M7 - Nenagh to Limerick

Carawaystick

mysterious wrote: »

No the point remains, still.

Your point that there were motorways was shown to be wrong.
After I told you this, you insisted there are more than one, before trying to bring other areas into the post.
Just admit you were wrong.



Bill, Blanket Bog is bog, just different to raised bog. I remember seeing lads saving turf about 2km west of the gap back in the day.

Wild Bill

Carawaystick wrote: »

Bill, Blanket Bog is bog, just different to raised bog. I remember seeing lads saving turf about 2km west of the gap back in the day.

Ah now! Blanket bog is a different class of bog. It forms on mountains and covers the underlying rock/mineral soil like a blanket. It is usually shallow and can be removed to expose the rock.

Raised bogs, like yer man in Limerick, form in lakes and grow upwards and outwards. The tend to be very deep; have varying depth over short distances and have extremely liquid sections. A heavy machine with high ground pressure will break through the "crust" of a raised bog and sink all the way to the bottom. Which could be 30m down! Them's the bogs you need to use piling on.

A blanket bog such as that the mountain roads in Wicklow were built through was merely scraped away and the road built on the mineral material below.

Trust me here. I know stuff. :cool:

mysterious

Carawaystick wrote: »

Your point that there were motorways was shown to be wrong.
After I told you this, you insisted there are more than one, before trying to bring other areas into the post.
Just admit you were wrong.



Bill, Blanket Bog is bog, just different to raised bog. I remember seeing lads saving turf about 2km west of the gap back in the day.

No I wasn't

Chris_533976

Lets hope when they rip up the Croom bypass to do the M20 they do it faster than the Nenagh bypass.

marmurr1916

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Thanks.

They seem to be making an awful meal of the Nenagh bypass upgrade. Its taking AGES.

It's an online upgrade. Always a lot more painful than offline new-build.

Somebody on this forum (can't remember who) suggested that we'd have been better off doing online upgrades to our major routes rather than building new motorways.

Imagine if the entire N7 was being given the Nenagh Bypass treatment? :eek:

Tech3

The Word Is Bor wrote: »

The beam are in place at Moneygall but it is far from complete. If it were complete then there would be 40/50T dumpers running across it many times a day and there would be no need for the temporary traffic management on the N7.

Indeed a lot more to be done to it:

Elegant Chaos

I'm new to this thread, but I don't think anyone's mentioned this before. The bridge over the railway line at the southern end of the old Nenagh by-pass hasn't been touched yet, and it needs to be widened. I heard from someone working on the project several months ago that there was some dispute with Iarnrod Eireann over this. This would not bode well for a Dec opening. Anyone heard anything about this?

Chris_533976

Heres an interesting way of getting information.

The tender for artwork on the Tunnel and the Nenagh - Limerick schemes has been published.

http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=AUG125584

The interesting bit is the description -

The Roads

N7 Limerick Southern Ring Road incorporating Limerick Tunnel

The Limerick Southern Ring Road Phase II project, which will incorporate a fourth crossing of the River Shannon, involves a tunnel crossing of approximately 900 m in length, linking the townland of Coonagh on the northern bank, with the townland of Bunlicky on the southern bank of the Shannon. The scheme involves the construction of 9.75 km of new dual carriageway, along with associated link roads and side roads, linking the N7 Limerick Southern Ring Road Phase 1 and N20 Cork Road in the area of Rossbrien with the N18 Ennis Road near the Radisson and Two Mile Inn hotels.

The Tunnel is scheduled to open to traffic in Summer 2010.

M7 Limerick to Nenagh

The project comprises 28 km of high quality dual carriageway built to motorway standard, with a single carriageway link to the main road at Birdhill and the upgrading of 10 km of the Nenagh bypass to dual carriageway standard. The new road will link the Limerick Southern Ring Road with the existing Nenagh bypass. There will be interchanges on the route at four locations, namely, Newport Road, Birdhill, Carrigatogher and Thurles Road. The road will be opened as Motorway standard.

The road is expected to open to traffic in December (2009).

(ET Ref:94022)

Limerick Tunnel Summer 2010 (not September 2010 so)
Nenagh - Limerick December 2009

Tech3

December deadline for Limerick-Nenagh motorway

Great news for motorists is that the €174 million Limerick to Nenagh motorway is expected to open in December.

Schedule date for completion of the project was May, but because of delays in the project, the deadline had to be rescheduled.

The works are being undertaken by construction company Bother Hibernian and the project is being monitored by engineers RPS Scetaroute JV.

They revealed that they are now confident that the new road will open will be ready by the December deadline, as the works are nearly finished.

It was also revealed that the road was originally planned to proceed as a high quality dual carriageway, was redesignated as a motorway.

The scheme was understood to be held up because of funding difficulties and the problems over payments owed to subcontractors.

It is also understood that Bothar Hibernian incurred a penalty for not meeting the May deadline.

The contractors also experienced difficulties as construction of part of the road had to run through deep and wet bog land close to Annaholty, and this was a contributory factor to the delay.

Limerick County Council is the lead local authority in the project, and a spokesman pointed out that most of the road surfacing works are complete and there is still some works to be done in the bog land. Crash barriers will then be erected.

The 28 km Limerick-Nenagh motorway will travel over bog land between Lisnagry and Birdhill and it will run close to Birdhill school and Ballinahinch village, with a viaduct crossing the Kilmastulla river and Limerick to Ballybrophy railway line at Killalane, Ballinahinch, before crossing the existing Limerick to Nenagh road at Ballywilliam.

The road will link the Limerick Southern Ring Road with the existing Nenagh bypass. There will be interchanges at Annacotty, Birdhill, Carrigatoher and linking the Nenagh to Thurles road to the motorway.

When the Nenagh to Castetown section opens next year, motorists will be able to drive from Limerick to Naas by motorway.

That puts all the rumors to bed. I put a nice font size to make sure it gets done this year.

Chris_533976

It was also revealed that the road was originally planned to proceed as a high quality dual carriageway, was redesignated as a motorway.

What an absolute revelation and a major reveal for the newspaper

Wild Bill

Chris_533976 wrote: »

What an absolute revelation and a major reveal for the newspaper

Lol! :pac::pac::pac:

And my money still sez this road will not be open till the New Year.

Wild Bill

marmurr1916 wrote: »

It's an online upgrade. Always a lot more painful than offline new-build.

Somebody on this forum (can't remember who) suggested that we'd have been better off doing online upgrades to our major routes rather than building new motorways.

Imagine if the entire N7 was being given the Nenagh Bypass treatment? :eek:

Imagine all the homesteads they'd have to demolish! The Nenagh bypass was a 10-year-old greenfield route with no roadside habitations. :cool:

zilog_jones

Just discovered this thread yesterday and only got to the end today. Thanks for all the info and photos. I just moved to Dublin recently and drive home to Limerick most weekends, so it's been interesting to see what's been going on beyond what I can see from the current N7. I really hope they at least finish Nenagh bypass ASAP, it's a real bollocks of a drive right now (though at least the surface seems better) and the frequent lane reallocations are confusing.

I noticed some new road going off a roundabout I think inbetween Mountrath and Borris in Ossory (or somewhere around there) had the barriers removed on Sunday and had some traffic (well, I saw a car and a van ) - where does this go? The new signs were still mostly covered up.

Won't the R445 be a bit of a mess when this is all finished? Won't there be some gaps? I suppose it's not exactly much of a priority...

Also, is there any development with the proposed service areas? The lack of a Mountrath equivalent stop will be annoying for uncomfortable car drivers like me Surely there will at least have to be some petrol stations along the way?

Amtmann

We have a motorway service areas thread here somewhere, stickied with 'motorway'.

The Mountrath area is a long way away however. The EIS hasn't even been published yet, and Lord knows when it will be. It should have been one of the first to go up in my opinion.

Tech3

zilog_jones wrote: »

Just discovered this thread yesterday and only got to the end today. Thanks for all the info and photos. I just moved to Dublin recently and drive home to Limerick most weekends, so it's been interesting to see what's been going on beyond what I can see from the current N7. I really hope they at least finish Nenagh bypass ASAP, it's a real bollocks of a drive right now (though at least the surface seems better) and the frequent lane reallocations are confusing.

Thanks for having a look at the thread, the current N7 will be entirely replaced by motorway by the end of next year which will include one toll west of portlaoise which is not bad in general to other routes, the M8 will have two. The price will be €1.90 to use it. I'm confident Nenagh-Limerick will be finished by the end of the year.

I noticed some new road going off a roundabout I think inbetween Mountrath and Borris in Ossory (or somewhere around there) had the barriers removed on Sunday and had some traffic (well, I saw a car and a van ) - where does this go? The new signs were still mostly covered up.

Regarding the roundabout, I think your are referring to the one in Borris in Ossory, it is the link road to the motorway under construction which is the M7/M8 PPP. It just opened a few weeks ago, it is also provides access to other regional rds such as the R433.

Won't the R445 be a bit of a mess when this is all finished? Won't there be some gaps? I suppose it's not exactly much of a priority...

Also, is there any development with the proposed service areas? The lack of a Mountrath equivalent stop will be annoying for uncomfortable car drivers like me Surely there will at least have to be some petrol stations along the way?

From what I gather there is plans to roll out some in the next year or two using the PPP mechanism. It is still questionable whether this will go ahead knowing how badly the world banks are doing at the minute. I would expect at least one in the next 4 years at most IMO.

Tech3

Furet wrote: »

The Mountrath area is a long way away however. The EIS hasn't even been published yet, and Lord knows when it will be. It should have been one of the first to go up in my opinion.

It is going to be ridiculous when all our motorways are completed we will have zero MSA's.

Amtmann

It might be an idea to have a look at recent planning applications approved close to M7 GSJs. As with the M8 at Cashel, it's possible that some enterprising group have seized (or are about to seize) an opportunity to develop their own services.
At this stage, you'd have to welcome that as a contribution to road safety seen as how the authorities are clearly being negligent.

Tech3

Furet wrote: »

It might be an idea to have a look at recent planning applications approved close to M7 GSJs. As with the M8 at Cashel, it's possible that some enterprising group have seized (or are about to seize) an opportunity to develop their own services.
At this stage, you'd have to welcome that as a contribution to road safety seen as how the authorities are clearly being negligent.

I agree its ideal to have an MSA located off a junction on the motorway. It costs less and doesn't affect road safety.

It is questionable whether there is a market at this current time for MSA's in Ireland. I read somewhere that investors over in the U.K had no interest whatsoever in testing out these waters in 2005 but with the radical amount of motorways built since then I would be surprised if they did not invest in a least one.

101sean

Hope they sign the MSAs properly, be hard pushed to know there's one at Portlaiose at the N8 junction (is it an official MSA or a private development? sorry going OT a bit!)

roosterman71

zilog_jones wrote: »

I noticed some new road going off a roundabout I think inbetween Mountrath and Borris in Ossory (or somewhere around there) had the barriers removed on Sunday and had some traffic (well, I saw a car and a van ) - where does this go? The new signs were still mostly covered up.

That road your referring to is the first exit off the new M7 after Portlaoise. Its to serve Mounthrath (for people heading towards Dublin), Borris In Ossory and Roscrea (for those heading from Dublin). Its also the last exit before the toll when heading towards Dublin so ya'll take this road back onto the old N7 to avoid the toll bridge.

Its opened about 3 weeks now and is a new link between the N7 with the R435 (Borris - Rathdowney road) and also the Borris - Errill road. Basically, it only currently serves people going from Roscrea-Rathdowney or back.

Its next job will be to link the Portlaoise-Borris part of the M7 to the existing N7 while the Borris-Nenagh section of M7 is being finished. It will get alot more work then.

zilog_jones

101sean wrote: »

Hope they sign the MSAs properly, be hard pushed to know there's one at Portlaiose at the N8 junction (is it an official MSA or a private development? sorry going OT a bit!)

Is that where the Maldron Hotel is? I was never sure if that actually was a service area - it's not easy to see from the M7. What else is there?

Thanks for the other replies

101sean

I think that's where I'm refering to. Got everything a service area needs like parking, food court, toilets etc but no fuel?

dmeehan

Yeah, there's no petrol station here, unless it is nearby. There is just a hotel and a food court at the Midway service area.

Cant think why they dont add a petrol station here, there is plenty of space for it

AlanD

dmeehan wrote: »

Yeah, there's no petrol station here, unless it is nearby. There is just a hotel and a food court at the Midway service area.

Cant think why they dont add a petrol station here, there is plenty of space for it

There's a petrol station just about a half mile down the road on the left.....in torwards Portlaoise.

If you were a petrol station owner, you'd be a smart man to lobby the council/nra to get your petrol station sign posted from the motorway

Idbatterim

I read that the upgrade to the N7 interchange at newlands cross is supposed to cost €100,000,000!!! how in gods name do they come to a figure like this, are they not going to just create an underpass for the main N7?

ilovegermany

Idbatterim wrote: »

I read that the upgrade to the N7 interchange at newlands cross is supposed to cost €100,000,000!!! how in gods name do they come to a figure like this, are they not going to just create an underpass for the main N7?

If that is the correct figure I'll eat my hat.
Newlands Cross Upgrade is now being progressed as a PPP but has been lumped in with some other projects. Check it out here:
http://www.nra.ie/PublicPrivatePartnership/SecondPPPRoadsProgramme/

pinkfloyd34

whats the story now with limerick to nenagh scheme, anyone any recent photos, hasnt been any in a while, is nov/dec still the opening time?

Berty

They have been laying the white/yellow lines/markings on the Northbound section of the widened Nenagh Bypass since Friday.

Thats about all I know.

zilog_jones

At least one gantry sign is now up on the Nenagh bypass.

Tech3

zilog_jones wrote: »

At least one gantry sign is now up on the Nenagh bypass.

Yeah the sign for gantry J25 Northbound is up I think.