Gorey Bypass

Irish and Proud

I was on the Gorey By-pass today and it does a pretty good job overall. It's very long (23km / 15 miles I believe) I must say and the junctions are quite well signposted.

So what about the road?

On the positive side, it's very well marked, junctions are well laid out (nice long ramps), and unlike the M50, the concrete barrier is finished off pretty well. The junction numbers on the signage are nice and big, and the semi-gantries are very good too.

On the interesting side, the road undulates a lot more than previous by-pass such as the one at Arklow, but I guess that road engineers in the region have become more conscious of the environment (a heard a few years ago that engineers were very concerned regarding the impact of road schemes) and don't like to slash the landscape out of it - on the contary, you should see the N2 Carrickmacross By-pass :eek: - the surrounding countryside has been hacked out of it with massively deep cuttings - all for an S2 road - the M1 (which I live near), though much bigger, seems a lot less destructive. However, the Gorey By-pass fits in quite well with its surrounds.

On the dubious side, the cross section is what I was expecting (the standard narrow median dual carriageway) and to me, it doesn't seem too confined, but any driver I've spoken to find the lanes on these type of roads rather tight (tried a couple of drivers on the Ashbourne Bypass). I was talking to some colleagues at work and one suggested that the tighter configuration was to make motorists concentrate more. However, I found that most motorists dislike the concrete barrier from the perspective of accidental impact.

On the negative side, the road could not take much more than 100kph as some of the bends are rather tight, especially at the beginning heading southbound. I find this quite strange as the junctions seem to be built to motorway spec. Although it's a nice road - it's not up the motorway standard. The lay-bys however are to a much higher spec (hard shoulders maintained throughout) than those on the new N6, even though the latter is built to a 120kph HQDC standard - confusing eh?

In any case, if the standard of most of our national primary routes mirrored that of the Gorey Bypass, it would be a great feat. To Wexford County Council, nice work!

BTW, Gorey was Choc-a-Bloc today (with the by-pass working perfectly!)

Regards!

Nutty

great road now bring on the enniscorthy and new ross by passes , enniscorthy bypass started as far as i know the minute the gorey one finished with the new ross land was only bought up before christmas it must be one of the most needed bypasses in the country though

murphaph

the long term implications of building roads that undulate instead of building cuttings are undoubtedly negative on the environment as vehicles must waste energy climbing hills. A flat road require less energy of the vehicles overall.

Irish and Proud

Nutty wrote: »

great road now bring on the enniscorthy and new ross by passes , enniscorthy bypass started as far as i know the minute the gorey one finished with the new ross land was only bought up before christmas it must be one of the most needed bypasses in the country though

I just looked at the road program for 2008 on the NRA's website, and the Enniscorthy By-pass is only proceeding to the CPO/EIS stage this year. The Arklow to Rathnew section which isn't starting this year has passed the CPO/EIS phase quite some time ago. However, the design details for Enniscorthy should become clearer - I wonder will they replace the mid-way roundabout with a GSJ - I also wonder if the cross section will be in the form of a 2+2 or fully fledged dual-carriageway.

Regards!

John R

Irish and Proud wrote: »

On the dubious side, the cross section is what I was expecting (the standard narrow median dual carriageway) and to me, it doesn't seem too confined, but any driver I've spoken to find the lanes on these type of roads rather tight (tried a couple of drivers on the Ashbourne Bypass). I was talking to some colleagues at work and one suggested that the tighter configuration was to make motorists concentrate more. However, I found that most motorists dislike the concrete barrier from the perspective of accidental impact.

If it keeps most of the morons from cruising in the overtaking lane then it's an added bonus.

Actually it is something I've noticed on the M50, the usual gobsh!tes who happily hold up long lines at 90kph in the overtaking lane will often retreat to the left lane when they are faced with the roadwork barriers on the right.

As someone who has driven various large vehicles on roads/lanes only a couple of cm wider than the vehicle it constantly amazes me how many drivers struggle to keep their (usually tiny) cars within lanes that are over a metre wider than their cars.

Irish and Proud wrote: »

BTW, Gorey was Choc-a-Bloc today (with the by-pass working perfectly!)

Gorey has been congested for as long as I can remember, the difference with the by-pass is there is no longer an hour-long tail back to sit in before you get to it.

Irish and Proud

murphaph wrote: »

the long term implications of building roads that undulate instead of building cuttings are undoubtedly negative on the environment as vehicles must waste energy climbing hills...

...but tend to use less fuel going downhill - it would be interesting to see how it balances out in the overall sense. Building cuttings instead of inclines may be better from a CO2 perspective, but deep cuttings may also be messing up the watertables etc in surrounding environments. More bridges and tunnels might help in the most extreme of cases.

Regards!

Irish and Proud

John R wrote: »

Gorey has been congested for as long as I can remember, the difference with the by-pass is there is no longer an hour-long tail back to sit in before you get to it.

Agreed! - There were none of the tailbacks that I remember from last year.

Regards!

Irish and Proud

John R wrote: »

If it keeps most of the morons from cruising in the overtaking lane then it's an added bonus.

Actually it is something I've noticed on the M50, the usual gobsh!tes who happily hold up long lines at 90kph in the overtaking lane will often retreat to the left lane when they are faced with the roadwork barriers on the right.

I was half asleep by the time I read your post, so I completely missed the very interesting point you made above. If concrete barriers deter motorists from hogging the overtaking lane, then that result alone represents a very strong case for their continued implementation on new dual carriageways.

As for inappropriate low speeds on a motorway, this practice should be classed as reckless driving in the more extreme cases (I've seen people doing around 60kph on a clear motorway). The minimum speed for cars on a motorway, subject to normal conditions, should be at least 80kph. In general, people caught doing 60kph or less in such circumstances should incur 6 points and a criminal offence, and the same should apply to those caught doing 20kph or more above the prescribed speed limit. Hogging the overtaking lane at 90kph could also be dealt with likewise - it's just another form of reckless driving!

Regards!

Stark

Irish and Proud wrote: »

As for inappropriate low speeds on a motorway, this practice should be classed as reckless driving in the more extreme cases (I've seen people doing around 60kph on a clear motorway). The minimum speed for cars on a motorway, subject to normal conditions, should be at least 80kph. In general, people caught doing 60kph or less in such circumstances should incur 6 points and a criminal offence, and the same should apply to those caught doing 20kph or more above the prescribed speed limit. Hogging the overtaking lane at 90kph could also be dealt with likewise - it's just another form of reckless driving!

Regards!

Criminal offence is a bit much. Mandatory motorway driving lessons would be nice.