M9 - Waterford motorway construction updates

thetonynator

hi5 wrote: »

Mullinavat and Ballyhale will be bypassed.

You will have three main choices.

1.Danesfort-kilkenny ring road-Paulstown.

2.Danesfort-Bennettsbridge-Gowran-Paulstown.

3.Knocktopher-Thomastown-Gowran-Paulstown.

I would take No1 as even with the extra milage and potential delays at the roundabouts it is the best quality road and the most stress free.

Danesfort - bennettsbridge- gowran is not really an option, its all small bad quality raods, would not advise it!!!

Sully

Sully wrote: »

Okay got the call back from KK County Council. The current date is March 22nd and that has been double checked and confirmed. Its the most "up to date" date they have at the moment. He said your looking at Aug/Sept for the section to Carlow being opened.

Update on this.. I spoke with Joe Gannon after the above call. He is the project co-ordinator for this. My understanding from speaking with Joe is, the 22nd is the provisional date as long as the Minister can attend. The 8th was the original date and the Minister was due to open this but they felt the road was not ready to be opened so decided to extend it an additional two weeks. They want to ensure that its completely ready rather then trying to work on it after the road has opened.

Also, the NRA were informed.

linny

heard today on kilkenny radio, that road works from the waterford roundabout too the dublin road roundabout on the city ring road, will continue until friday the 19th march and motorway is due to open on 22nd i wonder is this the real reason for not opening the motorway they dont want the extra traffic on the city ring road until road works are finished:rolleyes:

Chris_5339762

To be honest, good if thats the case. At least they would have been talking to each other which is practically unheard of in this country

drz08

Any update on the Athy link road anybody?

AndrewMc

drz08 wrote: »

Any update on the Athy link road anybody?

AA Roadwatch claim it'll open around May, but don't give a source: http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/traffic/story.asp?id=108743

At the Athy end work is picking up at the roundabout, with some kerbing and footpaths going in, but no road surface yet (although the underlying ground is fairly flat at this stage). I haven't seen the road beyond that lately, though.

jd

Sully wrote: »

Update on this.. I spoke with Joe Gannon after the above call. He is the project co-ordinator for this. My understanding from speaking with Joe is, the 22nd is the provisional date as long as the Minister can attend.

What difference does it make whether or not the minister can attend? If the road is ready, it should open.

thetonynator

jd wrote: »

What difference does it make whether or not the minister can attend? If the road is ready, it should open.

I agree, the whole system where politicians want to be seen getting credit for something that should have been done 30 years ago. The minister can have his official opening ceremony some other time.

Also, if the minister sees this as being so important, surely he can make time to open it on the day it's finished???

flop

hi5 wrote: »

Mullinavat and Ballyhale will be bypassed.

You will have three main choices.

1.Danesfort-kilkenny ring road-Paulstown.

2.Danesfort-Bennettsbridge-Gowran-Paulstown.

3.Knocktopher-Thomastown-Gowran-Paulstown.

I would take No1 as even with the extra milage and potential delays at the roundabouts it is the best quality road and the most stress free.

2. Is not really an option, that Bennettsbridge road is very poor, lots of blind bends.

On my commute to dublin i normally drive option 3. it typically takes 20/25 mins to get to from Knocktopher to Paulstown. I would be interested to see if route 1. would be any quicker once the road is ready.

BTW Aaroadwatch says route 1. is 27.04km (although i'd need to factor in the additional distance from J10 to J9 via the new M9) and 3. is 28.16 km

rameire

they have partially laid one layer of T-mac on the roundabout in Athy for the new N78.
It should move quite quickly at the roundabout now as most prepatory work is done and hard core has been laid.

Sully

Got an interesting phone call about this earlier. It seems that the road is likely to pass its Safety Audit and be handed over, as completed, by Friday. It is believed that workers on the road have stated the issue is not with them and that the safety audit is due to be completed this week. So, if the road is read - then why cant it open? Do we have a minister not ready again?

Think it may be time we started calling on the press, as we did last time, to find out the truth behind all this and get this road opened without any further unnecessary delay.

kieranb07

redtelephone wrote: »

They will shortly be putting another roundabout just outside Paulstown on the N9 Gowran road. This will link the N9 to the N10 roundabout being built on the Kilkenny road, and through to the nearby (Paulstowm/Gowran) Junction 7 exit.

Anybody know when/where exactly this roundabout is being started??
due a few days in lue so prob take them instead of waiting round in traffic for half an hour each way...:o

kieranb07

Sully wrote: »

Got an interesting phone call about this earlier. It seems that the road is likely to pass its Safety Audit and be handed over, as completed, by Friday. It is believed that workers on the road have stated the issue is not with them and that the safety audit is due to be completed this week. So, if the road is read - then why cant it open? Do we have a minister not ready again?

linny wrote: »

heard today on kilkenny radio, that road works from the waterford roundabout too the dublin road roundabout on the city ring road, will continue until friday the 19th march and motorway is due to open on 22nd i wonder is this the real reason for not opening the motorway they dont want the extra traffic on the city ring road until road works are finished:rolleyes:

Do you think this has anything to do with the road being delayed from opening? cos i would think BAM would want to hand it over asap to save on anymore penalties.. (thats if they are being penalised for being nearly over a year late)

Just thought id throw this in for the laugh too, cant wait till i never have to see this bend again, too many bad memories



thanks too alpha2zulu for the image

Silverado

Sully wrote: »

Got an interesting phone call about this earlier. It seems that the road is likely to pass its Safety Audit and be handed over, as completed, by Friday. It is believed that workers on the road have stated the issue is not with them and that the safety audit is due to be completed this week. So, if the road is read - then why cant it open? Do we have a minister not ready again?

Think it may be time we started calling on the press, as we did last time, to find out the truth behind all this and get this road opened without any further unnecessary delay.

Can we cross check this for verification? If it is confirmed then we certainly need to agitate for the road to be opened immediately in the interests of safety. Waiting for "official openings" of these new roads is laughable given the present state of our road surfaces around the country and can be done anytime for the official photo if the Minister (God bless the mark) so desires.

Making the public wait unnecessarily (as was the situation with the northern section) will only result in a political rebound and the present Government has had enough of Own Goals over the past few weeks.

cargo

Sully wrote: »

Got an interesting phone call about this earlier. It seems that the road is likely to pass its Safety Audit and be handed over, as completed, by Friday. It is believed that workers on the road have stated the issue is not with them and that the safety audit is due to be completed this week. So, if the road is read - then why cant it open? Do we have a minister not ready again?

Think it may be time we started calling on the press, as we did last time, to find out the truth behind all this and get this road opened without any further unnecessary delay.

Silverado wrote: »

Can we cross check this for verification? If it is confirmed then we certainly need to agitate for the road to be opened immediately in the interests of safety. Waiting for "official openings" of these new roads is laughable given the present state of our road surfaces around the country and can be done anytime for the official photo if the Minister (God bless the mark) so desires.

Making the public wait unnecessarily (as was the situation with the northern section) will only result in a political rebound and the present Government has had enough of Own Goals over the past few weeks.

Just remember that the above says the safety audit is "due to be completed this week", it still means a report has to be issued and a cert produced to allow the opening. (yeah yeah i know it's only a sheet of paper etc) It would be more likely the end of the folowing week that all paperwork would be in place. That is providing the audit goes ok (looks like it is by the phonecall above) Good news though and hopefully it'll get opened in the next fortnight.

Justin Collery

I completely agree.

- When will the safety audit take place?
- Once the safety audit is completed, what other work is required on this road before it can be opened?
- Why is the road not being opened at the earliest possible time?

As stressed during the previous shenanigans this is a piece of national infrastructure. Ribbons can be cut at any time, roads open when ready!

BTW. I stress "on this road" as I do not accept issues on other roads outside of this one as a valid reason for not opening a motorway. It simply highlights a lack of planning and coordination. These shortfalls should be highlighted so they are seen, and do not happen again, i.e. the motorway should open anyway!

I'm off to email the minister!

cargo

jcollery wrote: »

I completely agree.

- When will the safety audit take place?
- Once the safety audit is completed, what other work is required on this road before it can be opened?
- Why is the road not being opened at the earliest possible time?

As stressed during the previous shenanigans this is a piece of national infrastructure. Ribbons can be cut at any time, roads open when ready!

BTW. I stress "on this road" as I do not accept issues on other roads outside of this one as a valid reason for not opening a motorway. It simply highlights a lack of planning and coordination. These shortfalls should be highlighted so they are seen, and do not happen again, i.e. the motorway should open anyway!

I'm off to email the minister!

Perhaps you might like to wait until the road is ready to open or at least what someone "heard in a phonecall" is substantiated wiith some evidence. Remember the "phonecall" didn't say the road was ready and waiting on a ribbon cutting excersise to open nor did it say that it would be ready by the end of the week and sitting empty ready. Again I stress you are going on something that someone says on a internet forum that they heard in a phonecall.

Justin Collery

Agreed Cargo, that's why we ask the questions.

The Carlow Kilcullen opening was a very bad joke. If there is work to be done, we'll know about it and that's fine. However I would not assume anything. The correct course of action is to poke, question and prod.

yellow012

Folks, heres a few new pic's of the new N78 the Athy-M9 link road.
The M9 end is the most advanced, the pics start at this end.
Thats the N78 - M9 junction

Looking west towards Athy from the same spot, most of the landscaping and signage seems completed, just need roadmarkings?

Further west, the road is open here for traffic



This where the new road replaces the existing road.






Nearer Athy where the old road crosses the new road.


A few pics of the new roundabout in Athy.

mackerski

Great pics - I'd love to add the road number L8017 to OpenStreetMap. Any chance you could look at this map and help me identify which road it is?

Thanks!

yellow012

mackerski wrote: »

Great pics - I'd love to add the road number L8017 to OpenStreetMap. Any chance you could look at this map and help me identify which road it is?

Thanks!

Paintshop skills aren't great:
The L8017 is

Other roads on the map
The L8073 is

The L8028 is

redtelephone

kieranb07 wrote: »

Anybody know when/where exactly this roundabout is being started??
due a few days in lue so prob take them instead of waiting round in traffic for half an hour each way...:o

Don't know when but I'd say it won't be long now since the roundabout on the N10 is just about complete. The N9 roundabout will be just outside the speed limit sign on the Gowran side of Paulstown. There has been some clearance work done already and cones are along the roadside.There are a few alternative routes if you want to avoid hold-ups, eg Gowran - Paulstown via R702 and N10, this would add 5 -10 mins.

mackerski

yellow013 wrote: »

Paintshop skills aren't great:
The L8017 is

Other roads on the map
The L8073 is

[...]

Fantastic - I've added these to the map, great to get them.

Thanks!

mickger844posts

Been away from the thread for a while and was expecting a March 15th opening of the Waterford-Danesfort section, now i see its delayed to the 22nd :mad: If the road is ready they should just open it. The section we travel at the moment to Kilkenny is the worst major road in the country. If its ready open the damn thing :mad:

Justin Collery

Jxxx,

Well done for e-mailing the Minister on this matter. I have raised this matter with the Minister and the NRA and I am awaiting their response. My information is that the road is now complete and could be opened within days if the project was signed-off. I feel the audit will verify this and hopefully the road will be opened in early March.

Kind regards.

SENATOR MAURICE CUMMINS,
Whip in Seanad Eireann & Spokesperson
on Foreign Affairs.

Amtmann

Here are two paragraphs from an email I sent to Minister Dempsey this morning:

I sincerely hope that they [the local authority] are not postponing the opening because they are waiting for a gap to open up in your diary so that you can come down from Dublin to cut a ribbon.

I was involved in the media blitz campaign to get the Carlow-Kilcullen section of motorway open on time last December. And I should let you know that the same people who so successfully mounted that campaign last December will be delighted to do so again should the opening of the next section of M9 be senselessly delayed. I beseech you: when a motorway is ready to open, pick up your phone and tell your subordinates to open it immediately. Do this to save lives and improve people's quality of life. The ribbon can be cut at a later date.

Nuttzz

surely the ribbons should only be cut when the whole thing is ready, not bits an pieces of it?

fricatus

Nuttzz wrote: »

surely the ribbons should only be cut when the whole thing is ready, not bits an pieces of it?

Opening a motorway in phases is not the same as opening "bits and pieces" of it.

If you were to take that argument to its logical conclusion, we'd have an unopened M9 Naas bypass sitting idle since 1994 and an unopened Carlow bypass sitting idle since 2008.

The next section of the M9 works perfectly for Waterford-Kilkenny traffic, and provides a much safer route than at present (via the KK ring road) for Waterford-Dublin traffic.

Indeed the idea of opening not just Waterford-Knocktopher(J12-J10), but adding on the bit as far as Danesfort (J9) makes perfect sense, as there can be less of an accusation of opening it in "bits and pieces", which might have been a fair comment if N9 traffic had had to take the R699 through Knocktopher.

fricatus

Nuttzz wrote: »

surely the ribbons should only be cut when the whole thing is ready, not bits an pieces of it?

Sorry Nuttzz, do you know, I totally misinterpreted your post as being about opening the road, as opposed to cutting the ribbon! :rolleyes:

Yeah, you're bloody right, let them cut the ribbon when the final stretch goes in!

Irish and Proud

Nuttzz wrote: »

surely the ribbons should only be cut when the whole thing is ready, not bits an pieces of it?

DEAD RIGHT THERE MATE!!!

Open the M9 Waterford the Danesford with no minister (it's lent anyway - maybe photo ops are what politicians should be giving up!!!). Let him wait until the whole M9 is complete!

Just open the damn road!!! :mad:

Regards!