N7/Red Cow Road Works - getting from Citywest

Mitch Connor

Hey all, looking for a bit of advice here.

I work in citywest, so normally i travel home via the N7, on to the M50 then southbound towards Greystones. On a bad day it can take about 30 mins to get from the citywest exit on the N7 to the red cow, on a good day, like yesterday it takes about 5.

Anywho, with the roadworks on the N7/Red Cow, there were massive delays this morning. They didn't effect me, as i got there about 7am, and was heading towards citywest, so i was going in the opposite direction. I am worried about the trip home this evening though. I'll be leaving work at about 3.30, so would i be best to avoid the N7 completely, and head towards Firhouse/Talagh instead, and on to the M50 that way; or would you reckon the traffic would be ok(ish) at that time? If i should avoid the N7, does anyone know a route plan to get from Citywest to the M50 - something easily remembered and followed? I have never driven that direction before, so i don't know where exactly i'd be going.

Victor

Why don't you use the N82 (I realise it can be a pain in the morning) and then the N81?

Mitch Connor

Victor wrote:

Why don't you use the N82 (I realise it can be a pain in the morning) and then the N81?

because i don't know what they are!:D

I get in the car at about 6.35, head towards bray, on to the N11, to the M11, then M50 to the N7 and on to Citywest, and arrive at work at about 7.10. Even this morning, with more traffic using the new road layout, i was in work by 10past, i reckon i would have only been a couple of minutes quicker on last weeks conditions; so i am not to bothered about the morning commute - just the one heading home in the evening. I don't know any other way to drive home then the N7 to the M50 (have gone the talagh route on the bus previously, but that was a while ago now, and i was generally asleep or reading) so i'm looking for advice and directions.

I tried using the AA routeplanner, but it will only give me directions from the citywest golfcourse, and i don't know where that is, so it is of no help to me

Roddy23

You could try this route, sorry could only find gmaps to use. It's a pretty well known route in Tallaght. If you come to the roundabout in Citywest with the little house on the left on Lidl/ALdi on the right, follow the road down towards Aldi/Lidl, wait till you come to the roundabaout, and take a left. Follow this road around, until after the road takes a sharp turn to the right. then take the second left. Follow this road around, until you come to a t junction, and take the left here. You will come to another roundabout and take a left here, follow this road down till you come to a set of traffic lights - Belgard road. At half 3 I'd say ye could get to the M50 in about 15mins.

Either that or you could take the Naas road.

Mitch Connor

Roddy23 wrote:

You could try this route, sorry could only find gmaps to use. It's a pretty well known route in Tallaght. If you come to the roundabout in Citywest with the little house on the left on Lidl/ALdi on the right, follow the road down towards Aldi/Lidl, wait till you come to the roundabaout, and take a left. Follow this road around, until after the road takes a sharp turn to the right. then take the second left. Follow this road around, until you come to a t junction, and take the left here. You will come to another roundabout and take a left here, follow this road down till you come to a set of traffic lights - Belgard road. At half 3 I'd say ye could get to the M50 in about 15mins.

Either that or you could take the Naas road.

If i was to go that way - is it signposted for m50?

Mitch Connor

from looking at googlemaps - the tallagh pass looks like an easy route, straight down from citywest, then straight to the m50. Would that be a bad route to take at the time?

stipey

Once you get to the main road through citywest, head away from the Naas Rd. (browns) direction.

At the roundabout numbered 6 turn left (past Lidl/Aldi), then at the next roundabout (Molly Heffernans) turn left.

Go straight, road bends right keep going straight (playing fields on left and right), take the 2nd left. Go over 2 speed ramps, road turns right (past St. Marks FC club house and then a small shopping centre).

Turn left just after shopping centre (Super Valu). Follow this road past St. Marks GAA club and St. Mark's Community School as far as the roundabout *.

At the roundabout go left - you will pass Belgard primary school, and come to the lights on the Belgard road just by the Belgard Inn. Turn right here and you can either take the first left to go down and join the M50 at Ballymount or continue straight to join the Tallaght Bypass at the Garda Station and then turn left to join the M50 at the Spawell/Basketball Arena junction..

* Alternatively, at this roundabout you can go right and keep going straight to meet the Tallaght Bypass just before the square and then turn left to join the M50 at the Spawell/Basketball Arena junction.

[Disclaimer: Although this seems like long winded route, traffic should be relatively light - especially at 3:30. However, I get about the place on a motorbike so sometimes I underestimate how long it might take to negotiate traffic hold ups. Should in this case though.]

Ham'nd'egger

OP,

I would follow this route as far as where I have edited it, and would suggest one of two others....

stipey wrote:

Once you get to the main road through citywest (N 82), head away from the Naas Rd. (browns) direction.

At the roundabout numbered 6 turn left (past Lidl), then at the next roundabout (Molly Heffernans) turn left.

From there (This is Cheeverstown Road) you follow it to the end and take a left; this will leave you on the Tallaght By Pass and a straight drive to the M 50.

If you find this to be too slow moving, I would suggest taking either of the first two rights off the Tallaght By Pass, these meet at a roundabout near the Shamrock Rovers stadium/building site and will take you on towards Old Bawn. At the lights here, take a right and straight through the next set of lights; this is signposted for the M 50 and will leave you at the Knocklyon turnoff, just ahead of the Tallaght intersection.

Hope this helps, do let us know what and how you fare, please

Mitch Connor

Hamndegger wrote:

OP,

I would follow this route as far as where I have edited it, and would suggest one of two others....



From there (This is Cheeverstown Road) you follow it to the end and take a left; this will leave you on the Tallaght By Pass and a straight drive to the M 50.

If you find this to be too slow moving, I would suggest taking either of the first two rights off the Tallaght By Pass, these meet at a roundabout near the Shamrock Rovers stadium/building site and will take you on towards Old Bawn. At the lights here, take a right and straight through the next set of lights; this is signposted for the M 50 and will leave you at the Knocklyon turnoff, just ahead of the Tallaght intersection.

Hope this helps, do let us know what and how you fare, please

If i was to take the left off the citywest road, and the left at the next roundabout on to Brookfield Road, and on to Cheeverstown road, then straight to the Tallagh By Pass as you suggest, would it not be easier, and potentially quicker (at 3.30) just to follow the CityWest Road all the way down to the Tallagh By Pass and avoid Brookfield/Cheeverstown alltogether? From looking at Google maps it looks like i can take the CityWest road all the way down to Blessington Road which becomes the tallagh by pass. (all this is from what i can see on google maps, never driven it myself so i don't know if it is correct.

stipey

Again, I'm speaking from the perspective of a biker here, but I think going straight up citywest road to the N81 would involve heavier volumes of traffic.

(Although, again we are talking 3:30 here so it might be manageable)

Mitch Connor

stipey wrote:

Again, I'm speaking from the perspective of a biker here, but I think going straight up citywest road to the N81 would involve heavier volumes of traffic.

(Although, again we are talking 3:30 here so it might be manageable)

I used to get a bus that would get me to Tallagh village in about 20minutes, leaving Citywest at about 4, so i'd be hoping i could do the trip in about the same time, but i just can't quite remember what route it took!

Roddy23

From looking at Google maps it looks like i can take the CityWest road all the way down to Blessington Road which becomes the tallagh by pass. (all this is from what i can see on google maps, never driven it myself so i don't know if it is correct.

Traffic can be cat from the turn off for Citywest to the back of Tallaght on the Blessington road, I know as I've been caught in it a few times.

The way stipey describes is the same way I would take, but he describes it better. Ye might get lucky on the Naas Road or Blessington Road, but for the majority of the time I would opt for the way past Lidl/Aldi.

Ham'nd'egger

Tauren wrote:

If i was to take the left off the citywest road, and the left at the next roundabout on to Brookfield Road, and on to Cheeverstown road, then straight to the Tallagh By Pass as you suggest, would it not be easier, and potentially quicker (at 3.30) just to follow the CityWest Road all the way down to the Tallagh By Pass and avoid Brookfield/Cheeverstown alltogether? From looking at Google maps it looks like i can take the CityWest road all the way down to Blessington Road which becomes the tallagh by pass. (all this is from what i can see on google maps, never driven it myself so i don't know if it is correct.

It isn't, Tauren. Traffic builds up on the Blessington Road coming onto Tallaght and is quite heavy at the quarest of times; Cheeverstown Road flows quite well pretty much all of the time.

Mitch Connor

So would taking the Cheeverstown road to the tallagh by pass be a lot better then going straigt to the tallagh by pass, or just delaying the inevitable traffic jam? I've been studying google maps, and would be worried there is a turn off on the roads i can't see on the maps, so would end up taking the wrong turn somewhere, based purely on which numbered left or right i take, if i decided to attempt to head towards teh belgard road, then on towards the ballymount exit.

Fratton Fred

If the N7 is blocked, then I'll probably be going this way (I work in Citywest too).

at the new shopping cente r'bout, turn left past Lidl. At next roundabout turn left and keep going, round a 90 deg bend and on to the traffic lights at the end where you can filter left (Onto he Tallaght bypass)

Get into the outside lane and turn right at the first set of traffic lights, which takes you through a small industrial area and over a few speed ramps. Go straight over the next roundabout and keep going over one set of traffic lights and onto the tee junction at then end. Turn right (Through Oldbawn and Firhouse) and keep going straight, over several roundabouts and you end up at the M50 Firhouse junction.

It's actually easier than it sounds.

Do you normally turn right at Newlands Cross? I always do that as even when the raffic is good, it can still take 10 minutes to go round the red Cow.

Turning right at Newlands cross and then left where the Luas crosses takes you to the Ballymount junction.

Good Luck.

oops, just realised Ham'nd'egger pointed you in the same direction, but I got confused with the proper road names:o

Ham'nd'egger

Tauren wrote:

So would taking the Cheeverstown road to the tallagh by pass be a lot better then going straigt to the tallagh by pass, or just delaying the inevitable traffic jam? I've been studying google maps, and would be worried there is a turn off on the roads i can't see on the maps, so would end up taking the wrong turn somewhere, based purely on which numbered left or right i take, if i decided to attempt to head towards teh belgard road, then on towards the ballymount exit.

Yes, Cheeverstown Road will flow well and leaves you where the road opens up into dual carriageway, so you will move fairly quickly enough. There is no lights on this road so you will be grand on it. It's left and left at the two roundabouts then straight all the way down so little to muck up.

Whatever you do, do not even try to go to the Ballymount turn off, it's far too chaotic there at the moment!

Mitch Connor

So; is this a good way to go (hopefully this is one of the ways i am being told to go...)

Take the left at the round about by Lidl/Aldi (no.6) then take the left at the next roundabout and follow it on to the Cheeverstown Road. Go down this road to the Tallagh bypass. If this is going smoothly, follow it to the m50. If it is not going smoothly, take the right off the tallagh bypass on to kiltipper way, down to the rounabout and take the left off it on to "Firhouse Road W", and follow this to Old Bawn then at the end of it, take a left on to Firhouse Road and follow it to the M50?

Fratton Fred

Tauren wrote:

So; is this a good way to go (hopefully this is one of the ways i am being told to go...)

Take the left at the round about by Lidl/Aldi (no.6) then take the left at the next roundabout and follow it on to the Cheeverstown Road. Go down this road to the Tallagh bypass. If this is going smoothly, follow it to the m50. If it is not going smoothly, take the right off the tallagh bypass on to kiltipper way, down to the rounabout and take the left off it on to "Firhouse Road W", and follow this to Old Bawn then at the end of it, take a left on to Firhouse Road and follow it to the M50?

don't you mean right? other than that, spot on.

Mitch Connor

Fratton Fred wrote:

don't you mean right? other than that, spot on.

yeah i do - got confudled from reading the map in an upside down fashion!:D

Mitch Connor

went the way suggested above, took the Cheeverstown Road down to the Tallagh bypass, then just took that all the way to the m50. Took me about 25minutes, no too bad, ony about 10mins slower then the N7 on a good day. Found my way easy enough, didn't want to risk taking the wrong turn off the tallaght bypass, so just went the easy way.

Cheers for the help guys.

Ham'nd'egger

Tauren wrote:

went the way suggested above, took the Cheeverstown Road down to the Tallagh bypass, then just took that all the way to the m50. Took me about 25minutes, no too bad, ony about 10mins slower then the N7 on a good day. Found my way easy enough, didn't want to risk taking the wrong turn off the tallaght bypass, so just went the easy way.

Cheers for the help guys.

My pleasure, Tauren