M6 - Athlone to Ballinasloe

Amtmann

This thread's a great record of the development of the infrastructure in question, so it will always belong here imo. We're discussing it now even though it's open for use, but most of the commentary here still reflects on the form of the road rather than commuting issues.
There is a very fuzzy area between the two forums but I'd hope that in future all construction and planning threads will go here, rather than there.

Tech3

Furet wrote: »

This thread's a great record of the development of the infrastructure in question, so it will always belong here imo. We're discussing it now even though it's open for use, but most of the commentary here still reflects on the form of the road rather than commuting issues.
There is a very fuzzy area between the two forums but I'd hope that in future all construction and planning threads will go here, rather than there.

Its good that it got renamed. A mess of a title for too long very confusing for new posters. I agree with all new schemes being created here as it is infrastructure!!

Furet, I reckon some schemes have way too many threads. For instance the M7 has about 5 of them. Of course the one in infrastructure is the only one with photo updates and written progress. Very often people google the M7 but those little threads come up first?

Amtmann

I'm going to create another thread to discuss this!

kaizersoze

Excuse my alzheimers but what was the original thread title?

Tech3

kaizersoze wrote: »

Excuse my alzheimers but what was the original thread title?

The M6 to Ballinasloe. Perhaps the OP forgot the M6 stopped east of Athlone and it still does

Chris_533976

Also noone was sure if that meant M6 Galway to Ballinasloe or Athlone to Ballinasloe

veryangryman

Im the OP. I called it this because the previous thread was called M6 to Athlone...

Amtmann

veryangryman wrote: »

Im the OP. I called it this because the previous thread was called M6 to Athlone...

Not to worry veryangryman. Glad you started it in this forum anyway!

KevR

KevR wrote: »

They were doing some work there this morning. Hopefully they will get it done quickly and then the lane drop can be removed.

Work with the barrier finished yesterday evening, cones removed and both lanes open in each direction.
It was great not having to slow down and leave a gigantic gap for people merging on Eastbound at J13 this morning. I just pulled out into the overtaking lane, maintained my speed and the cars entering the motorway could get on easily and safely.

Still a small bit of tidying up to do at the Westbound exit but hopefully they should be able to do that without any lane closures or disruption.

veryangryman

Yes i was merging with glee (and a sigh of relief) this morning.

Yesterday was a close shave with a build up of traffic when merging. Very dangerous. Thankfully there has not been any major accidents in the interim process.

Overall a badly planned section. But thankfully its done now and we can look forward to the tie in with G-B

motorised

Does anyone know what the old N6 has be redesignated as. I imagine it is now classed as a regional road with an 80Kph speed limit

motorised

motorised wrote: »

Does anyone know what the old N6 has be redesignated as. I imagine it is now classed as a regional road with an 80Kph speed limit

As a guess, when the New road becomes officialy the M6 (tomorrow)

kaizersoze

veryangryman wrote: »

now and we can look forward to the tie in with G-B

That's already done.

KevR

motorised wrote: »

Does anyone know what the old N6 has be redesignated as. I imagine it is now classed as a regional road with an 80Kph speed limit

It will become the R446 with an 80kmh speed limit tomorrow.

KevR

KevR wrote: »

It will become the R446 with an 80kmh speed limit tomorrow.

Cue cops with hair driers hiding behind the hedge!

newtoboards

Looking for an updated road map for athlone with the new M6 in it and so far I've lucked out. Does anyone have one available (other than the one supplied by the NRA to show the road upgrades). Also perhaps a little off topic but is the planning permission by the old tuam road/river village intersection for a roundabout and if so when's that due to commence?

newtoboards

newtoboards wrote: »

Looking for an updated road map for athlone with the new M6 in it and so far I've lucked out. Does anyone have one available (other than the one supplied by the NRA to show the road upgrades). Also perhaps a little off topic but is the planning permission by the old tuam road/river village intersection for a roundabout and if so when's that due to commence?

Try openstreetmap.org

Amtmann

newtoboards wrote: »

Looking for an updated road map for athlone with the new M6 in it and so far I've lucked out. Does anyone have one available (other than the one supplied by the NRA to show the road upgrades). Also perhaps a little off topic but is the planning permission by the old tuam road/river village intersection for a roundabout and if so when's that due to commence?

The best available (so far as I know) is this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Comprehensive-Road-Atlas-Ireland/dp/0007312814/ref=br_lf_m_1000282643_1_5_clkmr?ie=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&s=books&pf_rd_p=466689133&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_i=1000282643&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=0G0Y6CWF0CNZZFVYRVBP

The imagery is as follows:

billbond4

The cops are already out with their hairdryers in the 50kph zone outside elan

Are they going to build a roundabout outside river village? when River Village was being built Roscommon Co. Co didnt want one

newtoboards

thanks all!!! can't believe that it's taking ages for maps to update.

antoobrien

newtoboards wrote: »

thanks all!!! can't believe that it's taking ages for maps to update.

In fairness the road is open about a month. With printing, publishing and distribution costs it unlikely that they can justify a mapbook/atlas update more than once overy year.

Rhetorical question - Does anyone seriously think that a decision to update maps is going to be made for one road in the west of Ireland? Of course they're not, they have a schedule and they'lll stick to it.

mackerski

antoobrien wrote: »

In fairness the road is open about a month. With printing, publishing and distribution costs it unlikely that they can justify a mapbook/atlas update more than once overy year.

Rhetorical question - Does anyone seriously think that a decision to update maps is going to be made for one road in the west of Ireland? Of course they're not, they have a schedule and they'lll stick to it.

I can only speak for myself and the map I help to build. OpenStreetMap has had the Athlone-Ballinasloe section of M6 on it since the day after the road opened. Certainly, there is plenty of detailed coverage missing, but this is only a matter of time and of people on the ground getting up off their arses and contributing a small amount of their time to get their community on the map.

Look at Germany for an example of what can be achieved, and get out mapping!

Berti Vogts

KevR wrote: »

It will become the R446 with an 80kmh speed limit tomorrow.

I'm sure this has been mentioned by others but this is the type of idiotic speed limit change which encourages Irish people to disrespect speed limits in general.

If the road was safe at 100km with significantly more traffic, then why the need to reduce to 80km now? Absolutely ridiculous. Then you turn down some small boreen and see the same 80km limit and there isn't space for two cars to pass each other!:rolleyes:

kaizersoze

Possibilities wrote: »

I'm sure this has been mentioned by others but this is the type of idiotic speed limit change which encourages Irish people to disrespect speed limits in general.

If the road was safe at 100km with significantly more traffic, then why the need to reduce to 80km now? Absolutely ridiculous. Then you turn down some small boreen and see the same 80km limit and there isn't space for two cars to pass each other!:rolleyes:

Very true but afaik it's an automatic thing done by the NRA when the road is redesignated an R road to 'encourage' motorists to use the new motorway.

Of course once it becomes an R road it falls into the control of the the local authority who can put it back to 100 if they want.

newtoboards

antoobrien wrote: »

In fairness the road is open about a month. With printing, publishing and distribution costs it unlikely that they can justify a mapbook/atlas update more than once overy year.

Rhetorical question - Does anyone seriously think that a decision to update maps is going to be made for one road in the west of Ireland? Of course they're not, they have a schedule and they'lll stick to it.

So you would hold google maps, garmin and other satnav operators to same yard stick - update once a year and shur that's grand. I need an update and the NRA proposed route maps is all I have but they just show the road piece by piece and I need all of it together rather than little pieces of the road. It's not a little road by any stretch of the imagination but a high speed dual carriageway that has been in planning a long time. I wouldn't have asked the question if I didn't need the map and you're response about it being open just a month isn't really fair considering the years of planning/building that has gone into this.

edit to say that the openstreetmap is great but just not detailed enough and I don't have enough local road expertise yet to contribute.

Chris_533976

My GPS has all the new motorways on it, simply because I use OSM. Its coverage is light years ahead of the commercial mappers when it comes to main roads (usually because theres a race and a fight to map the new section first).

Small roads and towns still arent that good on OSM, only because they have no ariel photography of large parts of the country to map off. And you can see what parts they have very easily).

So my GPS has paid mapping for small roads, but the free OSM mapping is my main map. I dont have a routable version of the main map, but I dont need it anyway.

mackerski

newtoboards wrote: »

edit to say that the openstreetmap is great but just not detailed enough and I don't have enough local road expertise yet to contribute.

Do you drive? Do you know how to operate an on-button? Then carry a GPS logger and upload your traces to OSM for mapping by others. Every little helps, and the coverage will become complete. If you don't believe me then look at County Wexford, which is largely the work of one mapper.

mackerski

Chris_533976 wrote: »

So my GPS has paid mapping for small roads, but the free OSM mapping is my main map. I dont have a routable version of the main map, but I dont need it anyway.

Chris, there's no obstacle to having a routable OSM map on your Garmin device. There are a number of paths to obtaining this, including compiling your own, but many users will find this site a very handy way of getting what they need.

Chris_533976

Thanks, didnt know about that link I usually use this

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Computerteddy

but yours is much easier. Thanks!

antoobrien

newtoboards wrote: »

So you would hold google maps, garmin and other satnav operators to same yard stick - update once a year and shur that's grand.

Don't be absurd. All I said was that the mapmakers have their schedules - I never said they were adequate.

However if I look at this logically Europe is a very big place and the companies you're talking about have a very large area to keep up to date. This road was a big deal to the people of the west, but get real - it's of very little concern to the rest of the country. The operators etc will update their maps when they are ready to and the Irish market isn't big enough to worry them so it may take a while.

As for the comment about the road being open for about a month, what if the companies (very few of which are based in Ireland) were not made aware of the fact that the opening of the road was done early. The road was opened several months early and the opening was announced at short notice. Now you're the one being unfair, these companies spend a lot of money trying to keep things up to date. For whatever reason they haven't gotten to this road yet (probably because they have it on a list of roads that hasn't been completed yet).

I don't know about Garmin etc, but all google seem to be interested in lately is expanding their streetview coverage of Dublin.