M6 - Ballinasloe to Galway

Amtmann

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Dempsey is lying as he so often does. The section through Athlone is not Motorway standard and nor is it motorway designation.

I don't think he's lying as such. I think he just doesn't think very deeply about what he's saying and so he probably doesn't realise that he's wrong.

Aidan1

You're assuming that he even saw the text before it went out. Chances are that the text submitted by the Division in his Department (which was probably correct but much more boring) was breathed on first by the Press Office, and then by the media handlers. Any element of reality after that process is generally entirely coincidental.

Frank Jnr

Not to mention the fact that the press release, which is in the past tense, was issued before the official ribbon cutting time of 11am

Amtmann

Is it open yet?

See: http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1218/galway_av.html

antoobrien

Furet wrote: »

Is it open yet?

Supposed to open to traffic at 2 PM (according to GBFM earlier) or 3 PM (galwaynews). Not sure which i'd believe, especially since they're supposedly run by the same company

ManFromAtlantis

tomo75 wrote: »

Guys/Girls,
What would be the best/shortest route to go get to Ennis from the M6 road? I am coming from Dublin and I normally go thru Loughrea onto Gort. Would it be better to get off at the Loughrea interchange or drive all the way to Oranmore and then head South?

Any opinions?

always thought anyone going to ennis from teh east have been dealt a bad un.
teh road from portumna is crap to say it mildly. other options to loughrea/ gort/ not great options in fairness.

Amtmann

The Galway Bay FM reporter Ken Kelly said: "After 10 years, Ireland's two main cities, Dublin and Galway, are finally connected by motorway."

antoobrien

ManFromAtlantis wrote: »

always thought anyone going to ennis from teh east have been dealt a bad un.
teh road from portumna is crap to say it mildly. other options to loughrea/ gort/ not great options in fairness.

Up until recently I'd have said go to Limerick, then come back up the N18 to Ennis

kiwipower

tomo75 wrote: »

Guys/Girls,
What would be the best/shortest route to go get to Ennis from the M6 road? I am coming from Dublin and I normally go thru Loughrea onto Gort. Would it be better to get off at the Loughrea interchange or drive all the way to Oranmore and then head South?

Any opinions?

If your not in a hurry to get to Ennis you could wait till the Limerick Bypass is finished (hopefully the tunnel is not to far off completion) and one day the will beat the Bog of Doom!!!! At least the Nenagh bypass has FINALLY opened to HQDC (well so I believe from the M7 posts!) On another point: Just wondering has anyone heading from Galway to Limerick during Rush hour Friday traffic considered taking the new M6 to Loughrea and then the Loughrea Gort Road???

CerebralCortex

Furet wrote: »

The Galway Bay FM reporter Ken Kelly said: "After 10 years, Ireland's two main cities, Dublin and Galway, are finally connected by motorway."

He seems like the kinda guy who's never left Galway There's plenty of those types!

antoobrien

CerebralCortex wrote: »

He seems like the kinda guy who's never left Galway There's plenty of those types!

Furet wrote: »

The Galway Bay FM reporter Ken Kelly said: "After 10 years, Ireland's two main cities, Dublin and Galway, are finally connected by motorway."

According to most cork gaa fans the people's republic of cork is not really in ireland, so he's right

Tech3

Great to see the M6 completed, finally an inter-urban route with dual carriageway/motorway standard road in Ireland.

Roll on the M9, M8 and M7 next!

Who's going to be the first to post here saying they've driven on it!

ManFromAtlantis

will be passin thru in 20 mins !!

nordydan

Chris_533976 wrote: »

No the Galway bypass will NOT be motorway and will always have a 100kmh speed limit.

I think the reason (this is guessing) that its not motorway between Glennascaul and Doughiska is that otherwise, certain sliproads and parts of the Galway bypass would have to be motorway, and since it hasnt been started yet, a motorway order would be needed. Can you imagine the fuss.

On this audio clip (linked above), the spokesman for the NRA refers to the GCOB will be motorway. May not be conclusive proof, but could give you hope

Sponge Bob

That may mean they will only build the bypass to the N59 and will abandon the western section in the short term and revisit it as part of the R336 project instead.

After all the NRA took over the R336 scheme this year

kaizersoze

Deleted User wrote: »

Who's going to be the first to post here saying they've driven on it!

Me Me Me

Frank Jnr

Drove home just now, 19 mins from Doughiska roundabout to my driveway in Loughrea. Sweet!

One thing I was unsure about is the speed limit on the link road from the motorway to the Loughrea bypass, the speed shown on the Loughrea exit sliproad is 80kph (I think) but there are no more confirmations signs along the whole length of the access road.

That link road is of better quality than the old N6, I can't see why i should be anything other than 100kph, especially seeing as it is designated as an N road.

Anyone know what the speed limit is?

Amtmann

RTE News at One report: http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1218/galway_av.html

Amtmann

By the way: A major revamp of the M6 wikipedia page is now needed, with lots of new pictures etc.

Tech3

Another average report from RTE, I think they should mention it's dual carriageway/motorway standard not motorway for the entirety of the Dublin to Galway route.

Also they could have shown maybe when the M6/M4 first kicked off and showed the progress of how it achieved it's status that it is today.

Chris_533976

nordydan wrote: »

On this audio clip (linked above), the spokesman for the NRA refers to the GCOB will be motorway. May not be conclusive proof, but could give you hope

It would be nice, but AFAIK the curvature of the GCOB wont be up to 120kmh running, only 100kmh, also a full motorway order will be needed. Redesignation probably wont happen as the number of complaints would make Athlones issues seem meaningless by volume!

I'd love to be proven wrong though

Sponge Bob

It should be a 100kph Motorway , the Motorway designation is mainly to keep the tards that clog the magic roundabout up of a saturday off the bloody thing.

Carawaystick

veryangryman wrote: »

Dublin to Newry an inter-urban? Are you serious? Do you think that Motorway was built just for people to go to Newry?

Newry's a city*, there's M/way or HQD2 the whole way from there to Dublin
Cities are urban areas, so the M1/N1 is an interurban, and it's been finished for a while.


*Says Betty Windsor and she knows, she signs the paperwork.

Chris_533976

As far as I'm concerned anyway, the M1 isnt completed until its motorway/DC all the way to Belfast.

In any case that will be long after any of our interurbans, at least until Sprucefield is tidied up. I'd say the M20 will be built before that happens.

KevR

Just home from Dublin. The new motorway is brilliant!!

The surface is absolutely immaculate, noticeably better than the M1, M50, N4, M4, N6 and other sections of the M6. It's like being in a hovercraft!

Cat's eyes, studs and reflectors are really bright. It's really easy to drive on at night.

There are no one-off houses lining the M6, unlike the old N6, so there is no light pollution. Sky was clear of clouds tonight and the stars in the sky were so bright. Once you pass the Athenry junction heading Westbound you can see the lights of Galway City - amazing!

There are emergency phones. I hadn't seen any on my recent site visits during construction so it was a pleasant surprise.

It was dark when I drove on it so it was hard to see properly, but there looked to be an impressive rock cutting between Ballinasloe West and Loughrea. Would need to drive it in daylight to see it properly.

The feature bridges and toll plaza all look nice.

Is it the new standard for the mainline not to be lit through junctions? Athlone-Ballinasloe and Galway-Ballinasloe are like this.. Some people will argue that's it's not really necessary but I think it's no harm to have the lighting there.

CrowdedHouse

Are they taking tolls at Cappataggle ?

KevR

See what I mean about the lighting (from the Galway City forum):

The Express wrote: »

Thought the gradient of the road as you take the J17 Athenry (westbound) exit could have been better.

Can't see the road markings too clearly. Or maybe it was because I just drove too fast!

I didn't take the Athenry exit but I did notice that the road markings for the exit were a little hard to see heading Westbound. There should be street lights on the mainline through all motorway junctions in my opinion.

KevR

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

Are they taking tolls at Cappataggle ?

They are indeed!

I threw a fist full of change into the bucket thing and there's a small screen which shows the money being counted from €1.90 down to €0.00 before the barrier lifts. An "Arrive Alive" message then flashes up on the screen before you pull off.

BluntGuy

KevR wrote: »

There are emergency phones.

...

This alone has made me fall in love with that motorway.

A pretty sad reflection on me, eh?