While we're in good form about the M1/A1...

RadioCity

A came across this little snippet from the Castleblayney town council minutes:
http://www.monaghan.ie/websitev2/download/doc/castleblayneytowncouncil/minutes/2007/BlayneyTCApril2007.doc
(Page 6)

The text says:

In response to a number of complaints from members about the traffic delays in Castleblayney, the Town Manager said the main line of the Bypass will open on 21st August, 2007 and all side roads operational by the 2nd October, 2007. The Drumcrew roundabout won’t be finalised until October. The Town Manager informed members Paddy Johnston, Senior Engineer was retiring from his position with Monaghan County Council and that this Friday was his last day he thanked him for his hard work on the Castleblayney Bypass. Cllr M. Kelly welcomed the news of the Bypass opening and asked had there been consultation with CIE with regard to their express buses continuing to pick up in Castleblayney.
On the proposal of Mayor G. Carville and seconded by Cllr M. Kelly it was agreed to write to CIE/Bus Eireann requesting they continue to pick up in Castleblayney.

I'm not sure what the "main line" means. It may be the entire length of it from Clontibret to south of Castleblayney, or just the stage bypassing the town, similiar to the way the Ashbourne bypass opened.
Either way, its just under 3 weeks away.

As for the continuing of Bus Éireann continuing to service the town, they probably will.

Victor

RadioCity wrote:

I'm not sure what the "main line" means.

The main bypass, not including the farm access roads, etc.

Chris_533976

Like they did with the Ennis bypass. They finished the main part of the bypass (the main Dual Carriageway that went round the town), but made all the junctions a low priority. So the traffic was out of the town as early as possible.

6 months on, the junctions still arent open, but its the best way to do it though

Zoney

Surely the Ennis Bypass is behind schedule now - i.e. the complete project. The N18 section is not the whole thing.

It's pure spin the way all the announcements were done. Even now the project is listed as complete on the NRA projects for this year. The southern bit may not be the N18, but it's still a national route, the N85 - so should still be listed on that project page (preferably with an expected completion date).

No doubt they'll do the exact same PR job on this Castleblayney Bypass and the link-ins won't be done till months later.

Chris_533976

The N18 Eastern Bypass from Dromoland to Barefiled opened to traffic on 26 January 2007. Completion of the N85 Western Relief Road from Claureen to Clareabbey Roundabout section is expected in June 2007. The final section of the N85 Western Relief Road from Clareabbey Roundabout to Killow Junction will be completed by September 2007.

Off the website. Which is rubbish, cos at the start of August now the N85 western relief isnt done.

Now they're getting there and they look **almost** done. Just tar and tidy-up, maybe a bit of kerbing. I think they've been screwed over by the bad weather quite a bit.

Theres a lot of work to do at the Killow junction on the mainline though.

Maskhadov

the motorway north of the border is in terrible condition.

Skyhater

Maskhadov wrote:

the motorway north of the border is in terrible condition.

Can you clarify what you are talking about????
Firstly there is no motorway linking onto the N2 (which we are talking about here)
Then you have the A1, which i not a motorway (although it's a very unsafe DC)
And if you are really taking about N. Ireland Motorways, there is nothing wrong with them. The M1 (Northern one) is the oldest motorway on the island and is in fine condition for it's age (Although needs another lane or two close to B'fast).
And we could take a lesson on how to run a motorway close to the city centre with the M2/M3/M5. Just take a look at the M2/M5 running north out of belfast.... I think there are at least 6 lanes heading North!!!!

RadioCity

Almost right..theres 5 lanes in each direction with brief lane drop at Fortwilliam interchange.
The main problem with NI motorways is there isnt enough of them (nor do I expect to see any more in future) and the M1,M2 and M5 all end abruptly into congested single carriageways.