M50 upgrade - Phase II

jmkennedyie

johnnyrotten wrote: »

This seems to be moving at a good pace now. When is the M1 junction due for completion?

Best check www.M50.ie and www.nra.ie. I'd guess around 18 months, possibly a few months sooner as a lot can be done without interfering with existing traffic flows.

ipodrocker

cargo wrote: »

Also another notice up on M50.ie for the far end of this upgrade. i.e Southern End. Only affecting traffic during the night.

does anyone know the purpose of the closure like why both lanes are closed. i know it says to construct the third lane but what are they doing exactly?

Maldini2706

They're relaying the original two lanes. There's a pdf up on m50.ie that says the mainline construction for phase 2 won't be finished until the summer.

whosedaddy?

as of today there is a split southbound at Blanch...
and from aaroadwatch...

There is a temporary layout on the M50 southbound at J6 Blanchardstown until Friday 5th Dec approx ;

so hopefully in 10 days or so the southbound lanes will be all on new middle section.

guys, get a move on to do same northbound...

Steviemak

Drove the M50 northbound earlier and they are making good progress between J6 (blanch) and J5 (finglas). The third lane is effectively done outside of the junctions.

whosedaddy?

Steviemak wrote: »

Drove the M50 northbound earlier and they are making good progress between J6 (blanch) and J5 (finglas). The third lane is effectively done outside of the junctions.

True. my guess is this will be slip lane just between those junctions to reduce merging traffic. Southbound is a few weeks behind in this respect. a longer slip southbound for the N2 merge would help the N2 traffic a lot...

Lets hope they'll remove the split at Blanch soon... Didn't happen on Friday. but who thought it would anyway

Ice_Box

whosedaddy? wrote: »

a longer slip southbound for the N2 merge would help the N2 traffic a lot...

Rang fingal county council about this and they said they request a bigger slip lane last monday and they expect it done shortly.

whosedaddy?

was I asleep this morning or have they really removed the northbound split at Blanch???
I'd say they can do southbound by the end of the week (if they really wanted to).

Heroditas

whosedaddy? wrote: »

was I asleep this morning or have they really removed the northbound split at Blanch???
I'd say they can do southbound by the end of the week (if they really wanted to).

They've removed it alright. It was a lot better this morning than even yesterday morning when it was down to one lane for a stretch.

Today the backlogs didn't stretch back as far as the N4 junction and it was relatively painless getting up to the M1 (relatively speaking)

Ice_Box

* From 10 o'clock tonight until 6am Thurs 11th Dec one lane of the M50 northbound will be closed between J6 Blanchardstown and J5 Finglas. This closure is to facilitate the finishing of the construction of the Third Lane northbound. This lane should be open to traffic by 06:00am tomorrow morning.

:eek:

whosedaddy?

Ice_Box wrote: »

* From 10 o'clock tonight until 6am Thurs 11th Dec one lane of the M50 northbound will be closed between J6 Blanchardstown and J5 Finglas. This closure is to facilitate the finishing of the construction of the Third Lane northbound. This lane should be open to traffic by 06:00am tomorrow morning.
:eek:

Which will mean the queue starts further north.. when 3 lanes merge into 2 at Finglas... :-)

Ice_Box

whosedaddy? wrote: »

Which will mean the queue starts further north.. when 3 lanes merge into 2 at Finglas... :-)

Me gets off at finglas.

whosedaddy?

Ice_Box wrote: »

Me gets off at finglas.

me too....

fletch

Is the third lane actually opening or just finalising it??

Ice_Box

fletch wrote: »

Is the third lane actually opening or just finalising it??

Its open all-right. And moving well.

whosedaddy?

some update on the southern section...

Highlight updates on junctions and progress.. (graphics and lots more text in the link...)

N81 Junction No 11:
Works will include the construction of a new free-flow sliproad from the N81 eastbound to M50 northbound and the upgrade of the existing Northbound On-ramp to 2 lanes. All other traffic movements will remain the same.

"New" Scholarstown-Firhouse Junction No 12:
The reconfiguration of the existing bridge to three lanes travelling in an eastern direction and a one way cyclist/pedestrian lane
■ the construction of a new three lane bridge to carry traffic in a western direction
■ The construction of a new one way pedestrian/cyclist bridge to the south of the existing structure.

Sandyford Junction No 14
The upgrade to the Sandyford Junction includes the construction of three new free-flow left-turning slip-roads in the Northwest, Southwest and Northeast quadrants.

Progress to Date
At present works are well under way on the construction of the widening of the existing M50 mainline to facilitate the addition of the third lane in both directions. This part of the works in the Southern Section (between N81 and J14 Sandyford) is expected to be completed in March 09 after which traffic will be rerouted onto the newly constructed lanes which will facilitate

3-4 month or so before traffic will flow on newly constructed lanes.. Three month of island diversion and broken down cars in isolated single lanes - I can feel the pain already.

http://www.sdublincoco.ie/images/roads/M50%20Phase%202%20Info%20Sheet11122008.pdf

ipodrocker

Ice_Box wrote: »

* From 10 o'clock tonight until 6am Thurs 11th Dec one lane of the M50 northbound will be closed between J6 Blanchardstown and J5 Finglas. This closure is to facilitate the finishing of the construction of the Third Lane northbound. This lane should be open to traffic by 06:00am tomorrow morning.

:eek:

any update when 3 lanes will be open southbound from finglas to blanchardstown??

ipodrocker

ipodrocker wrote: »

any update when 3 lanes will be open southbound from finglas to blanchardstown??

Coming southbound the other day, I would say that there is still a considerable amount of work still to do. A couple of weeks at least!

Mr Magnolia

A bit of a bump here but it doesn't warrant a new thread.

Does anyone know why they placed the cat's eyes to the left of the white line on the right-hand-side of the over-taking lane on the M50?

I would always automatically drive towards the right side of the over-taking lane to leave me reaction time if anything happens to my left. Because of my natural driving lane position find myself subconsciously driving over them causing the frustrating bump, bump, bump, etc. Now I know I'll have to adjust my driving to avoid them and drive in the middle of the lane but I've never seen them installed like this anywhere, anyone throw some light on this for me? Hope ye know what I mean.

Mr Magnolia

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

A bit of a bump here but it doesn't warrant a new thread.

Does anyone know why they placed the cat's eyes to the left of the white line on the right-hand-side of the over-taking lane on the M50?

I've noticed that as well, some sections of motorway have the cats eyes to the left of the line and some have them to the right, both on the central median and the hard shoulder.
Drive along the M4 & M6 and they change positions several times on the route, depending on who constructed the road.

Carawaystick

i've seen this n new motorways about the country too, maybe the cateyes are placed before the lines are marked, needing them to be offline.

anyhow,Has phase 1 finished or has a finish date been announced?

whosedaddy?

3rd lane M50 south from Finglas to Blanch due to open in the morning...

link to m50.ie

From 6:00 AM Friday 30th January 2009, There will be a change to the Traffic management Layout. A new third lane will be opened between Junction 5 (N2) and Junction 6 (N3) on the southbound carriageway.

That should help easing the N2 chaos and the M50 south tailbacks due to the N2 merge.

Ice_Box

whosedaddy? wrote: »

3rd lane M50 south from Finglas to Blanch due to open in the morning...

link to m50.ie


That should help easing the N2 chaos and the M50 south tailbacks due to the N2 merge.

Thats great news. Should make a difference to that dreadful junction. a 30 minute queue is not uncommon.

ciaran75

works on phase 2 of the m50 started roughly one year ago now

i think they seem to be moving along quite well certainly when you compare how phase 1 went (still going actually)

any thoughts??

Stark

Well the North section seems to be progressing quickly. The South section seems to be progressing at a snail's pace though.

Carawaystick

I think the lesson learnt was to get the mainline widened asap and fix the junctions later - the 3 lane sections from blanch to finglas seem to be much freer flowing in semi-peak times I've been on them since they were widened.

anotherlostie

I drove from Park West to the airport car park in 30 minutes last Friday at 3.30pm, and half that time was spent getting onto the motorway. I had driven the same journey on the M50 the previous day (before the widening) at 10am and it took longer to navigate the Blanch to Finglas section despite being offpeak.

And then I spent 50 minutes in a queue to get through airport security. Go figure!

Maldini2706

ciaran75 wrote: »

works on phase 2 of the m50 started roughly one year ago now

i think they seem to be moving along quite well certainly when you compare how phase 1 went (still going actually)

any thoughts??

A couple the section worked on during phase 1 had major work going on at J7 and at J9 so it's understandable that might have taken longer. I think they tried to ut too many eggs in the one basket and the constractors for phase 2 probably learnt the lesson from them. It'll be interesting to see if J6 takes as long to complete as J9 because from the plans it looks far more elaborate.

mysterious

The widest section of motorway seems to me, is the Blanch to the M1 am i right? The median does seem wider than the western parkway

Am I correct?
I would love if they bulldozed the old redcow bridges and make it four lanes underneath and have a fifth auxillary lane from their to thr M1:D

But If I had my way...

spacetweek

mysterious wrote: »

I would love if they bulldozed the old redcow bridges and make it four lanes underneath and have a fifth auxillary lane from their to thr M1:D

Might be a bit too soon to be talking about this, but what about a 5th lane (2nd auxiliary lane) between N4 and N7? There's enough space at the verges. Could we see it?

sk8board

I can't find where I read this, but I definitely read somewhere that the Ballymount/Greenhills bridge -> Sandyford section was going to be under construction until From Feb 08 to Feb 24th 09. Can't find it on m50.ie

Any ideas?

Godge

Does anyone understand the new junction between the N3 and M50? The mocked-up designs on the M50 website are not very illuminating. Is there a better description somewhere?

Godge

Godge wrote: »

Does anyone understand the new junction between the N3 and M50? The mocked-up designs on the M50 website are not very illuminating. Is there a better description somewhere?

Have a look at some of the other M50 threads here (or Infrastructure), I know at least one links to some high quality proposed layouts, just not sure which thread it is.

mysterious

spacetweek wrote: »

Might be a bit too soon to be talking about this, but what about a 5th lane (2nd auxiliary lane) between N4 and N7? There's enough space at the verges. Could we see it?

My plan would be retrofit the Redcow bridges to allow Four lanes each and facilitate the current loop slips. The stupid **** head planners built the new bridges to narrow again:mad:. The redcow section is the narrorest cross section of the M50.Yet the shower of handicappers built the bridge with according to the old bridge with adjacent to the old heap of crap.

Horray to the irish planning system.

Then I would have three lanes and 2 auxillary lanes from N7 to N4.
Same with treatment with N4 interchange, three lanes + auxillary lane under the bridge.

Westlink new bridge slip added on the left lanes to facilitate the N4 to North M50 bound movement as a separate lane. Then 400 metres into the merge I would turn the HS into an auxillary lane.
Then the new bridge slip then turns to an Auxillary lane for Blancherstown only.

After that there should be 2 auxillary lanes and three running lanes onto the M1 interchange. I would also dig up the Proposed M1 heap of crap and build a proper free flowing interchange with half the cost they are using at present.

Then I would build a tunnel at Longmile and link this tunnel directly with the south circular, Davit road and the city centre at Edward/High street. This would allow traffic from the city to avoid the heavy congestion at Longmile, inchicore and Turnpike(the road they never fixed in this upgrade) Also I'm up for the East link tunnel. Once our motorway network is integrated we can finally have traffic circulating around the city and taking more and more traffic away from the liffey quays and conjested through roads.

Then the focus would be public transport as the motorway network is intergrated.

whosedaddy?

http://www.m50.ie/index.php?page=traffic-layout-changes

Junction 12, Scholarstown (Firhouse)

Traffic Layout Change From Wednesday 18th February 06.00am there will be a change to the traffic layout on the Southbound carriageway between Junction 12 Firhouse and Junction 14 Sandyford. The new layout will divide the traffic creating an Island site. Both lanes will continue along the M50 Southbound. Traffic wishing to access Junction 13 Ballinteer/Dundrum and Junction 14 Sandyford must do so via Lane 1 (Left lane).

lets hope its not an island solution from J12 all the way to J14..? that would be just nuts.

Maldini2706

whosedaddy? wrote: »

http://www.m50.ie/index.php?page=traffic-layout-changes



lets hope its not an island solution from J12 all the way to J14..? that would be just nuts.

It certainly sounds like it, that's going to cause absolute mayhem tomorrow morning.

mysterious

The new M1 interchange is just plain horrible.. UGH


It's just nasty to look at on maps.

Cool Mo D

mysterious wrote: »

The new M1 interchange is just plain horrible.. UGH


It's just nasty to look at on maps.

It's pretty ugly alright, but it's well designed for the job it has to do. Hopefully the N32 roundabout can have the traffic lights removed when it's done.

Redsoxfan

Maldini2706 wrote: »

It certainly sounds like it, that's going to cause absolute mayhem tomorrow morning.

Traffic issues worse than usual this morning alright.

There didn't seem to be much advance warning (on traffic reports the previous evening or that morning IIRC) of the extension of the split in the road.

anotherlostie

At least they're working on this stretch.

Irish and Proud

mysterious wrote: »

The new M1 interchange is just plain horrible.. UGH


It's just nasty to look at on maps.

...well it can't be that horrible - AFAIK, it will be a directional-T interchange wrapped over and around the current roundabout. OK, we won't have a 100% freeflow junction there, but as far as the M1 and M50 is concerned, the junction will be freeflow with proper motorway grade connectors (not low speed ones like the N4/M50 ramps). The N32 is only a single carriageway link and the roundabout which it's served by, should suffice for the time being.

If and only if N32 capacity needs a serious increase in the future, then I'd suggest a proper M32 alignment linking the Airport Interchange (which will probably need an upgrade anyway) and Malahide Road/Clongriffen. By that stage, the M32 could also be extended Westwards to the N2 Cherryhound Interchange (and therefore Blanchardstown) and a possible DAA West Terminal (Terminal 3) for low cost airlines. This would mean that the outer Northside of Dublin would have its own proper dedicated link.

Regards!

mysterious

Irish and Proud wrote: »

...well it can't be that horrible - AFAIK, it will be a directional-T interchange wrapped over and around the current roundabout. OK, we won't have a 100% freeflow junction there, but as far as the M1 and M50 is concerned, the junction will be freeflow with proper motorway grade connectors (not low speed ones like the N4/M50 ramps). The N32 is only a single carriageway link and the roundabout which it's served by, should suffice for the time being.

If and only if N32 capacity needs a serious increase in the future, then I'd suggest a proper M32 alignment linking the Airport Interchange (which will probably need an upgrade anyway) and Malahide Road/Clongriffen. By that stage, the M32 could also be extended Westwards to the N2 Cherryhound Interchange (and therefore Blanchardstown) and a possible DAA West Terminal (Terminal 3) for low cost airlines. This would mean that the outer Northside of Dublin would have its own proper dedicated link.

Regards!

arrrrggghh
Its just horrrible, look at how iirregular and awkard looking it looks.
The M50 to M1 movement should be directly joining NE, not around the roundabout, it's totally unneccesary to build a longer loop around the existing interchange.

The merges towards the M50 going west is nastytoo. N32 is mainline and all the major routes join onto it:mad:

Its just nasty and horrible with a traffic lit interchange in the middle of it...............

For anoyone who knows about designing roads!!!!

Stupido

This bit gets me.....

The M50 arcs around to the M1 junction......then the bit towards the tunnel (formerly the M1) has been designated M50!

meanwhile we have the N32 (officially a motorway) continuing in the direction where the M50 should go!

This is so stupid and I can't see the logic.

The tunnel should be the M1, plain and simple. The M50 should indeed be extended to the malahide and (possibly) coast road, subsuming the N32.

The eastern bypass, if ever built, can be an extension of the M1 to Sandyford.

I suppose all this will eventually happen at some stage:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

whosedaddy?

mysterious wrote: »

arrrrggghh
Its just horrrible, look at how iirregular and awkard looking it looks.
The M50 to M1 movement should be directly joining NE, not around the roundabout, it's totally unneccesary to build a longer loop around the existing interchange.

The merges towards the M50 going west is nastytoo. N32 is mainline and all the major routes join onto it:mad:

Its just nasty and horrible with a traffic lit interchange in the middle of it...............

For anoyone who knows about designing roads!!!!

I don't know anything about designing roads, but me thinks removing the roundabout and digging a big hole to then build a pretty new exchange was just not an option - given the amount of traffic flowing through the exchange... :rolleyes:
I have no idea whether you could have come up with a better design while maintaining the traffic flow during construction....

what I find odd, if not dangerous, about the design is that M1S to M50S you have to move across the M1S to N32 slip (if there is a tailback...)
and M50N to M1S you have to merge across the N32 to M1S slip to get onto the M1... assuming both new freeflow loops are two lanes, I'd expect traffic to move faster than on the N32 slips... there will be accidents....

Pisser Dignam

The M1/M50 junction will be fine. It'll do the job. Who gives a rats ass what it LOOKS like. Jesus.

Davy

Pisser Dignam wrote: »

The M1/M50 junction will be fine. It'll do the job. Who gives a rats ass what it LOOKS like. Jesus.

When your actually moving and not stopped at the lights you wont even have time to look at it

hears hopping anyway

mysterious

whosedaddy? wrote: »

I don't know anything about designing roads, but me thinks removing the roundabout and digging a big hole to then build a pretty new exchange was just not an option - given the amount of traffic flowing through the exchange... :rolleyes:
I have no idea whether you could have come up with a better design while maintaining the traffic flow during construction....

what I find odd, if not dangerous, about the design is that M1S to M50S you have to move across the M1S to N32 slip (if there is a tailback...)
and M50N to M1S you have to merge across the N32 to M1S slip to get onto the M1... assuming both new freeflow loops are two lanes, I'd expect traffic to move faster than on the N32 slips... there will be accidents....

No I'm talking about the AWFUL MANOUVERING SLIP JOINING AROUND THE ROUNDABOUT. it's an over kill.

I will post up a better map, and explain clearly.

Ice_Box

They were busy last night. Bridges were dropped in at Blanch and Finglas and possibly elsewhere. Long way to go still.

Amtmann

Pisser Dignam wrote: »

The M1/M50 junction will be fine. It'll do the job. Who gives a rats ass what it LOOKS like. Jesus.

Typical attitude to just about everything that gets built in the country.

Pisser Dignam

Furet wrote: »

Typical attitude to just about everything that gets built in the country.

Its a motorway junction not a city block. It looks fine and, more importantly, its fully functional. Its got all the movements - that atypical for this country. I don't see a problem.