M6 - Kilbeggan to Athlone

spacetweek

Anton Round Munchies wrote: »

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

Here's a question - is Kinnegad to Kilbeggan going to be redesignated Motorway as part of this?

GerardKeating

spacetweek wrote: »

Here's a question - is Kinnegad to Kilbeggan going to be redesignated Motorway as part of this?

The NRA applied to change the status of this to motorway last march, no indication as to how long this will take.

billbond4

Anton Round Munchies wrote: »

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

Just to make it a bit clearer:-

Take the roscommon exit on the bypass.
At T Junction in front of Renault garage take a Right,
at next T junction take a Left.
Take a right at the traffic lights at Bright Ideas.
At the roundabout in front of Walshes pub, take the left, drive along connaught st, the road veres left at end, follow it (Other road is one-way)
Garda station is about 400 metres down this road, Pearse Street, you might get parking the car park about 200 metres on your right.

billbond4

There is also a new overhead signpost (with no sign in it yet) when your lead onto the flyover at kilmartins.
Its there about two/three weeks.
They cant be more than a month away from opening it.
Coming from Clara to moate, all signage and road markings are done as far as I could see.

Pittabang

thanks for the directions to the Garda station. i heard today from a friend who's dad told her last night (!) that Moate would be bypassed within a month. No idea of his source or if he refers to the whole road or just the moate piece. just thought I'd share anyhow get people excited

Pittabang

Pittabang wrote: »

thanks for the directions to the Garda station. i heard today from a friend who's dad told her last night (!) that Moate would be bypassed within a month. No idea of his source or if he refers to the whole road or just the moate piece. just thought I'd share anyhow get people excited

From what I can see, the section between the bridge and the junction west of Moate is the last piece to be surfaced.

The Kilbeggan - Clara section appears complete! could be opened now!

edit: I just came along the Kilbeggan - Tullamore rd and see that there is still a bit of "tying-in" work being done between the completed junction and the new section, maybe a couple of weeks or so.

veryangryman

I envy the workers from Dublin on that road. They can head home, bypassing Moate every Friday (i think!)

Matter of interest, are they allowed and/or is it feabile to do this from say, the Athlone end (if you were a worker on the project)

billbond4

If Moate is going to be bypassed, athlone isnt that far away and its nearly ready, so I doubt they will open as far as moate and then lead you back onto old road to Athlone.
They will open it all in one go, so the Ministers can pat themselves on the back for a job well done and have their pictures taken for the news

GerardKeating

billbond4 wrote: »

They will open it all in one go, so the Ministers can pat themselves on the back for a job well done and have their pictures taken for the news

But if they open it in two stages, they get two lots of photos in the news, double the media coverage...

If the weather stays fairly good, there should be no reason for not finishing sometime before August. one lane under the N6 west of Moate is now painted.

blast05

Reconnaissance mission complete - theres bad news by 2, good news and great news !!

The bad news first - one of the flipping pedals on my bike got damaged as i arrived in Kinnegad and i couldn't clip in with my shoes and was only able to put any decent amount of pressure with the right leg when i was cycling and barely any pressure with the left leg. 37 km back to the house and now i have cramp in both calf muscles, but for different reasons. And €120 for a new pair of pedals .. and all to satisfy the curiosity of this board

Bad news part 2 - from about 1/2 of the way from Moate to Kilbeggan, only the finished layer of tarmac is complete on 1 side of the road while the last mile leading into Kilbeggan doesn't have the final layer on either side.

The good news - from Athlone to 1/2 of the way from Moate to Kilbeggan, there is only a 4km section 1 laneway wide heading east that doesn't have the final layer of tarmc (this section ends close to the big bridge 1 km west of Moate). I was shocked !! All timber fences are pretty much done along the whole route and there is only about a 500 metre section of the whole route that does not have the central median complete. All signs are complete apart from the very large signs that hang over the carriageways.Very few cat eyes done along the route and only about half of all lines pained on the road yet. All landscaping and verges completed.

Now, the great news ! At one stage i was flagged down by a guy in a construction van and the guy came out saying that i wasn't supposed to be on the road, no insuance cover if i was hit, etc. I said grand but that it was safer than the main road. "Just be careful if you stay on the road" he says, "don't presume there is no traffic this time of evening. Theres an odd lunatic who has managed to get on the road and are seeing how fast they can go". "Grand" i says, "oh and by the way, when is the road opening?" i asked him. "She'll be opened at the end of June" he says.

So there you have it. Its well ahead of where any of us thought it was and will be open in about a month (the guy saying end June ties in with what i would have thought from looking at it too !)

PS - the signs for exiting the motorway leading up to Kilbeggan are not in place yet so it wasn't clear if the road heading on to Kinnegad was going to be reclassified as a motorway in time for the opening of the Athlone to Kilbeggan section

PPS - in the last photo, the signs seems green. It was definitely blue in reality though

blast05

blast05 wrote: »

PS - the signs for exiting the motorway leading up to Kilbeggan are not in place yet so it wasn't clear if the road heading on to Kinnegad was going to be reclassified as a motorway in time for the opening of the Athlone to Kilbeggan section

Did the new section have emergency telephones along it?

I noticed the other day that a couple of the signs that point to galway (ones that should have been on the new westbound slip road) have been erected at the Kilbeggan junction pointing to the old road, so it seems that they had the signs already made. in green (no point in not using them, even if only for a few weeks).

To convert the existing road shouldn't take that long, it's just a case of installing emergency phones, removing lay-bys, repainting yellow lines & changing signs. The only bit that could be time consuming, is installing the phones if the ducting was not installed during construction.

Victor

I imagine that emergency phones aren't necessary seeing as mobile phone penetration is over 100%.

I imagine dusting isn't needed, even if phones are installed as you can use mobile phone technology linked to a small solar panel, like on parking meters.

I think lay-bys should stay.

Pittabang

well that is fantastic news. the end of June it appears to be so. Thats Q2 and way ahead of Q4 original deadline.

shame about the bike though, but it was in a good cause. The bike knows it too:rolleyes:

Victor

Victor wrote: »

I imagine that emergency phones aren't necessary seeing as mobile phone penetration is over 100%.

Have any of the Motorways (rebadged HQDC's) opened in the last few months had phones installed?

Victor

Victor wrote: »

I think lay-bys should stay.

Be a shame to remove them, particulary as there are no services anywhere along the road.

blast05

removing lay-bys

There are about 2 lay-bys on the Athlone to Kilbeggan section as well .... and the speed ramps for garda cars to fly off !

Mailman

Victor wrote: »

I imagine that emergency phones aren't necessary seeing as mobile phone penetration is over 100%.

Over 100%. How is that possible. Not being smart.

Mailman

Mailman wrote: »

Over 100%. How is that possible. Not being smart.

More phones than people!

Victor

4.2 million people. 4.5 million mobille phones.

But yes there will still be some people without them.

serfboard

Victor wrote: »

I imagine dusting isn't needed

Wow ... they were going to dust the road as well :eek: We really are getting the VIP treatment

Big thanks to blast05 for the hard work, the extra Ks, the sore calves and the crocked bike ... we do appreciate it, though

Mr Sheen's shares have skyrocketed on the news.

Zube

The old N80 from Moate out to the new M6 junction is open again, that's the old Clara road, but now it has a weird roundabout on it. N80 goes into roundabout, N80 leaves roundabout, no other roads nearby!

Anyone know what the point of such a roundabout is? You can see it in the linked picture, below and to the right of the main junction:

http://www.wccprojectoffice.ie/new/database/downloads/Moate.jpg

Future service station??? (possibly a proper one)

Google maps is really up to date - it has this roundabout on it already.

Zube

Driving into Moate from Athlone today, and some joker has put up a big roadside sign:

THANKS FOR ALL THE YEARS OF SUPPORT

CALL AGAIN

Not likely, sunshine!

cantalach

darkman2 wrote: »

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

The colour of the signs is relevant but the broken line or solid line thing doesn't really count for much any more. Many of the HQDCs in the Cork area have solid white lines along the shoulder, even though there are no plans to reclassify them as full motorways.

ga2re2t

Selene Refined Iron wrote: »

Google maps is really up to date - it has this roundabout on it already.

Google maps has the new N6 integrated into their maps already. How, I don't know. Have TeleAtlas/Navteq updated their map databases already and do Google get instant updates? Or is their somebody at Google Ireland whose job it is to update the maps?

• N6 Kilbeggan junction
• N6 Moate junction

Zube

Hmm, they've jumped the gun a bit, another month to go before this is open.

They're colouring it green but this will be a motorway, as you can clearly see in blast05s pictures earlier in the thread.

It will be interesting to see if it opens with "full" motorway status!
The Carlow "motorway" opened recently opened, but is still officially an "N" road with 100kmh speed limit as the motorway order hasn't been approved yet(I believe).