Dublin to Cork Road

rcunning03

I haven't been to Cork in 5 years, is the road down any better now that it would of been in 2002 ?

MLM

Defo, no Kildare, Monasterevin, crap road from Kildare to Portlaoise, Cashel, Mitchelstown, Fermoy or Watergrasshill. Toll on the Fermoy bypass though.:mad:

Wishbone Ash

Yes, it's a huge improvement on 2002. Once you get out the Naas Roas you will rarely get held up until you get to Cork (a little slow in Abbeyleix maybe).

rcunning03

MLM wrote:

Defo, no Kildare, Monaterevin, crap road from Kildare to Portlaoise, Cashel, Mitchelstown, Fermoy or Watergrasshill. Toll on the Fermoy bypass though.:mad:

Cool, how much is the toll on the fermoy bypass

MLM

The rates are here - http://www.directroute.ie/directroute/toll-rates/

rcunning03

MLM wrote:

The rates are here - http://www.directroute.ie/directroute/toll-rates/

Thanks

1huge1

Damn them they raised the toll since i was last on it, and there was no media attention they should not of gotten away with this

Maskhadov

the road down to limerick is a bit crap to be honest

rcunning03

1huge1 wrote:

Damn them they raised the toll since i was last on it, and there was no media attention they should not of gotten away with this

I went down last weekend, I didn't mind paying €1.70 for the toll, the road was empty and no queing at toll. Just one quick question the Mitchellstown by pass with all the roundabouts, is that just temporary till they build a proper bypass ?

Stark

rcunning03 wrote:

Just one quick question the Mitchellstown by pass with all the roundabouts, is that just temporary till they build a proper bypass ?

Yup.

It'll be ages before the proper bypass is built though. It'll be the last section of the Cork-Dublin interurban to be completed.

rcunning03

Stark wrote:

Yup.

It'll be ages before the proper bypass is built though. It'll be the last section of the Cork-Dublin interurban to be completed.

That's good to know, it was a much more pleasant experience than driving down five years ago.

corktina

Maskhadov wrote:

the road down to limerick is a bit crap to be honest

i always go to Dublin via Limerick even though its 10 miles further...much better road imho....(fttb of course...)

1huge1

rcunning03 wrote:

I went down last weekend, I didn't mind paying €1.70 for the toll, the road was empty and no queing at toll. Just one quick question the Mitchellstown by pass with all the roundabouts, is that just temporary till they build a proper bypass ?

I know it takes you through quiet a few roundabouts but you can still get through it fairly quick enough, much better than it used to be going through Mitchellstown, They can take their time with the bypass much more important projects needed to be done first

corktina wrote:

i always go to Dublin via Limerick even though its 10 miles further...much better road imho....(fttb of course...)

You think so? its only good once your past nenagh in my opinion, though they are building a dual carriageway all the way from portlaoise to limerick city but that wont be done for a while

HonalD

There's also Aer Arann.............:D

Stark

1huge1 wrote:

You think so? its only good once your past nenagh in my opinion, though they are building a dual carriageway all the way from portlaoise to limerick city but that wont be done for a while

My parents say they use this route every time they drive to Dublin these days. I've only done it once myself to make a change from the N8 route. The N7 is pretty good and the Limerick bypass is excellent, but I'm not sure is the N7+N20 combination better than the N8. Checked the NRA website as well and the N8 improvements are due in before the N7 improvements.

rcunning03

HonalD wrote:

There's also Aer Arann.............:D

I hate air travel and avoid it if it's at all possible

davidoco

Is the Portlaoise to Limerick Road now fully dual carriageway or motorway.

I looked at this site http://www.nra.ie/mapping/ and if you search for completed projects you get no results. Interesting that.

Stark

davidoco wrote:

Is the Portlaoise to Limerick Road now fully dual carriageway or motorway.

No it's still all single carriageway. It will eventually be all dual carriageway/motorway when the Transport 21 projects are finished (around 2010 I think).

Zoney

No dual carriageway between Portlaoise and Limerick yet.

South of Portlaoise the M7/M8 toll project (Cork route will diverge further along M7 than at present) is either starting construction soon or under construction. Dual carriageway is under construction between Limerick and Nenagh, and the Nenagh bypass is also to be dualled.

The last section of N7 to be dualled, between Nenagh and Borris-in-Ossory, is still going through the statutory procedures (it's finished planning afaik). Looks unlikely it'll be done within the new 2010 deadline (that's despite the original promise of interurban completion by 2006).

Limerick is currently Bypassed from the Dublin side round to the N20 with dual carriageway - also part of the N7, and this is being extended around to the N18 at the moment - with the construction of the tunnels. The new section will be a toll road.

Carawaystick

according to the last Great Plan (tm) the Dual Carriageway from Dublin to Limerick was finished on or before New Years Eve 2006, just like the routes to Cork, Galway, Waterford and Co. Armagh.
Not one of these routes was built by the deadline, so take a pinch of Salt before believing everything will be done in 2010.
Note there's no Intercontinental golf tournament to speed things along this time either...

davidoco

Thanks. I'm travelling from Carlow to Dingle and was going to go that route for the comfort. It looks like cross country Kilkenny etc for me now and since it's the harvest season I'm not looking forward to it.

Saruman

Maskhadov wrote:

the road down to limerick is a bit crap to be honest

I can vouch for that! I went down on Friday to Cork. Since the electric picnic was on the N7 was a no go. So i left Blanchardstown at 4. I got home to Rochfortbridge by 5 to grab some stuff and took the R400 towards portarlington and heard even Abbeyleix was rubbish in both directions.... So i went to Mountrath instead to avoid the N8 and go via Limerick.....
It was CRAP!! There was almost a constant line of traffic all the way to the Limerick Bypass. I then managed to not even notice the turn off for Cork and the N20 became the N21. There must not be much in the way of signs to warn you. So i had to turn around and head back.

The only place the road is good is as you get closer to Cork, there are some 2+1 roads where i can overtake safely.
It was a nightmare getting there and it was almost 9 when i got to Bandon.
My back and my knees where in bits. There were so many brake tappers on the road slamming on the brakes with no one in front of them my spine got fecked up.

Needless to say i came home on Sunday via the N8. I did not bother with the toll as i wanted to stop off in fermoy to get some lunch anyway and there was no one on the old road.

Stark

Yeah I definitely prefer the N8. Abbeyleix can be bad, but at least it's all over once you're past Abbeyleix. Drove down to Tralee one bank holiday weekend, and I was like yourself, took me nearly 6 hours to reach Limerick, start/stop traffic most of the way. The N7 is fine though in normal traffic.

Saruman wrote:

There were so many brake tappers on the road slamming on the brakes with no one in front of them my spine got fecked up.

Yeah got stuck behind a tailback of cars with one of those at the front near Abbeyleix one Sunday The line of cars would accelerate to 60mph, hold it for a few second, then the old git at the front would slam on the brakes and it was back down to 30mph again. Normally I hang back a bit so I can adjust for their erratic driving just by easing off the gas a little, but I'd have had to hang back by about 2 miles to avoid slamming on the brakes for this eejit