M6 - Ballinasloe to Galway

Sponge Bob

dubhthach wrote: »

Of course if they got off their arses and redrew the gaelteacht boundaries to reflect reality most of these naming issues would go away. They haven't changed them in what 50years?

Actually we should anglicise them properly unlike the dastardly Brit managed during his 800 year sojourn .

That would require us to admit that the Galway Bypass was actually stopped by a bit of fluff sticking out of a Badgers Arsehole* no less .

*Bog Cotton in Tonabrocky' Translated To English

Sponge Bob

Sponge Bob wrote: »

It is not formally called Baile , Claregalway is .

Baile Chláir is Belclare FFS

There are a few villages along the river with similar names - the translation into English was to distinguish it from Belclare, Claretuam, Claremorris.

According to logainm.ie Baile Chláir is Claregalway
http://www.logainm.ie/?text=bhaile+chl%c3%a1ir&placeID=18591
I agree that it looks a bit odd.

Sponge Bob

Deleted User wrote: »

According to logainm.ie Baile Chláir is Claregalway
http://www.logainm.ie/?text=bhaile+chl%c3%a1ir&placeID=18591
I agree that it looks a bit odd.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claregalway

says both may be used , I better get the spraycan out to do an italicised na Gaillimhe on it some night

Aidan Mc

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Baile Chláir is Belclare FFS

According to the official Placenames Database of Ireland, the Irish for Belclare is Béal Chláir.

Deleted User wrote: »

According to logainm.ie Baile Chláir is Claregalway
http://www.logainm.ie/?text=bhaile+chl%c3%a1ir&placeID=18591

Not only is Baile Chláir the Irish name for Claregalway, it is also the official name as it is still officially in the Gaeltacht, and therefore under the current regulations only the official Irish name should be used on signage, etc. It seems the area is unlikely to remain a Gaeltacht area when/if the boundaries are redrawn in the future, but until then Baile Chláir is correct.

Whether or not you agree with it is a completelty different matter, and probably best discussed in a different thread.

Getting back to the new road itself, has the Galway-Loughrea section closed again since the old N6 reopened at Craughwell yesterday?

I imagine the temporary opening has probably delayed the actual opening date by a few days/weeks. Does anybody know when it is likely to be opened for real?

emfifty

appreciate the debate about irish placenames [which should always take precedent over bearla!] but can we get back on topic...

what is the official opening date now, i have heard 12th, 13th 21st???

also, anymore pictures of the route now that part of it is open.....:)

emfifty

emfifty wrote: »

what is the official opening date now, i have heard 12th, 13th 21st???

I would suspect that the recent damp weather and the fact that emergency opening works were carried out at the expense of the planned work, are quite likely to put back the opening date by easily a couple of weeks.

peustace

hey all,
I'm hoping to travel to Dublin from Galway on Friday after work.... how long are the tailbacks on the motorway to Ballinasloe? What kind of delay would I be looking at if I left at about 6 (peak time I know but no choice) I know the road to Ballinasloe is re-opened but I reckon traffic will be mental on it.

The motorway beyond Ballinasloe ok to travel on?

KevR

Ballinasloe East to Dublin is fine as far as I know.

The road through Ballinasloe has re-opened but they are urging only local traffic to use it at the moment. Long distance traffic should still use the motorway around the town. It might not be too bad going around the town, if local traffic isn't using the bypass it will reduce delays.

35x

Just returned from Loughrea -Dublin this am and return trip this eve. East of Ballinasloe fine both ways on M6. The temp bypass section was clear at 8.30 am except for stop/go but I've heard that at school am and pm it has long tailbacks. This eve, there was long tailback getting on from Loughrea direction at around 5 pm but from Dublin direction was reasonably ok. Re speed limit on bypass, I had a guy behind flashing lights etc to speed up out of his way....even with Traffic Corps around.....Stress...!!!!

Carawaystick

whats the legal basis for the 50 kmh limit on the M6 sections temporarily opened?

Are they motorway? then 120 limit applies unless the co.co introduces a special speed limit, which I doubt they could as they're busy elsewhere ad hardly work on a sunday or strike day.

Can Gardaí make the limit lower?
can the nra?

I'm not saying the limit is wrong, just wonderin how it can be set to 50.

Carawaystick

Carawaystick wrote: »

whats the legal basis for the 50 kmh limit on the M6 sections temporarily opened?

Are they motorway? then 120 limit applies unless the co.co introduces a special speed limit, which I doubt they could as they're busy elsewhere ad hardly work on a sunday or strike day.

Can Gardaí make the limit lower?
can the nra?

I'm not saying the limit is wrong, just wonderin how it can be set to 50.

As far as I know, the road is currently "unadopted" i.e. it's on private property as the NRA haven't taken possession of it yet as it is still under construction.

It's currently a private road! State speed limits are not legally binding, but the road building contractors could impose a limit and prosecute speeders (the offence not being endorsable on your license, normal traffic rules dont apply)

If speeding tickets were issued, someone with a smart lawyer may get off on that technicallity!

GerardKeating

Carawaystick wrote: »

whats the legal basis for the 50 kmh limit on the M6 sections temporarily opened?

Are they motorway? then 120 limit applies unless the co.co introduces a special speed limit, which I doubt they could as they're busy elsewhere ad hardly work on a sunday or strike day.

Can Gardaí make the limit lower?
can the nra?

I'm not saying the limit is wrong, just wonderin how it can be set to 50.

Well, it's not a motorway yet, still technically an unclassified road, so max speed is 80. They can set a lower limit for road works ?

Amtmann

Okay, I'm going to call a halt to discussion of speed limits, traffic jams, bad drivers, etc. That's what the Commuting and Transport forum is for.

Construction Updates from now on only, please.

Sponge Bob

You can be done for dangerous driving _anyway_ but not for speeding per se.

The lot of them will be up in front of Mary Fahy on a single morning amd she will fine heavily early and fine heavily often as usual . They had best save the money for lawyers for the appeals

mackerski

Furet wrote: »

Okay, I'm going to call a halt to discussion of speed limits, traffic jams, bad drivers, etc. That's what the Commuting and Transport forum is for.

Construction Updates from now on only, please.

Furet, would you care to reconsider your verdict on this one? I agree with your general view that such matters belong elsewhere, what we have here is a situation more or less without precedent of about 30km worth of road, of uncertainly legal status, being used at short notice.

The road is infrastructure. The circumstances of its use relate to that infrastructure (as opposed to a general rant about driver behaviour) and these matters are also linked to the matter of how this road will now make its transition to full service. All of this seems on-topic and of interest to readers.

Amtmann

mackerski wrote: »

Furet, would you care to reconsider your verdict on this one? I agree with your general view that such matters belong elsewhere, what we have here is a situation more or less without precedent of about 30km worth of road, of uncertainly legal status, being used at short notice.

True, and I appreciate your point: that's why we've allowed three or four pages of discussion on such matters to go on here.

The road is infrastructure. The circumstances of its use relate to that infrastructure (as opposed to a general rant about driver behaviour) and these matters are also linked to the matter of how this road will now make its transition to full service. All of this seems on-topic and of interest to readers.

I agree that they are somewhat on-topic, but they also run the risk of derailing the thread by sending it off in multiple different directions. By all means it's okay to talk about the condition of the road and how it's handling the traffic in its unfinished state, but if we then have multiple posts cropping up about bad drivers and Guards pulling people over, then this is most certainly off-topic.

It's a tough one, but I would ask all posters to try to stick, as much as possible, to discussing the road itself and not the behavior of those who drive on it.

antoobrien

Furet wrote: »

It's a tough one, but I would ask all posters to try to stick, as much as possible, to discussing the road itself and not the behavior of those who drive on it.

Would this be a good point to move these discussions to a new thread?

antoobrien

Furet wrote: »

By all means it's okay to talk about the condition of the road and how it's handling the traffic in its unfinished state

Can anyone who's been on the road share their opinions on the general state of the road and what it looks like is left to be done?

Another question, does anyone know what safety checks have to be done and how long they take?

Amtmann

antoobrien wrote: »

Can anyone who's been on the road share their opinions on the general state of the road and what it looks like is left to be done?

Absolutely.

Would this be a good point to move these discussions to a new thread?

A new thread is certainly preferable to the current one, however I'll hold back on moving anything until there is something to move them to...

ohnoigotsick

drove by the motorway at dougiska and its closed so hopefully they can get things back on track and open fully before christmas

Tech3

ohnoigotsick wrote: »

drove by the motorway at dougiska and its closed so hopefully they can get things back on track and open fully before christmas

Yeah they closed it last night

Travel Conditions on National Roads

Last Updated: 17.00hrs, Wednesday 25 November, 2009

Galway
M6 Galway to Loughrea will remain open on a temporary basis until midnight tonight (25th November) following which traffic will revert to using the existing N6

http://nra.ie/News/PressReleases/htmltext,16920,en.html


.

CerebralCortex

antoobrien wrote: »

Can anyone who's been on the road share their opinions on the general state of the road and what it looks like is left to be done?

Another question, does anyone know what safety checks have to be done and how long they take?

I drove on it twice. First off let me say it's quite impressive the idea that between Dublin and Galway we have that quality of road is truly amazing. From what I can tell what needs to be completed is access roads and signage, but mainly the access roads which still need a bit of work.

According to the flooding thread in the "Galway City" forum, the M6 is now closed and all traffic is back on the old roads.

I suppose they can now get back to work on completing the construction, be interesting if they will still open it before christmas. I'm guessing not as the temporary use as a bypass would have severly interrupted the flow of work and it may take several days to undo the "bodges" needed to make the temporary sections usuable.

zing

antoobrien wrote: »

Can anyone who's been on the road share their opinions on the general state of the road and what it looks like is left to be done?

Traveled it westbound last Sat and eastbound on Sunday - on Sunday from the slightly elevated position on a bus and not having to concentrate on driving so tried to have a good look around where I could.

Between Galway & Loughrea looks like fairly minor work only for the most part, slip roads need to be completed, signage, road markings, cat's eyes in some areas, complete safety barriers in places, etc..

Couldn't see anything from there until where it passes under the existing N6 somewhere west of B'sloe (not sure of the area name) and looking down on it there it still looked like there was a fair amount of work to be done - paving wasn't completed. Can't recall if there was a median in place. Didn't get to look west bound here towards the toll plaza/Loughrea to see how that was looking - or at least I'm assuming the toll plaza was west of that bridge.

Also a fair amount of work to be done around B'sloe itself and looking westbound. They were paving some of the westbound stretch around B'sloe on Sunday. Concrete median mostly completed iirc, next to no barriers on lhs of the westbound lanes.

Now I've no opinion on how long all that work will take but I was left wondering if the mid Dec dates we'd seen were realistic. Just seemed to be a lot of work to be done around Ballinasloe and immediately west of there.

PixelTrawler

antoobrien wrote: »

Can anyone who's been on the road share their opinions on the general state of the road and what it looks like is left to be done?

Another question, does anyone know what safety checks have to be done and how long they take?

I was on it Sunday morning, going Galway to Athlone. I'm no road engineer but it looked reasonably complete, as in a few short weeks would open it. As the last poster said, theres a bit around ballinasloe thats a bit further behind but with concentrated resources they could get it done fairly soon id guess

ohnoigotsick

how was the drainage around the motorway also - any potential for it to flood in years to come ?

zing

The attenuation ponds seemed to be doing their job and water levels around any of the flooded areas were well under the level of the motorway. Except in one spot iirc - was eastbound somewhere around Athenry give or take a few miles (I think) - where the water level appeared to be just a couple of feet below the road but was hard to tell given that I was looking at it from a bus on the opposite site of the road. Everywhere else looked fine.

KevR

Street lights were on at Doughiska when I passed last night . Makes such a difference. The floodlights that were there previously were aweful.

oddiot

Travelled Dublin to Galway in thick fog this morning. This hampered my ability to see much, but a lot of progress has been made since I was last down 2 weeks ago at both the Balinasloe start to the final section, but also at the bridge near Aughrim. Line marking coming along well at these two points.

35x

Just wondering in relation to tolls and entry/exits at or near the plaza near Cappatagle.... will it be possible to enter M6 at the plaza or will there be 'satellite' toll booths in those locations ?