M7/M8 Portlaoise-Castletown-Cullahill Motorway (incl. Abbeyleix Bypass)

Amtmann

Just the lens of course. 120 limit will seem slow to many.

roosterman71

That bend is pretty severe in the flesh I have to say. Its not a trick of lens at all

munchkin_utd

even with a bend and speed restrictions of <120kmh, its still a step up from the perverted roundabout fetish that infects road designers in Ireland when connecting Motorways.

and seeing as we are talking about tricks of the lens or not.
That slip lane looks narrow enough, with enough place for 2 traffic lanes, but without a hard shoulder on top of that.

What is the plan for the slip roads then if the slip roads are that narrow?
Is it 1 driving lane + full hardshoulder or 2 driving lanes and small/ no hard shoulder?

roosterman71

I thought that too when looking down on it, but once your at ground level then it seems much wider. Its no where near as wide as the M7 lane next to it mind

roosterman71

I'll put up some pictures later today

emfifty

munchkin_utd wrote: »

even with a bend and speed restrictions of <120kmh, its still a step up from the perverted roundabout fetish that infects road designers in Ireland when connecting Motorways.

and seeing as we are talking about tricks of the lens or not.
That slip lane looks narrow enough, with enough place for 2 traffic lanes, but without a hard shoulder on top of that.

What is the plan for the slip roads then if the slip roads are that narrow?
Is it 1 driving lane + full hardshoulder or 2 driving lanes and small/ no hard shoulder?

usually slip roads of this nature have 2 lanes and a narrow hs. the m7/m9 slip has 2 lanes and from memory the m4/m6 slip also has 2 lanes.

roosterman71

Here's a continuation of the picture crusade of the M7

I left off at the R434 overbridge, so this first set are at the M7/M8 interchange and are taken from on top of the M7 road. In the distance you can see the overbridge from where Rovi took his snaps

11. View of the M7 from just before the tunnel for the M8
(img020.jpg)

View of the entrance of the M8 northbound carriageway from the M7. In img022.jpg we can see the turn the M8 southbound carriageway makes. Its not as bad as is made out in Rovi's pictures
(img021.jpg, img022.jpg)

View of the exit of the M8 northbound carriageway from the M7
(img023.jpg, img024.jpg).

roosterman71

12. Overbridge spanning 4 lanes. The split/merge of the M7 occurs just meters the far side of this bridge
(img25.jpg, img26.jpg)

An extra bonus picture of some vital statistics of a single bridge girder. This particular bridge has 10 of these girders and each weighs 22.2 tonnes!!
(img27.jpg)

roosterman71

A few pictures of the newly constructed tunnel which lets the M8 northbound carriageway cross under the M7. All these are taken by looking towards Dublin
(img028.jpg, img029.jpg, img030.jpg)

View of the tunnel entrance from the M8 southbound carriageway
(img031.jpg)

View of the tunnel exit
(img032.jpg)

roosterman71

M8 southbound pictures. A little closer to the turn that may/may not be too sharp!! Also notice how narrow the road looks

View looking towards Cork
(img033.jpg)

View looking towards Dublin
(img034.jpg)

And finally, view of the merge/split at this bridge. you can see the M8 southbound beginning just before the bridge and it wanders off to the left of the bridge support. While the M8 northbound ends on the right after the right hand bridge support
(img035.jpg)

emfifty

roosterman71 wrote: »

M8 southbound pictures. A little closer to the turn that may/may not be too sharp!! Also notice how narrow the road looks

View looking towards Cork
(img033.jpg)

View looking towards Dublin
(img034.jpg)

And finally, view of the merge/split at this bridge. you can see the M8 southbound beginning just before the bridge and it wanders off to the left of the bridge support. While the M8 northbound ends on the right after the right hand bridge support
(img035.jpg)

great pics roosterman. up close and personal, that bend looks ok. i think from rovi's angle it was hard to see the slight dip toward the end of the slip. there seems to be plenty of space for 2 lanes and a hard shoulder so all in all it looks good. a complete job looks possible within 6 months.:)

ipodrocker

are we looking at a summer opening for this section?

Danno

May BH Weekend

Roryhy

Public Notice - Draft Toll Bye-Laws for the M7 Portlaoise to Castletown/M8 Portlaoise to Cullahill Motorway

http://www.nra.ie/PublicPrivatePartnership/TollingDocumentation/file,17005,en.pdf

dont think i have ever read one of these before-

12.2- A person shall not operate or attempt to operate a Toll Collecting Machine by the insertion of objects other than current coins of the State of the appropriate denomination or otherwise interfere with Toll Collecting Machine with the intention of dishonestly obtaining a pecuniary advantage. Any such action shall be an Offence.

AMOUNT OF TOLLS
14.1 The tolls set out in the First Schedule hereto are the Base Tolls calculated as of August 2004 at which date the Consumer Price Index as published by the Central Statistics Office was equal to 129.2 on a November 1996 base of 100 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Opening Index’).

14.2 The Maximum Tolls for each Toll Year shall be the aggregate of:
(a) the Base Tolls multiplied by the Consumer Price Index for August in the
previous year, on a November 1996 base year of 100, divided by the
Opening Index, and
(b) VAT at the prevailing rate on the amount derived pursuant to
subparagraph (a) and the resulting amount shall be rounded to the nearest 10 cent.

14.3 The Appropriate Tolls are the tolls chargeable by the Toll Company as agreed with the NRA (inclusive of indexation, VAT and rounding) provided that such Appropriate Tolls shall not exceed the Maximum Tolls.

14.5 In the event of the current Consumer Price Index (or the General Wholesale Price Index, if the former is not published) in use remaining static or showing a decrease on the previous year’s figures in any year, the Appropriate Tolls shall be fixed by the Toll Company but shall not exceed the Maximum Tolls fixed in the previous year.

16. Where a user of the Toll Road pre-pays for twenty journeys or multiples of twenty journeys for the Toll Road a discount of not less than 10% of the Appropriate Toll shall apply to each pre-paid journey.

I think 14.5 & 16 are particularly interesting, tolls will never be revised down due to deflation! The discount for 20 pre-paid journeys isn't something i've heard of or seen advertised before, i'm sure it will be of interest to some!

Document was released undated and unsigned for some reason?

Base toll for car based on 2004 figures is €1.33+vat, it will probably come in at around €1.80-€2 on opening i'd suspect.

munchkin_utd

the increase only clause is aparantly in the other toll contracts. It was brought up here before.

The discount for multiple journeys is also in the bye laws for the N3 road.
(Obviously it'd be cheaper still to avoid the road altogether!!)

For me the interesting thing to know is how they propose to implement the "pre pay" mechanism , especially with the multitude of existing tags?

The easiest way would have been to allow the 19th and 20th journey made by a tag holder for free, BUT the bye law is specifically stating that the discount is for prepay purchase.

You'd need a special "purse" in a tag to hold entry credits for a specific route/ toll bought in advance rather than currently just a sum of cash that can be used anywhere.

Stark

Danno wrote: »

May BH Weekend

Source?

The Word Is Bor

Stark wrote: »

Source?

From what I am hearing it will be in/or around June for the full M7/M8 opening.

Danno

Stark wrote: »

Source?

Verbally communicated from an engineer in the area.

North Cork

http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/traffic/story.asp?id=108536

Laois - The M7/M8 Portlaoise Motorway Scheme is due to be completed and opened by 14th Sept 2010

marmurr1916

Great news! It'll mean an end to this:

Laois - Up to 15 min delays both ways on the N8 Dublin/Cork Rd through Abbeyleix
Updated: 12/02/2010 16:47:49
Drive with care.

http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/traffic/story.asp?id=108812

Amtmann

I posted that date MONTHS ago. That's the official target. The opening will take place before then.

big mce

Slighly OT but does anyone know what the story is with the off ramp from the M7/M8 at portlaoise heading from Dublin. There are two ramps but only one is used with the other is coned off. Its been like this a long time but I passeed last week and notice them cleaning the cones. Seems an awful waste an off ramp just coned off for years.

Cheers.

Roryhy

I think this was brought up somewhere only days ago. The answer given was that a farmer has access rights directly off the slip road, they couldnt resolve it so the slip road couldnt be used. It will be irrelevant in a few months anyway because there wont be a whole lot of traffic using that junction once the new road opens.

Chris_5339762

I think also because the slip has to be motorway right up until the very end of the slip where it merges with the N8, so therefore the farmer would have to cross a piece of motorway to get to his gate.

Irish and Proud

Roryhy wrote: »

I think this was brought up somewhere only days ago. The answer given was that a farmer has access rights directly off the slip road, they couldnt resolve it so the slip road couldnt be used. It will be irrelevant in a few months anyway because there wont be a whole lot of traffic using that junction once the new road opens.

...it's a disgrace!!! :mad:

IMO, the slip (for which Irish and EU taxpayers footed) should take precedence over one farmer! M7/M8 or no M7/M8, that slip-road should open before it becomes totally overgrown - saw it a couple of weeks back! :eek:

Carawaystick

Irish and Proud wrote: »

...it's a disgrace!!! :mad:

IMO, the slip (for which Irish and EU taxpayers footed) should take precedence over one farmer! M7/M8 or no M7/M8, that slip-road should open before it becomes totally overgrown - saw it a couple of weeks back! :eek:

How much would you pay the farmer for his land?
What govt expenditure would you cut to buy this land?
or would you increase taxes to do so?
Or do you advocate arbitrarily confiscating land when it suits you?

big mce

Surely before they started they knew this was going to be a problem and then it shouldn't be started before agreement can be reached between the farmer and the council/state. I don't believe in confiscating anyone's land but if a person suddenly believes that he needs to access X field/amenity after its built well he should be told where to go.

Imagine some-one coming along and suddenly deciding to drive across your front lawn because its more convient for accessing land behind your house rather than using a gate down the road?

Roryhy

From looking at satellite imagery of the slip road i dont think there is access directly onto the slip but its directly after it, so the problem may be the danger of traffic slowing from 120kph potentially coming across a tractor crossing the road at a virtual standstill. It would be reckless to allow such a situation develop. It was an oversight at the design stage i'd imagine. I doubt it will ever be used, the extra spend of having to acquire the farm or providing new access surely couldnt be justified for what will now be an R road(i think).

Heres the pic from google maps. I put in the red circle obviously.

Danno

The old N8 will become the N77 after the new M7/M8 opens.

There is a frame up for signage on the M8 (gantry) over the R433 between Rathdowney and Ballacolla.

L1011

Thats some significant extension in length for the N77! Will preserve the 100km/h speed limit for most of the bypassed section without need for Laois CC to do anything, which is nice.