Atlantic corridor

mysterious

Have the planners seriously fecked this road up before opening it...


quote from the Government " we will be able to Drive on a high quality road from Donegal to Cork and Waterford using this corridor when it's completed in 2015"

Traffic from the North can't procceed south at the intersection at Roxborro.. Local traffic will also be cut off when the new interchange replaces the current roundabout at Roxboro... It's being built in a form of half cloverleaf, despite four major roads intersect in it...:rolleyes:

It baffles me that this is not even a concern to those who will take the journey from Cork to Galway everyday.. They will have to Exit off the Dock interchange and drive through the infamous rat run through dooradole and Raheen, and merge onto the next junction after the Roxborro interchange... which is totally unacceptable by today's new roads, the whole Atlantic corridor will be defeated if the mess is ignored..

corktina

from the north? Dublin N7 you mean? it looks to me as if a new link avoiding the roundabout is being built at the moment.

Chris_533976

Nah by the looks of maps I've seen, where the current N20 DC meets the N7 SRR Phase I at the Rossbrien roundabout, the N7 extension from the Shannon Tunnel will NOT have a sliproad to take care of the Galway - Cork movement.

If this is true, it is MADNESS. But I dont think even this crowd are that stupid to leave this movement out.

Zoney

According to the EIS, the new junction will be semi-freeflow, and support all movements except two: N7 westbound (i.e. from phase 1) to Childers Road, and N20 northbound to Childers Road.

I confirmed this with both the NRA and Midwest RDO, and it's apparently a decision made to solve the problem of the local road network being inadequate for city centre access. It's a valid problem, but I'm not convinced that cutting off citybound access is a particularly optimal solution. Maybe it's nice for sorting out the new junction, but it's a disaster for city business and anyone regularly coming in the N20 trying to get into the city (which will be a significant amount of the traffic). I forecast the R526 (old N20) getting a huge amount more traffic than at present.

Citybound traffic coming in along the N20 from Cork, Kerry, West Limerick and west-southwest of the city will be redirected to either the N24 junction or N69 junction. A decision hadn't been made on this when I last heard.

I don't think there's any need to worry about N7 eastbound (from phase 2) to N20 southbound being missing.

Incidentally I've some photos of the work on the R526 up on my site, here.

Limerick Dude

Im pretty sure you will be able to go from cork to galway by using the tunnel and vice versa. It would be complete stupidity not to have it that way.

Niall1234

I'm sure I've see a diagram of the Junction with the N20 and it is a half clover leaf junction with full access from the N20 onto the ringroad on the cork side. I believe their is no access from the Ring road going into the city centre on the N20 or access onto the ring road from city centre on the N20.

On another note regarding the Atlantic Corridor.

Am I lead to believe correctly that the Galway - Limerick section is to all be Dual Carriageway ? Can the same be said for Cork to Limerick eventually ?

Chris_533976

Yeah, Galway to Limerick is all gonna be DC. Crusheen - Gort to start construction next year, then Gort - Athenry later on.

Cork - Limerick will be done in three sections, Blarney - Mallow, Mallow - Croom and Croom - Patrickswell. No idea in what order, or when though. Presumably all DC as well

Niall1234

Is it too much to hope to eventually see a few Blue lines ?

Victor

Chris_533976 wrote:

Yeah, Galway to Limerick is all gonna be DC. Crusheen - Gort to start construction next year, then Gort - Athenry later on.

Tender ad today for the archaeological work.

MLM

Niall1234 wrote:

Is it too much to hope to eventually see a few Blue lines ?

Blue signs, yellow lines?

Chris_533976

Ive read somewhere that if the NRAs new bill goes through to get the interurbans as motorways, then parts of the N18 will be M18. Which though, I dont know. My guess would be the new bits and the Newmarket upon Fergus bypass, but the Ennis bypass has some nasty curves that wouldnt really be 120kmh IMO. My guess would be the N20 build would be M20, as it would be silly not to build that as HQDC. Tho they'll probobly use compact GSJs, as is the new trend.

Victor do you know offhand if that ad was for Crusheen - Gort, or for the full Crusheen - Athenry route? Would be a way of telling if they're gonna build both scheme at once or just the first one now.

Niall1234

I haven't driven the Ennis bypass yet but from the PDF file on the NRA website it looks fairly straight except for the the galway end where it takes a bit of a turn to blend into the old road. Surely this bend will be taken out when the next section of DUal carriageway would be built ?

Chris_533976

Oh yeah definately where the tie-in is is a bit dodgy. But about a kilometer up (Barefield interchange) theres a nasty little rise and bend. Wouldnt bother you at 100kmh but at 120 it might be a big dodgy.

Ennis bypass is definately Standard Dual Carriageway, not HQDC.

spacetweek

Chris_533976 wrote:

Oh yeah definately where the tie-in is is a bit dodgy. But about a kilometer up (Barefield interchange) theres a nasty little rise and bend. Wouldnt bother you at 100kmh but at 120 it might be a big dodgy.

Ennis bypass is definately Standard Dual Carriageway, not HQDC.

More precisely, if you look at the EIS and mapping docs for the Ennis BP:

The section from Newmarket to the junction with the new N85 is HQDC
The section north of there to the tie in with the old N18 is Narrow DC

Chris_533976

Driving it though, there seems to be a bit of extra room. Upgrade possible???

Victor

Chris_533976 wrote:

Victor do you know offhand if that ad was for Crusheen - Gort, or for the full Crusheen - Athenry route? Would be a way of telling if they're gonna build both scheme at once or just the first one now.

Crusheen - Gort, you should be able to find it on http://www.etenders.gov.ie

Chris_533976

Interesting. Found a few.

23/03/2007

N18 Gort To Crusheen Dual Carriageway Design Build Contract
Ref: MAR079853 , Deadline: 02-May-07
By Galway County Council
Document Type: Tenders
23/03/2007

N18 Oranmore to Gort-Archaeological Surveys and Excavations Contract
Ref: MAR079827 , Deadline: 27-Apr-07
By Galway County Council
Document Type: Tenders
15/03/2007

N18 Gort To Crusheen Dual Carriageway Design Build Contract
Ref: MAR079229 , Deadline:
By Galway County Council
Document Type: PIN Notices
23/02/2007

N18 Oranmore Gort Hedgerow and Tree Removal Contract
Ref: FEB077752 , Deadline:
By Galway County Council
Document Type: PIN Notices
23/02/2007

N18 Oranmore Gort Ground Investigation Contract
Ref: FEB077749 , Deadline:
By Galway County Council
Document Type: PIN Notices

Both bits being done at once? /me hopes so Design & Build for both up


Both of them seem to be called "HQDC" as well. Good news for a potential motorway upgrade