossing the medium on the Dual Carriageway -Scary especially on a slow accelerating bus! :eek:

Chris_533976

Quarry + cement trucks = fun.

That bit where an eastbound cement truck tries to turn right over the median crossing to get to the quarry.

Often the cement truck is that bit too big for the narrow median crossing and while it waits to cross it blocks up half the fast lane of the carriageway its come from...

Scary at 100kmh.