M50 upgrade - Phase II

NFD100

Isn't there a concessions company, who get paid to maintain the motorway or something?

Surely, they should be maintaining it regularly?

Davy

NFD100 wrote: »

Surely, they should be maintaining it regularly?

They should, but they arent! M50 concession is the company that have the contract to look after everything about the m50

Stonewolf

I don't think any of the roads in the country are properly cleaned, I'm forever getting grit in my eyes on the motorbike, even on motorways.

M50 Traffic MGT

N3 Interchange

This Friday night will see the opening of the N3 Inbound Freeflow to the M50 SB. As a result the existing on ramp will close. Only one lane however will be available as works are completed along the new median barrier. A flyer will be circulated in the area tomorrow and all permanent signage will be uncovered

On the 31st August all new slips at the N3 interchange will be opened permanently. This will see all new movements possible but an official opening will take place between 10am and 2pm with traffic on the N3 Inbound wishing to access the M50 SB diverted to Phoenix Park railway station to U-turn for the duration of the opening. More details on the official opening to follow

Random

M50 Traffic MGT wrote: »

N3 Interchange

This Friday night will see the opening of the N3 Inbound Freeflow to the M50 SB. As a result the existing on ramp will close. Only one lane however will be available as works are completed along the new median barrier. A flyer will be circulated in the area tomorrow and all permanent signage will be uncovered

On the 31st August all new slips at the N3 interchange will be opened permanently. This will see all new movements possible but an official opening will take place between 10am and 2pm with traffic on the N3 Inbound wishing to access the M50 SB diverted to Phoenix Park railway station to U-turn for the duration of the opening. More details on the official opening to follow

how do you get from blanchardstown to the m50 south without going via the phoenix park train station? thanks

digiman

Random wrote: »

how do you get from blanchardstown to the m50 south without going via the phoenix park train station? thanks

Was wondering this myself, you could go up the town and turn right after the garda station and back down that way, surely there is a better alternative though?

Random

and n3 inbound to blanchardstown as well. you gotta go up the slip and then take a right and come back down with outbound traffic?

Pineapple stu

Its a farce like i found out last night. There is a sign on the blanch by-pass saying KEEP LEFT FOR M50 SOUTH, you keep left and the lane is closed and you are forced to either go on M50 south or Navan road. You then get a diversion directing you to go up the phoenix park station off ramp and back down the other side towards the M50. Traffic is the built up and you wait ages then go across the lights where the roundabout was and when you do, you find that you cant get on to the M50 south and are directed back towards Blanch. Why not just do the simple thing and use the sign that says KEEP LEFT FOR M50 SOUTH to say M50 SOUTH ON RAMP CLOSED USE ALTERNATIVE ROUTES.?

Random

if you're coming from navan on the n3 going m50 south at the moment then you go up the slip road to your left where the road says keep left. if you go down and under the new bridge then you will have to go via the station. unless i misunderstood?

Pineapple stu

Thats how its supposed to be but from 10pm its closed off and its a guessing game then.

jmkennedyie

Flyer says from Blanch to M50S use Snugborough interchange.

mackerski

jmkennedyie wrote: »

Flyer says from Blanch to M50S use Snugborough interchange.

If people heed this advice, then the Snugborough Road signal-controlled junction is going to get even messier than it is today. That would be bad, because tailbacks from those lights already cause Snugborough Road roundabout to gridlock regularly, meaning that traffic that just want to get down the slip road towards the M50 ends up queuing up towards Ballycoolin.

celticbest

M50 Traffic MGT wrote: »

On the 31st August all new slips at the N3 interchange will be opened permanently. This will see all new movements possible but an official opening will take place between 10am and 2pm with traffic on the N3 Inbound wishing to access the M50 SB diverted to Phoenix Park railway station to U-turn for the duration of the opening. More details on the official opening to follow

Two quick questions M50MGT,

1. Does this mean we have to wait until 2pm next Tuesday for lane 1 to be opened under the Junction 6 NB?

2. Can you also please confirm that the Freeflow slip from the M50SB to N3 Outbound will also open on tuesday, as there has never been any mention of this freeflow in earlier posts.

jack presley

M50 Traffic MGT wrote: »

N3 Interchange



This will see all new movements possible but an official opening will take place between 10am and 2pm with traffic on the N3 Inbound wishing to access the M50 SB diverted to Phoenix Park railway station to U-turn for the duration of the opening. More details on the official opening to follow

I hate those bloody official openings. All they do is delay things. When the road's ready to be opened, open it. Or if the politicians really want to get their picture in the paper, have them do at 3am in the morning when there's no traffic. Not when it's going to cause a nuisance to everyone using it.

M50 Traffic MGT

celticbest wrote: »

Two quick questions M50MGT,

1. Does this mean we have to wait until 2pm next Tuesday for lane 1 to be opened under the Junction 6 NB?

2. Can you also please confirm that the Freeflow slip from the M50SB to N3 Outbound will also open on tuesday, as there has never been any mention of this freeflow in earlier posts.

The slip from the M50 SB to the N3 Outbound will definately open on the 31st along with the rest. On the mainline, I expect the third lane under the N3 to be open some time next week as we want as little TM as possible to be in place for the opening. On the day of opening the off ramp will be one lane, i.e. the auxiliary lane, leaving 3 lanes Northbound

mcgeebers

I'm heading to Donegal this evening and will use the M3 for the first time. Is the freeflow in operation exiting the M50 northbound onto the M3?

celticbest

M50 Traffic MGT wrote: »

The slip from the M50 SB to the N3 Outbound will definately open on the 31st along with the rest. On the mainline, I expect the third lane under the N3 to be open some time next week as we want as little TM as possible to be in place for the opening. On the day of opening the off ramp will be one lane, i.e. the auxiliary lane, leaving 3 lanes Northbound

Great news M50 Traffic MGT, can you make it Monday for the opeing of the third lane NB

As this is more or less the final phase to be opened I'd like to say thanks for all the updates & replies over the past few months.

brandodub

mcgeebers wrote: »

I'm heading to Donegal this evening and will use the M3 for the first time. Is the freeflow in operation exiting the M50 northbound onto the M3?

Freeflows dont open until 06:00 21-08-2010 so you'll have to negotiate heavy traffic on the roundabout leading to the N3 but once on the M3 it's a really good run.

mcgeebers

That is seriously unlucky:) We're not leaving till 7.30 / 8 so hopefully will have eased up a bit. Thanks for that

Absurdum

mcgeebers wrote: »

That is seriously unlucky:) We're not leaving till 7.30 / 8 so hopefully will have eased up a bit. Thanks for that

it should be fairly clear by that time, barring any incidents

cargo

Any updates on the new layout(s) from last night? I know it wont be hugely evident until Monday am traffic but just curious as to how it's working this am.

richardjjd

I took N3-->M50S about 730 this morning. Very smooth road, though there is still some tidying up to do with bollards and signposting. The one issue I'd worry about is where this new road meets up with N3 outbound slip onto the M50S. They merge quickly and almost without warning. From the map posted above, it looks like there are two lanes here, but this morning only one was open.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

mackerski

The new M50 N3 junction layout is now mapped on OpenStreetMap.

emfifty

mackerski wrote: »

The new M50 N3 junction layout is now mapped on OpenStreetMap.

From looking at this updated map i think the n3 should be downgraded to a regional road number asap (from within the m50). The same for n2, n4 etc.
The paneling on the gantries is for the n3 going different directions and will cause confusion until the 'navan road' is finally re-designated.

mackerski

emfifty wrote: »

From looking at this updated map i think the n3 should be downgraded to a regional road number asap (from within the m50). The same for n2, n4 etc.
The paneling on the gantries is for the n3 going different directions and will cause confusion until the 'navan road' is finally re-designated.

This would be a little tricky - remember that the purpose of the national roads is to move strategic traffic. You could de-trunk the N1 inside the M50, since the port tunnel will bring all strategic traffic into the city centre, which is where the N1 is trying to bring them. This would solve another problem, since the N1 as defined in statute (and reflected on OSM) cannot be travelled southbound all the way because of the bus gate at North Frederick Street. Counting against this idea, though, is the fact that the NRA doesn't want private cars in the tunnel at a level that would cause congestion. Private motorists too will often be reluctant to pay the toll.

The N7 was detrunked inside the M50, as doing so funnels strategic traffic onto the N4 and keeps them off the canal and Inchicore routes. But N2, N3, N11 and, to an extent , N81 are still needed to make sure that traffic in and out of the centre gets spread out a little. You'd put a lot more load on the M50 and probably break the traffic flows on the N4 city approach if you tried to use that as the single corridor to the city centre.

As to the signing on the N3, any route not service city centre or the two new accesses to the M50 should no longer be signed as N3. There are already brand new green signs that are (IMO) wrong - one here, for instance. But my recollection of the gantries is that they refer to only one routing through the junction - and the correct one - as the N3. I'm going out mapping now, so I'll check my assumptions and hopefully grab a photo or two.

mackerski

emfifty wrote: »

The paneling on the gantries is for the n3 going different directions and will cause confusion until the 'navan road' is finally re-designated.

I can't agree with that. I've attached the first of the citybound gantries. There are four panels for four different directions. White for Blanchardstown and Castleknock via the "Hospital" exit. These are the only directions that have you leave the N3 to get there. Then the left and right lanes feed directly into the two M50 directions and the middle lane leaves you on the N3, which brings you directly to the city centre avoiding the old M50 roundabout.

So I'll claim that N3 mainline traffic sees nothing confusing. The off-mainline signs that are also designed as though placed on the N3 is bad, in that it should be white-backed and use brackets when referring to the N3. But still, any traffic wanting to follow the N3 to city centre will get there and will be guided in only one single direction.

Carawaystick

emfifty wrote: »

From looking at this updated map i think the n3 should be downgraded to a regional road number asap (from within the m50). The same for n2, n4 etc.
The paneling on the gantries is for the n3 going different directions and will cause confusion until the 'navan road' is finally re-designated.

What about the N31 and N32? they're not even national routes, but distributor roads basically

don't mention the N82 either....

kwinabeeste

Any update on the M50 Southbound to N3 Blanchardstown exit? I've started a new job in Blanchardstown so will be using this every morning.

Was stuck there for about 15mins this morning. The Blanchardstown to M50 Southbound was nice and easy

Empire o de Sun

emfifty wrote: »

From looking at this updated map i think the n3 should be downgraded to a regional road number asap (from within the m50). The same for n2, n4 etc.
The paneling on the gantries is for the n3 going different directions and will cause confusion until the 'navan road' is finally re-designated.

All national routes within the M50 should have been downgraded following its completion. The only one done was the N7 some 15 or more years back now.