N18 - Limerick Tunnel & South Ring Road Phase II

flyingsnail

Sorry if this is here already.

Tunnel closedown as truckers ignore warnings, Limerick post article here

Quick response from emergency response team
THE newly opened Limerick Tunnel experienced two ‘emergencies’ inside the same number of days when truckers ignored height restrictions, causing a total closedown.

The emergency response team reacted promptly on Thursday and Friday when truck drivers failed to comply with three warnings on the approach to the tunnel, which is 4.9 metres in height and restricts vehicles over 4.65 metres.

“The incidents happened as trucks attempted to enter the tunnel at the northbound entrance and we had a lot of calls from motorists about the closure,” Tunnel operator Direct Routes general manager Tom King, told the Limerick Post.

“There are three detection systems and warnings on height restrictions as you approach the tunnel.

“Coming from the south an overhead sign will give a warning to the driver that it is above the height limit and must not enter the tunnel. “If this is ignored, the second warning is set off on the Dock Road Bridge, and a reduced speed limit of 50kph is introduced. “The third warning is beyond the sliproad to the tunnel and a visual and audio warning is issued. Automatic tunnel closure kicks in and the portal barriers are brought down, preventing traffic entering the tunnel, though traffic already in the tunnel can exit at the other side”.

Mr King explained that the control room is instantly aware of the problem and the emergency response team is deployed, but that delays are inevitably caused for motorists while the tunnel is closed.
“The response team open the right lane of the tunnel to allow traffic to pass through while the truck is escorted away from the tunnel. The closure lasts about 15 to 20 minutes”.

Mr King said that there is no legislation to allow for prosecution of the truck drivers who attempted to enter the tunnel, though gardaí are alerted to the situation.

Tunnel operator Ken O’Callaghan was present when the incidents occurred. “The drivers said they didn’t see the warning signs”, he told the Limerick Post. “The situation was dealt with efficiently but we would ask drivers to be aware of height restrictions to avoid a repeat of this incident”.
Mr. King added that there were a number of teething problems to iron out while the tunnel is in its first weeks of operations. He said a few cars had been mis-classified as vans and had been charged the incorrect amount, but that vouchers would be sent to motorists concerned.

He said that overall, drivers have been very patient, and asked that they continue to be tolerant.
Ken O’Callaghan at the control tower at Limerick Tunnel

mossym

flyingsnail wrote: »

Sorry if this is here already.

Tunnel closedown as truckers ignore warnings, Limerick post article

the sign on the north side of the tunnel coming from castletroy towards it has changed in the last few days to reflect the max height, probably due to this, it didn't have the height before, i just said tunnel open

ItHurtsWhenIP

kiwipower wrote: »

I have a tolltag.ie tag. It does work on the tunnel at the normal gates (I am raging that they have yet to open their express lane when thats what they sell the tag on, but thats another story.) My tag does not "Beep" on the tunnel, but beeps on most other tolls around the country, (with the exception of one I cant recall now if its the M7 or M6.)

I have been wondering if it only beeps when Im travelling "to fast" through the reader or if it beeps when the toll is over a certain price or to indicate the toll is operated by another tag provider (ie tolls developed by another private provider.)

I have an eFlow tag. This beeps on the M50 and on the Limerick Tunnel, but not on the M7/M8 at Portlaoise. So I doubt it's related to using it on a different operator.

When the tunnel first opened, I went through the exact-change tollgates a couple of times and the tag beeped "differently" (two/three rapid beeps rather than a single chirp) and a "Card Denied" error was displayed on the screen that normally shows the cost. The first time this happened there was an attendant on hand who suggested I try again, so I reversed a little and did so again, but with the same result - anyway - I doubt speed has anything to do with it either.

The one time I came across an express lane opened on the tunnel, it beeped and all went fine.

I've only used the tunnel 3 times. It saves me 10-15 minutes, but it's the same distance to scooting around the north of the city on the R471, so it's not a massive cost saving for me.

thesimpsons

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

I've only used the tunnel 3 times. It saves me 10-15 minutes, but it's the same distance to scooting around the north of the city on the R471, so it's not a massive cost saving for me.

saves me 10 mins too but its 10 minutes I'd have spent on traffic lights, roundabouts, traffic, etc versus a clear straight road.

Mc Love

There were reports in both Limerick Post and Limerick Leader this week about the tunnel being closed because truck drivers were ignoring the height restrictions. and on approaches the messages on the signs are displaying the height restrictions

Wild Bill

Mr King said that there is no legislation to allow for prosecution of the truck drivers who attempted to enter the tunnel, though gardaí are alerted to the situation.

Unbelievable! They should be shot, not prosecuted. :mad:

JupiterKid

This is an issue that makes my blood boil.:mad:

The amount of oversized lorries hitting bridges or causing problems at tunnels because they are too high is unacceptable. Why the hell didn't that joke of a government here ban these lorries from here completely? They have only caused problem after problem.:mad:

Mc Love

Saw a lady in a black BMW reversing the wrong way down the on ramp for the N18 at the fork where you can join the M7 - are people so dumb??

Jayuu

Mc Love wrote: »

Saw a lady in a black BMW reversing the wrong way down the on ramp for the N18 at the fork where you can join the M7 - are people so dumb??

Sadly yes! There are so many people who just don't read signage either on gantries or on signposts or even on the road.

While I haven't seen anything as stupid as the example above I still am amazed at the amount of people I see who have clearly not read the incredibly huge and obvious signage at the M50/M1 interchange, and therefore instead of entering the freeflow lanes (either on to the M50 from the M1 - or onto the M50 freeflow to the Port Tunnel from the M50) end up at the old roundabout and have to wait at the traffic lights.

I mean this junction has been open over six months now and still some people can't negotiate it as its been designed.

irishguy

€1000 fine for them all

Mc Love

Unfortunately Jayuu I think Irish drivers are getting worse, its certainly not the first reverser I have seen this year and I will be surprised if I dont see another.

At the junction I mentioned you are given loads of notice to get into your lane for either M7 or N18 and people still wait until the last minute to change! Often causing someone in the right lane to slam on the brakes!!

Zoney

Do folks remember the new M20 signs with the redesignation to motorway? Not that old eh? Barely time for the grass to grow around the foundations. Well, guess what? They are replacing some of them already! Brand new poles up on the Raheen spur and on the mainline approaching J3/2 northbound.

I presume they are putting up modified signs to reflect SRR phase 2 and the tunnel, but it seems poor planning to not only miss out on planning the signs to include this from the beginning (just hidden till opening) but not even to just patch the existing signs!

The new poles on the R526 (old N20) where the R510 links to the M20 spur are of the collapsable variety - fair enough the "old" ones weren't, but why weren't they if this was required? All the poles were replaced during the redesignation, as the old signs (from 2001) were on short poles.

blackwarrior

I noticed recently, after the tunnel opened, that northbound traffic on the M20 coming from Cork/Tralee travelling to Galway/Shannon were still being told to exit at the Raheen Business Park exit - no mention of the tunnel.

Is this being changed now? Should have been done prior to the tunnel opening, IMO.

Zoney

Correct - that is exactly the case and I'm sure that's what is being changed. Oddly the original N20 signs *did not* signpost the N69 here (a tacky plastic N69 square was tie-wrapped onto the base of the poles after a year or two).

danielmcinerney

i was coming out of the tunnel earlier in the week, on the dock road side. to my amazement there was car coming towards me on my side of the dual carriageway. wasnt in the same lane as me but still the wrong side of the road. i slowed down and pointed at him to turn around and he did so. he probably would have entered the tunnel on the wrong side had he not seen me coming out. should be bought up in court for stupidity like that. im sure he was caught on camera

Wild Bill

My God you folk make Limerick sound very dangerous! :eek:

blackwarrior

danielmcinerney wrote: »

i was coming out of the tunnel earlier in the week, on the dock road side. to my amazement there was car coming towards me on my side of the dual carriageway. wasnt in the same lane as me but still the wrong side of the road. i slowed down and pointed at him to turn around and he did so. he probably would have entered the tunnel on the wrong side had he not seen me coming out. should be bought up in court for stupidity like that. im sure he was caught on camera

I'd love to know how that driver managed to get on the wrong side. It's some achievement.

Same thing happened me early one morning going north on the M18 between Shannon and Newmarket.

cantalach

blackwarrior wrote: »

I noticed recently, after the tunnel opened, that northbound traffic on the M20 coming from Cork/Tralee travelling to Galway/Shannon were still being told to exit at the Raheen Business Park exit - no mention of the tunnel.

My mother-in-law travelled from Cork to Knock at the weekend in a coach (a private day hire - not a scheduled service). The driver missed the tunnel completely. He first went wrong by getting off the M20 at Raheen but then he squandered his opportunity to make a good recovery by failing to get back on the new road where it crosses over the Dock Road at the Cement Factory.

Of course, there's always the possibility that he was just feigning confusion and that the real issue was that he didn't want to pay the toll. After all, it was early Sunday morning and there was no delay at all going through town...

Zoney

blackwarrior wrote: »

I'd love to know how that driver managed to get on the wrong side. It's some achievement.

Presumably they turned up the off-slip at the city side of the Dock Road.

Actually come to think of it, I think I noticed some bizarre oddity on that particular slip - something like speed limit signs where you would normally have no-entry signs (I think there were still no-entry signs).

If anyone is around there maybe they should verify, as I'm pretty sure I saw some kind of sign that shouldn't be there facing wrong-direction traffic.

EDIT: I've just been told that the off-slip from N18 south at rosbrien, onto the Carew Park link, doesn't have no-entry signs on it (or didn't recently at any rate). So maybe that's the culprit. Will double-check it myself next time I'm down there - if anyone else confirms it, the NRA should be contacted.

GPoint

I have been driving from Dublin last night and I exited from this new Direct Route road onto the Dock Road.

Shortly after I changed lanes on to the slip road, there was a car going straight onto me! Luckily, I was in the left lane, although normally I stay in the right lane as I am turning right on the roundabout anyway.

I will double check what signs are there on this slip road, there MUST be a NO ENTRY sign to stop people mistaking this slip road for an entry.

But I must say that there is some confusion, because while the work was in progress I was unsure myself about the new road layout until they have completed the road and revealed the signs. I am using the Dock Road every day myself.

Hoof Hearted

blackwarrior wrote: »

I'd love to know how that driver managed to get on the wrong side. It's some achievement.

Same thing happened me early one morning going north on the M18 between Shannon and Newmarket.

That's because using white road markings there's no way to distinguish 2-way roads from both lanes going one-way. It's the first thing I think about when I visit Ireland coming from the US. As you know, they use yellow lines in the center to communicate this. I often thought couldn't they use a light green paint in the same way the US uses yellow. Otherwise how does one know say in a road with 2 lanes one direction and 1 lane the other direction which side has the 2 lanes and which side has the 1 lane. I've seen a few instances where a side road comes onto a dual carriageway and there is no way due to the hedges down the middle blocking the view of the lanes on the other side to know if you are on a 2-way road or both lanes going the same direction. Yeah, if your local, it's fine, but don't assume foreigners will know.

Arriving in Shannon with the white lines on the 2 way airport road near the terminal, most Americans will think that it is both lanes in the same direction teamed with the fact that they are just adapting to driving on the left.

blackwarrior

GPoint wrote: »

I have been driving from Dublin last night and I exited from this new Direct Route road onto the Dock Road.

Shortly after I changed lanes on to the slip road, there was a car going straight onto me! Luckily, I was in the left lane, although normally I stay in the right lane as I am turning right on the roundabout anyway.

I will double check what signs are there on this slip road, there MUST be a NO ENTRY sign to stop people mistaking this slip road for an entry.

You know, there may be a design/layout problem there. This afternoon, I drove the M7/N18 from the Nenagh direction, intending to exit the N18 dual carriageway at the Dock Road and double back in the opposite direction.

When you exit the N18 there, you then need to take the underpass under the main road and then take the entry ramp back. It's obvious (i.e. signposted), but not intuitive, in that I almost went around the roundabout 360 deg looking for the entry ramp back onto the N18.

I realised that I had to take the underpass, and I never remotely tried to take the wrong ramp, but I wonder .....

Zoney

OK, I've emailed the NRA even though I am not certain about what I saw out of place as regards signage. There's something not right and it needs to be addressed before someone gets killed.

EDIT: On a slightly related issue, I must admit I'm a bit concerned about how the compact junctions on the M7 in north Tipp will work. The one on the N18 north of Ennis still seems to be causing problems.

blackwarrior

Hoof Hearted wrote: »

Arriving in Shannon with the white lines on the 2 way airport road near the terminal, most Americans will think that it is both lanes in the same direction teamed with the fact that they are just adapting to driving on the left.

I agree that for sleepy Americans driving away from Shannon, the first few km are really unhelpful.

But I still don't understand how somebody coming south on the N18 north of Shannon can get on the wrong side. I know these junctions, and it is quite an achivement.

blackwarrior

Zoney wrote: »

EDIT: On a slightly related issue, I must admit I'm a bit concerned about how the compact junctions on the M7 in north Tipp will work. The one on the N18 north of Ennis still seems to be causing problems.

You're referring to junction 23 at Moneygall presumably?

liammur

I hear the numbers using the tunnel are nowhere near the target. And they will decline drastically once the summer seaon ends.
If ever there was a case of 'we could have told you so'.

danielmcinerney

liammur wrote: »

I hear the numbers using the tunnel are nowhere near the target. And they will decline drastically once the summer seaon ends.
If ever there was a case of 'we could have told you so'.

when the schools come back and the ennis and condell roads start to clog up people will start to use it!

L1011

liammur wrote: »

I hear the numbers using the tunnel are nowhere near the target. And they will decline drastically once the summer seaon ends.
If ever there was a case of 'we could have told you so'.

Limerick City is not the ring of Kerry. Once the "summer season" as you put it ends the schools, UL and LIT will be back. Traffic throughout the city and on the tunnel/ring road will increase hugely, not "decline drastically".

mossym

MYOB wrote: »

Limerick City is not the ring of Kerry. Once the "summer season" as you put it ends the schools, UL and LIT will be back. Traffic throughout the city and on the tunnel/ring road will increase hugely, not "decline drastically".

exactly, every road around limerick, as most other cities is quieter at the moment, can normally knock 10 minutes off my commute during the summer, and i'm on the ring roads mostly.would expect traffic through it to increase if anything

liammur

Nonsense. The tourists are delighted to be able to bypass limerick going to kerry/clare/galway.
The authorities are starting to get nervous. By October it will be fewer than 10,000 a day