M8 - Cashel to Cullahill

AugustusMaximus

Furet wrote: »

Did you make these? If yes, then you did a great job.

No, I did up all the templates showing the various locations for each junction. Took me ages to figure out how to add a 4th column to show the completion date per the NRA.

I've talked to the guy who does up the pictures of the junction numbers. He does trojan work on wikipedia doing all of those up. He does whole signs and everything on MS paint or whatever.

Amtmann

BluntGuy wrote: »

Yes, a little bit...

I will actually be using the oppurtunity to bring a few improvements to the page:

> I'm going to streamline the "Route" section and move as much as possible to the "History" section.
> I'm going to add in the "History" section (this seems like a good time since the majority of the route is finished at this stage 101km (114km including W.Hill-DKettle) out of 143 km*).This will explain the construction of each piece of the M8, the redesignation process etc.
> The "Future" section is fine, I'll just remove the Cullahill section...
> Possibly going to add a "service areas" section when they publish the EIS designs...
> I'll change the junction box to reflect the changes.
> Possibly add an "M8(Toll)" shield

* Somebody tell me the exact the length of the M8 portion of the M7/M8 scheme. I estimated 12 km which is where I'm getting the 143 km figure from. It could be more however.

Sounds very good. And 12km sounds about right to me. Looking forward to seeing it.

BluntGuy

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

No, I did up all the templates showing the various locations for each junction. Took me ages to figure out how to add a 4th column to show the completion date per the NRA.

You did a great job...

AugustusMaximus wrote:

I've talked to the guy who does up the pictures of the junction numbers. He does trojan work on wikipedia doing all of those up. He does whole signs and everything on MS paint or whatever.

Well, the junction numbers from 20 onwards were made by yours truly, but I made them to fit in with what had come before me.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/Motorway_Exit_26_Ireland.PNG

The "motorway ahead" shield was also made by me:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ad/Motorway_Ahead_%28IRL%29.PNG

I'm thinking of re-drawing the motorway symbol, it looks a bit patchy close up. But at the size it's used on the actual pages, it's barely noticeable...

Amtmann

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

No, I did up all the templates showing the various locations for each junction. Took me ages to figure out how to add a 4th column to show the completion date per the NRA.

I've talked to the guy who does up the pictures of the junction numbers. He does trojan work on wikipedia doing all of those up. He does whole signs and everything on MS paint or whatever.

Those templates are excellent. I frequently refer to them - and they look very complicated to construct! The pages would look a lot less interesting without them, that's for sure!

AugustusMaximus

BluntGuy wrote: »

Well, the junction numbers from 20 onwards were made by yours truly, but I made them to fit in with what had come before me.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/Motorway_Exit_26_Ireland.PNG

The "motorway ahead" shield was also made by me:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ad/Motorway_Ahead_%28IRL%29.PNG

I'm thinking of re-drawing the motorway symbol, it looks a bit patchy close up. But at the size it's used on the actual pages, it's barely noticeable...

Great stuff. Was actually the person who did 1 to 20 I was talking to.

What programme are you using to create them ?

BluntGuy

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

Great stuff. Was actually the person who did 1 to 20 I was talking to.

What programme are you using to create them ?

It's a simple as using MSPaint though I often use Corel Paint Shop Pro to touch-up the images...

It's just a matter of using the correct colour, having the correct dimensions and using the correct font (Transport Heavy in those cases)...

BluntGuy

Furet wrote: »

Those templates are excellent. I frequently refer to them - and they look very complicated to construct! The pages would look a lot less interesting without them, that's for sure!

Indeed. Those templates are the backbone of all the pages I've either created or worked on, I simply wouldn't have managed without them.

I'm surprised at how good the M8 and M9 pages have gotten since I created them. Although I have to give credit to the creators of the N8 and N9 pages which were, and still are, excellent quality pages.

Amtmann

BluntGuy wrote: »

Indeed. Those templates are the backbone of all the pages I've either created or worked on, I simply wouldn't have managed without them.

I'm surprised at how good the M8 and M9 pages have gotten since I created them. Although I have to give credit to the creators of the N8 and N9 pages which were, and still are, excellent quality pages.

Speaking of which, the N8 page will require extensive modification from Sunday night. It needs to be pruned right back in my opinion. The photo of the Cashel bypass and all the motorway shots should be removed, as, I think, should the template box. A simple link should read: "main article M8 motorway".

Anyway, I'm being a hypocrite here and derailing this thread a little - (though I feel I've kinda earned the privilege with this particular thread ).

AugustusMaximus

Furet wrote: »

Speaking of which, the N8 page will require extensive modification from Sunday night. It needs to be pruned right back in my opinion. The photo of the Cashel bypass and all the motorway shots should be removed, as, I think, should the template box. A simple link should read: "main article M8 motorway".

Anyway, I'm being a hypocrite here and derailing this thread a little - (though I feel I've kinda earned the privilege with this particular thread ).

I see that there is no N1 article at all and it just redirects to the M1 article.

Give another year and a half, the only section of the N8 which will be non motorway will be the bit from Dunkettle to Horgans Quay in Cork. Wonder will the NRA change the road designations like they did on the N7 from the Red Cow Roundabout to the City centre in Dublin ?


Fairly simple change to the template Sunday night. Should take me a few min only.

BluntGuy

I think the M8 route should simply be from Dunkettle to Portlaoise. End of story. The urban N8 should be redesignated something else, I think it simply confuses the issue and it clearly isn't up to national roadway standard.

Furet wrote:

Speaking of which, the N8 page will require extensive modification from Sunday night. It needs to be pruned right back in my opinion. The photo of the Cashel bypass and all the motorway shots should be removed, as, I think, should the template box. A simple link should read: "main article M8 motorway".

Anyway, I'm being a hypocrite here and derailing this thread a little - (though I feel I've kinda earned the privilege with this particular thread ).

I will be scaling down the N8 page immensly since the amount of roadway that is actual N8 is quickly diminishing. Instead an area of the M8 page should be dedicated to the tiny amounts of N8 left. All information and pictures on the N8 page about the road itself should be transferred to the R639 page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R639)

I will more than likely delete the N8 page after the redesignation. It served its purpose well, but the old N8 is now the R639 and the new "N8" is the M8.

Amtmann

BluntGuy wrote: »

I think the M8 route should simply be from Dunkettle to Portlaoise. End of story. The urban N8 should be redesignated something else, I think it simply confuses the issue and it clearly isn't up to national roadway standard.



I will be scaling down the N8 page immensly since the amount of roadway that is actual N8 is quickly diminishing. Instead an area of the M8 page should be dedicated to the tiny amounts of N8 left. All information and pictures on the N8 page about the road itself should be transferred to the R639 page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R639)

I will more than likely delete the N8 page after the redesignation. It served its purpose well, but the old N8 is now the R639 and the new "N8" is the M8.

Very true. One thing though, and this is only a suggestion. Sarah777 took a nice photo of the Cashel bypass when it just opened in 2004 - you know the one - it's still on the N8 page. That could be usefully incorporated into the 'history' section, if you wanted. On the other hand, we do have a lot of pictures to choose from. I like the one of junction 4 that you put up recently, and the one of work being carried out on the Mitchelstown to Fermoy scheme.

BluntGuy

Furet wrote: »

Very true. One thing though, and this is only a suggestion. Sarah777 took a nice photo of the Cashel bypass when it just opened in 2004 - you know the one - it's still on the N8 page. That could be usefully incorporated into the 'history' section, if you wanted. On the other hand, we do have a lot of pictures to choose from. I like the one of junction 4 that you put up recently, and the one of work being carried out on the Mitchelstown to Fermoy scheme.

Yes, the Cashel Bypass picture must be preserved, it's an excellent image.

On another note, and straying back on topic actually, will the kind people who updated OpenStreetMap the last time a section of M8 opened be doing so again?

Amtmann

Hm - 3pm opening apparantly (see: http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/traffic/story.asp?id=97987). Very late for a winter's day.

BluntGuy

Furet wrote: »

Hm - 3pm opening apparantly (see: http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/traffic/story.asp?id=97987). Very late for a winter's day.

And all to accomodate a superfluous opening ceremony... makes my blood boil. :mad:

3 pm is utterly ridiculous...

It should be opened to traffic at midnight. The official opening ceremony can take place any old time.

G_R

BluntGuy wrote: »

You live in Urlingford?

No offense, my friend, but how do you stand it?

The town could be grand, but that horrible hotel makes it look like a construction site. It's not a pleasant drive-through...

Do you know why the hotel was abandoned like that?

No offence taken. I absolutely hate the town. I'm a blow in from dublin. i dont know how i stand it. i spend all day out of town thank god. Its no more pleasent to live in than it is to drive tru.

Rumour has it that the company building it ran out of money. But rumours in this town...dnt even get me started. Honestly i dnt know what the story is. if i ever find out ill post


sorry for going off topic.

Carrigman

Drove to Dublin from Cork and back again in the last two days.

I cast what I hope is one last look at Horse and Jockey, Littleton, Urlingford and Johnstown and hope to God I never have to pass through them (or anywhere on the old N8 connecting them) ever again. (The one exception I might make is Johnstown for the cheap petrol - they had posters on the pumps today saying "Please Don't Bypass Us" - but only if I'm really stuck).

I've spent far too long on that unlovely road stuck in convoys behind trucks, and morons driving at a snails pace, for anything ever to tempt me back.

Well done to the NRA for getting the latest stretch open ahead of time tomorrow Monday, 8th Dec. I think that there will then only be about 30 miles of non-dual carriageway/motorway between Cork and Dublin (Fermoy/Mitchelstown and Cullahill/Portlaoise).

BluntGuy

Carrigman wrote: »

Well done to the NRA for getting the latest stretch open ahead of time tomorrow Monday, 8th Dec. I think that there will then only be about 30 miles of non-dual carriageway/motorway between Cork and Dublin (Fermoy/Mitchelstown and Cullahill/Portlaoise).

Yes, the majority of Dublin-Cork is motorway at this point.

G_R

ill be goin 2 kildare 2moro at 2. hopefully the "official opening" will be done by then. I'll only get to use it from urlingford to cullahill but it'll still be nice to have a little bit more of the journey at a faster speed. Might save me about 3 mins!!!!!ha

Stark

Official opening is at 3pm.

AugustusMaximus

Anyone like to put an estimate how long will Cork to Dublin be when the entire route is completed ? WOuld be nice if they could put the Naas Dual carriageway up to 120kph.

Amtmann

We've revamped the M8 wikipedia page to coincide with the opening: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M8_motorway_(Ireland)

G_R

Stark wrote: »

Official opening is at 3pm.

well that just put a dampner on things. I thought i read somewhere that it was 1.30pm. Ah well, ill use it on the return journey.

Steviemak

Without traffic I reckon it'll take 2 hrs from Dunkettle to Red Cow at speedlimit (120KPH for 210km and 100KPH for 27km)

G_R

Steviemak wrote: »

Without traffic I reckon it'll take 2 hrs from Dunkettle to Red Cow at speedlimit (120KPH for 210km and 100KPH for 27km)

100 km/h through abbeyleix...ha!!!! now thats a good one... good look with that!!!! ha:D

Steviemak

dannym08 wrote: »

100 km/h through abbeyleix...ha!!!! now thats a good one... good look with that!!!! ha:D

The question referred to when the route is fully completed and we no longer have to suffer Abbeyleix;)

G_R

Steviemak wrote: »

The question referred to when the route is fully completed and we no longer have to suffer Abbeyleix;)

sorry my bad, didnt read it properly!!

Zuisse

dannym08 wrote: »

well that just put a dampner on things. I thought i read somewhere that it was 1.30pm. Ah well, ill use it on the return journey.

Opening cermony is taking place at 13.00. Road will be officially opened at 15.00.

Amtmann

Small article in the Independent today: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/journey-times-cut-as-8364434m-road-is-opened-1566879.html

Bards

Official Press release can be found here

http://www.transport.ie/pressRelease.aspx?Id=33

KevR

Anyone know how much under-budget this project came in? Can't seem to find a figure anywhere.


Thanks