M6 - Kilbeggan to Athlone

veryangryman

Ugh. Talk about killing a conversation with these rules.

Mods - your second only to bouncers in people i despise

Staying on topic, i hear theres doubts of it even finishing in July.

[on_topic]
Driving in this morning, I see that a huge gantry had been erected in Athlone (eastbound) and that the top surface is being laid, at the bridge west of Moate there appears to be a large amount of work still to do. If there are any further delays, they will be here.
[/on_topic]
Better infrastructure will mean (hopefully) better distribution of jobs.

Pittabang

Travelling along the bypass at Tober over the new bridge I was able to see that a lot of the westbound carriage way was now almost completed. The carraigeway markings wer getting done the centre broken line was completed and the hard shoulder and inside line had been marked out but not yet paintes. The top layer of tarmac on the eastbound lane wasnot yet completed but holy god thats a good sign- surely thats a good sign for a close completion date?

nordydan

Pittabang wrote: »

Travelling along the bypass at Tober over the new bridge I was able to see that a lot of the westbound carriage way was now almost completed. The carraigeway markings wer getting done the centre broken line was completed and the hard shoulder and inside line had been marked out but not yet paintes. The top layer of tarmac on the eastbound lane wasnot yet completed but holy god thats a good sign- surely thats a good sign for a close completion date?

Came back down this road on saturday, the signs going up on the old N6 (new R road) definitely say M6 but are covered in mud

blast05

Re the entry, exit off the motorway about 1.5 miles west of Moate - Westmeath Co Co are not going to be thanking the NRA for this before too long. The new ~200m roadway off the existing N6 into this junction is fine but once you go under the bridge and striaght through the 2nd roundabout, you can go continue on a 1 track roadway for about 2-3 miles arriving at Mount Temple national school. All of Mount Temple, Glasson, Tang and a whole pile of other parishes will start using this road to get on to the motorway when heading for Dublin and it plainly was not deisgned for such traffic volumes.

I'm certain that this junction is an afterthought as it was NOT on the plans when construction commenced! but useful for those living to the west of Moate wishing to use the M6.

Even with the bypass, I still believe that Moate high streeet will be busy!

Victor

blast05 wrote: »

Re the entry, exit off the motorway about 1.5 miles west of Moate - Westmeath Co Co are not going to be thanking the NRA for this before too long. The new ~200m roadway off the existing N6 into this junction is fine but once you go under the bridge and striaght through the 2nd roundabout, you can go continue on a 1 track roadway for about 2-3 miles arriving at Mount Temple national school. All of Mount Temple, Glasson, Tang and a whole pile of other parishes will start using this road to get on to the motorway when heading for Dublin and it plainly was not deisgned for such traffic volumes.

The road was designed by the Westmeath NRDO - part of the council.

veryangryman

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm certain that this junction is an afterthought as it was NOT on the plans when construction commenced! but useful for those living to the west of Moate wishing to use the M6.

Even with the bypass, I still believe that Moate high streeet will be busy!

How? There is very little in Moate other than a reasonable population of Athlone/Dublin commuters.

The sad thing is that once this road is built, we will have probably 20 years use out of it till world oil runs out and we have to get the old horse drawn carts out again

Oh what fun well have....

veryangryman

veryangryman wrote: »

How? There is very little in Moate other than a reasonable population of Athlone/Dublin commuters.



Oh what fun well have....

You'll be surprised just how many cars join & leave the N6 as it passes through Moate, if it wasn't for having to stop several times to let cars join or turn right there would be no holdups there.

veryangryman

I assume you refer to the N80 Clara/Tullamore/ etc road

Sure wont that link onto the Motorway, thus taking the bulk of those devilish right-turners off of the Main Streets

Ok a few other minor roads here and there, but i honestly cant see the town ever having gridlock problems again

The N80 was taken care of a few months ago and now has no effect on the traffic in the town.

I agree that Moate will not be grid locked, but it will be busy enough at certain times of the day. Because Moate is a one street town, almost 100% of the local traffic uses the main street for part of the journey.

blast05

Was out on the bike this evening. Structure 3 (bridge for the road connecting Mount Temple to the N6 at the Castledaly cross half way between Athlone and Moate) is now 100% complete. That means every bridge structure is now 100% complete.
About 25 machines working in the vicinity of structure 2 today (opposite the landfill site close to Athlone so definitely no intention of opening the section that would do as a Moate by-pass ahead of the rest. However, no sign of any work ongoing anywhere between 7-8pm this evening which is disappointing

According to the local rag (Westmeath Independent) the road will open late August/ early September, slipping a bit again

veryangryman

Oh well, at least we wont have to look at Moate during Winter time again...

With a bit of luck it may just be a case of making it look bleaker than it really is, after all they were over confident about opening it in April last autumn.

Hopefully if that's the case late July early August is my guess.

spacetweek

veryangryman wrote: »

How? There is very little in Moate other than a reasonable population of Athlone/Dublin commuters.

The sad thing is that once this road is built, we will have probably 20 years use out of it till world oil runs out and we have to get the old horse drawn carts out again

Oh what fun well have....

Yeah, and we all switch to biofuel, and there's just as much traffic as before.

Stop thinking that the end of oil means the end of driving.

Chris_533976

Theres tonnes of oil out there anyway (oil sands). All that has to happen is that oil prices have to go high enough for it to be economically worthwhile for oil sands to be extracted. Thats off topic tho.

I think this scheme got a bit boned because of bad weather

Pittabang

well its only 11 weeks until the end of July so it's totally possible to put up with the jams until then. I noticed whilst on the new bridge west of moate that they already have top layer tarmac with road markins visible to the east as you go over the bridge. Looking west is still a way from being completed.
TOP TIP keep your eyes on the road at all time

veryangryman

Pittabang wrote: »

well its only 11 weeks until the end of July so it's totally possible to put up with the jams until then. I noticed whilst on the new bridge west of moate that they already have top layer tarmac with road markins visible to the east as you go over the bridge. Looking west is still a way from being completed.
TOP TIP keep your eyes on the road at all time

Im sure he means the current road, not the new one folks...

Pittabang

LOL - Yes the current road

Drove through Kilbeggan this morning the road surface is atrocious, it's breaking up all over the place.

I think it may make sense to open the section that passes Kilbeggan ASAP on the grounds of safety, the road is so bad there is a very high risk of there being an accident because of it.

From what I can see the Kilbeggan - Moate section is almost complete.

veryangryman

And you know for a fact that the road wont be replaced anytime soon either. Once passed over to the councils by the NRA, it will be left to rot.

Pittabang

I'm sorry to tell you that once the motorway is completed the state of the roads through Kilbeggan and Moate will be of no concern of mine

Same here, just concerned about safety to all road users NOW!!

blast05

Was driving over the bridge that brings you from the main N6 road Dublin side of Moate to Tubber (this is the next bridge east of where we thougt the Moate bypass would open early) ..... looking east of here everything looks 100% done for about 1km further east (that was as far as i could see) - it wasn't a few weeks ago when i last passed here.
Also, final layer of tarmac being put on the section close to the first bridge at the end of the Athlone dual bypass on Thursday/Friday when i was passing.
Am going to go for a cycle on the whole section one of the evenings during the week

Pittabang

Hey,
I saw the same thing yesterday from a couple of bridges. There is a lot of road painting completed and signage erected. There really cant be too much longet before the whole road is completed. What is needed is an on site recon by bike- looking forward to the report back

Pittabang

slightly beside the point. But what is the best way to get from the McDonalds at the edge of Athlone to the Garda Station in the town on Fridays at about 4PM - 4.30PM. Will the traffic through the town be bad ?
Google Maps tells me to go straight along the old Dublin Road but I can't help thinking that taking the ring road around to the exit for the Roscommon Road (N61) might have less volume???

Should I go straight at the Mc D along the Dublin Road (4.8K)or Around the ring ? (9.4KM) the traffic is my unknown here

thanks

Pittabang

Pittabang wrote: »

slightly beside the point. But what is the best way to get from the McDonalds at the edge of Athlone to the Garda Station in the town on Fridays at about 4PM - 4.30PM. Will the traffic through the town be bad ?
Google Maps tells me to go straight along the old Dublin Road but I can't help thinking that taking the ring road around to the exit for the Roscommon Road (N61) might have less volume???

Should I go straight at the Mc D along the Dublin Road (4.8K)or Around the ring ? (9.4KM) the traffic is my unknown here

thanks

Better off going around the bypass to the Roscommon rd, then right at "bright ideas" then left, takes you past the Gards station.

darkman2

Pittabang wrote: »

Hey,
I saw the same thing yesterday from a couple of bridges. There is a lot of road painting completed and signage erected. There really cant be too much longet before the whole road is completed. What is needed is an on site recon by bike- looking forward to the report back

Blue signage or Green signage? Broken hard shoulder or solid hard shoulder? If its green it wont open as motorway.

Blue signs, I didn't notice the lines when I last drove past.