M7 - Nenagh to Limerick

The Word Is Bor

Barriers need to be completed along with signs/lines/studs on the westbound carriageway. The railway underbridge is still being worked on at the moment. They appear to have removed the facing stone from the old wall, which is still standing. The western section of the bypass still need to be resurfaced but it might depend on how they intend to use the junction on a temporary basis until the entire scheme opens up. The Thurles junction looks to be sustantially complete bar signs and lines but as usual the last 5% of any scheme is the hardest to complete.

The eastern Nenagh interchange is being constructed as part of the Castletown-Nenagh scheme. The actual tie in point is about 500m or so west of the Nenagh Arch Bridge.

Wild Bill

csd wrote: »

Does anyone know how the tie-in at the eastern end (Castletown to Nenagh scheme) is supposed to work?
/csd

Was there last week and wondered the very same thing. No sign of any work east of the GSJ or along the western end of Castletown-Nenagh. Anyone seen a drawing of the proposed junction?

mysterious

csd wrote: »

Here are some pics of progress on the Nenagh bypass section, taken yesterday. Full-size versions are in the SABRE gallery.

8. Heading back eastbound, a close-up of the hard shoulder under the bridge from 6 above.



/csd

This bridge can fit a HS through it, why did they went through the hassle of making it narrow here? This is ****ing retarded.


Now we learn the NRA can't use rulers and measurements.

Amtmann

mysterious wrote: »

This is ****ing retarded. Now we learn the NRA can't use rulers and measurements.

mysterious, I'm probably wasting my time here, but could you please try to cut down on the blustering bad language and insults?

Zoney

mysterious, this is just a guess, but maybe, just maybe, that barrier that takes up space and prevents a full width hard shoulder is needed to protect the bridge supports. You know, so that if someone crashes off the hard shoulder they don't bring the whole bridge down?!

I don't understand this fixation with the hard shoulder under just one tight bridge. Would you really prefer we spent money replacing the whole bridge?

AlanD

I don't see why it matters either. If the road is to be motorway then noone can use the hard shoulder anyway. It may not be technically correct according to defined standards, but in the bigger scheme of things I can't see why it really matters.

Money spent replacing the bridge would have been madness. Giving out about what was designed years ago, doesn't change anything. It is how it is.

Wild Bill

Throughout the UK, Germany and probably the entire known universe motorways which have been widened lose their hard shoulders under bridges. Why is this a problem?

nordydan

Wild Bill wrote: »

Throughout the UK, Germany and probably the entire known universe motorways which have been widened lose their hard shoulders under bridges. Why is this a problem?

Indeed, there is no requirement for HS under a short stretch of bridge IMO. We're not talking about the Mont Blanc tunnel here, only 40-50m max.

Tech3

Lining has been started on the eastbound carriageway below the R504 overbridge





Either blacktop or the final wearing course is being applied here at the tie in with the M7 SRR

Shama1

Hey guys, Anyone got an update on when the Nenagh to Limerick section will open to traffic? I thought it was to open Oct/Nov .. so soon maybe ?

ki

In the Nenagh Guardian



The National Roads Authority has confirmed that it is about to open the first section of the Nenagh-Limerick stretch of the new M7 motorway.
In a significant development for the project the NRA is upgrading the existing N7 Nenagh bypass to motorway standard.

Read More

http://www.nenaghguardian.ie/news-detail.php?article=QJD4KK

clon

mid december is what the word is on this

Amtmann

mysterious, any chance you could post a few pictures of surfacing prgress in this thread?

mysterious

Zoney wrote: »

mysterious, this is just a guess, but maybe, just maybe, that barrier that takes up space and prevents a full width hard shoulder is needed to protect the bridge supports. You know, so that if someone crashes off the hard shoulder they don't bring the whole bridge down?!

I don't understand this fixation with the hard shoulder under just one tight bridge. Would you really prefer we spent money replacing the whole bridge?

My annoyance was purely the fact that this bridge is wide. It's the widest bridge on the bypass. Its the reason why I can't understand why they didn't just continue the HS rather than just stopping it. This is the bridge on the top of the hill as your coming from Limerick.

Though onto the recent topic. I can't wait for the Nenagh bypass to open up. The Thurles interchange shall allow more people from Mid Tipp to access the N7 without having to pass through the town. The Thurles - Nenagh road is a busy R road. So this is very welcomed.

Furet wrote: »

mysterious, any chance you could post a few pictures of surfacing prgress in this thread?

I'm really sorry I haven't been doing so Furet. My camera is not working atm. But I do have at least 20 pics on my camera phone but I can't send it. I will pm you.

ilovegermany

clon wrote: »

mid december is what the word is on this

Is that mid december for all of Limerick to Nenagh or just the Nenagh Bypass bit?

blackwarrior

My biggest concern re the Limerick/Nenagh section is still the short piece close to Herbert's pub in Ahane.

Last time I looked, they were re-doing foundations from scratch. Looks like a big problem to my non technical eyes.

ki wrote: »

In the Nenagh Guardian



The National Roads Authority has confirmed that it is about to open the first section of the Nenagh-Limerick stretch of the new M7 motorway.
In a significant development for the project the NRA is upgrading the existing N7 Nenagh bypass to motorway standard.

Read More

http://www.nenaghguardian.ie/news-detail.php?article=QJD4KK

I drive this road every day and BOY do I want it to open!

But I believe a partial opening of a 120km/hr stretch ending in a 60km/hr gate at either end would be really dangerous and not safe.

I'm prepared to wait a couple of months more to see a safe, complete Limerick-Nenagh motorway open.

clon

for the whole scheme to open Limerick to nenagh by mid dec. 2009

Wild Bill

tech2 wrote: »

Lining has been started on the eastbound carriageway below the R504 overbridge

Nice rockwork - Looks likes the seating arrangements at Deathrace 2000!

Sponge Bob

That bog at the Limerick end looks heaved and buckled in the Tech2s photos a few pages back ...like the piles were not down to bedrock :eek: .



Can anyone get near it this weekend ??

Tech3

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Next time take a little detour That looks wide open for a bit of a photo-drive.

I will, I might go straight on over the rossbrien interchange and take a few snaps of the new road next time

Wild Bill wrote: »

Nice rockwork - Looks likes the seating arrangements at Deathrace 2000!

Yeah it looks like that, I must say it's impressive but could have been cut a bit better not quite as good as the one on the M8.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

That bog at the Limerick end looks heaved and buckled in the Tech2s photos a few pages back ...like the piles were not down to bedrock :eek: .

Can anyone get near it this weekend ??

I cant this weekend but it would be good to keep tabs on this part, after all the rest of the scheme will be wrapped up very soon. Maybe Berty might have a look at it?

Tragedy

When is the Nenagh to Limerick section actually opening? Preparing to open isn't much use as dates go

knipex

Tragedy wrote: »

When is the Nenagh to Limerick section actually opening? Preparing to open isn't much use as dates go

clon wrote: »

for the whole scheme to open Limerick to nenagh by mid dec. 2009

Tragedy

Oops, meant the dual carriageway bit that's quoted in the papers as opening momentarily.

spacetweek

Drove to Ennis via Limerick last weekend. My first time down that way. Some notes.

- 1 hour from Red Cow to west of Portlaoise. Fantastic.
- Rest of mway badly needed. Hit a traffic jam at Mountrath and sat in traffic for ~10 mins.
- Rest of route freeflowing but not too fast. Didn't get stuck behind trucks.
- Current N7 varies from WS with some perfectly straight sections to quite narrow.
- Nenagh Bypass looking good. Nearly finished. Even signage was getting ready with gantries installed.
- Section from Nenagh-Limerick badly needed. I thought I'd never arrive. Total journey time west Portlaoise-Limerick SRR : 1h 30.
- Second phase of Limerick ring road badly needed. Diversions sent me down the M20, and when you come back, you have to go right into the city centre to get across the bridge. I'd estimate the completion of the ring will knock around 15 mins off a trans-Limerick journey. Much of this is due to temporary diversions.
- First time I'd ever seen Limerick. It was night and the view from the Shannon bridge of the Clarion was awesome. Well done.
- Tie-in of Ring proceeding slow enough on the N18.

In total I'd say when the roads are all complete, you're looking at around a 45 min saving on a Dublin-Shannon trip. Spectacular. I can't wait to drive it again this time next year.

zilog_jones

Until the Shannon tunnel is finished, if you're trying to get to the northside of Limerick (or Clare, etc.) you're probably better off following the old N7 by taking the R445 on the new roundabout towards Annacotty and Castletroy. The current ring road is too much of a diversion IMO.

mysterious

spacetweek wrote: »

Drove to Ennis via Limerick last weekend. My first time down that way. Some notes.

- 1 hour from Red Cow to west of Portlaoise. Fantastic.
- Rest of mway badly needed. Hit a traffic jam at Mountrath and sat in traffic for ~10 mins.
- Rest of route freeflowing but not too fast. Didn't get stuck behind trucks.
- Current N7 varies from WS with some perfectly straight sections to quite narrow.
- Nenagh Bypass looking good. Nearly finished. Even signage was getting ready with gantries installed.
- Section from Nenagh-Limerick badly needed. I thought I'd never arrive. Total journey time west Portlaoise-Limerick SRR : 1h 30.
- Second phase of Limerick ring road badly needed. Diversions sent me down the M20, and when you come back, you have to go right into the city centre to get across the bridge. I'd estimate the completion of the ring will knock around 15 mins off a trans-Limerick journey. Much of this is due to temporary diversions.
- First time I'd ever seen Limerick. It was night and the view from the Shannon bridge of the Clarion was awesome. Well done.
- Tie-in of Ring proceeding slow enough on the N18.

In total I'd say when the roads are all complete, you're looking at around a 45 min saving on a Dublin-Shannon trip. Spectacular. I can't wait to drive it again this time next year.

When I get a car I will be driving the Dublin Ennis road. This road is will be a mixture of old and new motorways with bits of dual carriegway. The scenery will be breathtaking on both the Castletown and L-N schemes. I am looking forward to drive the road from Moneygall to Borris in Ossary it does divert a fair bit away from the old road. The Old N7 is pretty scenic anyway as it is.


Your first time in Limerick?:eek: Limerick city is absaloutley buzzing especially along the riverside now. I haven't seen it since they did up the riverside walks along the quays. It should be all lit up if your going over the Shannon bridge. It's meant to be pretty stunning. The city council are on Phase 3 of the works. So it's pretty exstensive. I don't live in Limerick but one should be very proud to be one living there. The river is it's best assets. Considering the Shannon is Ireland's wideest and longest river. It seems to be well noted as it passes through Limerick. I would love to see a few more interesting high rises along the Dock area.:D It's looking well as you come in from the N69 I have to admit.

The Nenagh bypass with the once forgotten "Thurles interchange" will help the town greatly with removing at least a 1000 vehicles from the centre of the town.

There is plans to build a northern ring road of Limerick. Phase 1 is meant to be starting soon. Which will link up Coonagh to Corbally. If this goes ahead, this will surely ease traffic on the old R445 through the northside. It will be a tough bet to see if existing commuters will opt for the M7 or take the old road through the city.

A toll more than 2.00 euro is pushing it. If it goes over the toll won't work. I can't see people using it especially if your doing the Ennis to Dublin journey.

Tech3

spacetweek wrote: »

Drove to Ennis via Limerick last weekend. My first time down that way. Some notes.

- 1 hour from Red Cow to west of Portlaoise. Fantastic.

Great piece of motorway my favorite in the country. Landscape is top notch.

- Rest of mway badly needed. Hit a traffic jam at Mountrath and sat in traffic for ~10 mins.
- Rest of route freeflowing but not too fast. Didn't get stuck behind trucks.
- Current N7 varies from WS with some perfectly straight sections to quite narrow.

I agree Mountrath can be a very bad bottleneck but the rest of the N7 is generally good flowing for traffic probably the best of the inter urbans before the motorway construction. Roscrea to Nenagh is a little bad surface wise though.

- Nenagh Bypass looking good. Nearly finished. Even signage was getting ready with gantries installed.
- Section from Nenagh-Limerick badly needed. I thought I'd never arrive. Total journey time west Portlaoise-Limerick SRR : 1h 30.

Yeah it's great to see the Nenagh bypass nearly open and ready for business, about time too! IMO I would have preferred the N-C scheme to be completed before N-L. I think current N-L is generally good some sections of slow lanes and the surface is good. Although N-C has better overtaking opportunities but the surface lets it down.

- Second phase of Limerick ring road badly needed. Diversions sent me down the M20, and when you come back, you have to go right into the city centre to get across the bridge. I'd estimate the completion of the ring will knock around 15 mins off a trans-Limerick journey. Much of this is due to temporary diversions.

Yeah the rossbrien interchange is being upgraded so you would have had to take either J2 or J3 on the M20. Taking J2 is okay for people that know the city but it can be a bit confusing for people that are not familiar with the route. 15 mins is about right even more at peak times maybe 20 to 30 mins.

- First time I'd ever seen Limerick. It was night and the view from the Shannon bridge of the Clarion was awesome. Well done.
- Tie-in of Ring proceeding slow enough on the N18.

A lot of development has been put into the city over the last 10 years. The N18 bridge that takes you over the shannon is all lit up and some nice landmarks near the docks. The city centre itself has major parts of it redeveloped and there is plans for more to be done along O' Connell street.

In total I'd say when the roads are all complete, you're looking at around a 45 min saving on a Dublin-Shannon trip. Spectacular. I can't wait to drive it again this time next year.

I'd say every scheme on the route will be done except Nenagh to Castletown, that might slip into 2011 but the official date is now Dec 2010.

Tech3

Latest updates on M7 Nenagh - Limerick

These two at Dromin north of the crossover of the current N7

Looking East


Looking west


Overbridge south of the Nenagh bypass


Still central white line only below the R504 overbridge. The wearing course looks to be stretching on the eastbound carriageway from daly's cross to the south of the Nenagh bypass.

I didn't get to look at the boggy section.

clon

Article in the Nenagh Guardian today about the problems with constructing the neneagh to Limerick M7 over the bog section on the Tipp/Limerick border.Talks of opening from Nenagh to Birdhill only first if they cannot solve bog section in time for December 09

http://www.nenaghguardian.ie/news-detail.php?article=HPYY3L

Amtmann

Wow, thanks Clon, great article.

Sounds like the mother of all bogs, eh?

Difficulties being experienced on the construction of a section of the M7 between Birdhill and Limerick are now being described as "serious".
Entries in the files at the headquarters of the National Roads Authority (NRA), on the progress of the Limerick-Nenagh M7, which have been compiled by senior engineering staff are describing the problem which has been encountered at Drominboy (Lisnagry) as "serious" raising concerns within the authority on the completion date of the road and its future stability.
Consideration is now being given by the NRA to a contingency plan to divert traffic between Nenagh and Limerick on to section of the old N7 between Birdhill and Annacotty, if a resolution to the difficulties cannot be completed in time for the planned opening of the remainder of the new M7 within the next two months.
Presently most of the remainder of the road - except for this section of bog - has reached the final stages of completion with road lining now in progress as final preparations are made for the opening of the road, ten years after it was first proposed.
While most of the road construction programmes in recent years have been completed several months ahead of schedule, the Limerick-Nenagh road is already running several months behind schedule. The original opening schedule had been set for the final week in May 2009.
Originally it had been anticipated that in common with the general pattern, the road would have been completed and opened ahead of schedule. While there appeared to have been delays at various points and stages in the process, the biggest challenge has been constructing the road through some miles of bogland through three bogs between Birdhill and Lisnagry.
With considerable difficulty the road has now been constructed through most of this terrain after tens of thousands of heavily steel reinforced concrete piles were driven to depths of more than 100 feet in an effort to establish a stable foundation for the road.
The section remaining to be completed is about 1,000 metres in length through a very wet section of bog always known to be "bottomless" and where the warnings were handed down through the generations that it was a "no go area" for man or machinery. Labelled by local residents recalling the familiar song "The Old Bog Road" as "the making of the new bog road" the section in question is through one of the most feared bog terrains in the county close to the Limerick-Tipperary border.
Many stories are told of machinery which ventured on to the bog in the past and were sunk forever.
One story is related of a man who was operating a heavy earth mover close to the bog and when he was finished in the evening a local man advised him not to leave the machine there overnight warning him "it won't be there in the morning".
Ignoring the advice the operator left for home convinced it was nothing more than a tall story, but could not believe his eyes when he returned in the morning to find that the machine had disappeared without trace. The locals maintained that it was not a case of the machine being stolen, but it had been sucked into the wet bog overnight, and was only one of a number of such incidences over the years.
Engineering experts planning and working on the construction of the new road were the latest to ignore the advice of the local farmers and residents in the vicinity of the bog when they warned them about taking the route of the road through the bog which they regarded as very high risk, because of the information which had been handed down through the generations on the lethal nature of the section of bogland believed locally to be "bottomless" and highly dangerous.
It was with a sense of disbelief that they heard the engineers claiming that the challenge ahead for the construction of the "bog road" would present no difficulty after the preferred route for the new M7 between Annacotty and Nenagh through a long stretch of bog was announced. At a cost estimated at several million euro beyond budget, the decision to run the road through the bog, is now being regarded as a major mistake, which has added huge additional cost to the construction.
However, according to the NRA the contract awarded to the construction company, Bothar Hibernian was for "the design and build" of the road, and the NRA will not accept responsibility for the additional costs involved.
A spokesperson for the NRA said "the bog was there when the contractor tendered for the work and nothing has changed to justify additional payments" because it was an already known aspect of the work and it was up to the contractor to take into account when submitting a tender.
The heavy concrete piles support the road through long sections of the bog. However trying to stabilise the piles became a challenge in the worst area because of the wet nature of the terrain and the engineers are insisting on a stable foundation before signing off on the work.
Several thousand cubic metres of maximum strength concrete has now been used to secure the foundation.
A steel reinforced mass concrete 'cap" about 20 sq feet in area and nearly two feet high have been placed on each of the piles. Reinforced concrete has also been used to "tie” the “caps" together establishing a floor or concrete, more than two feet thick over some sections of the bog as the work now continues to resolved the difficulty and complete the road.
With sections of the road ready for opening, and the remainder, with the exception of the stretch of bog, at the final stages of completion, there is a lot of concentration being focused now on the bog, which has become a hive of activity in recent weeks in a final attempt to make the new completion target date of this December.
The NRA is increasingly concerned for the stability of the foundation for this section of the road, to sustain the traffic load over the coming years, and are therefore paying special attention to the progress of the work. They are now putting in place a contingency plan in the event of the work not being completed for the December target date. This will feature the opening of the road between Nenagh and Birdhill, diverting the traffic at the Birdhill intersection back on to the old N7 at the Killaloe roundabout, before rejoining the M7 at Annacotty.
The making of the "new bog road" has all of the ingredients for another version of the popular old song.