TII Motorway Service Areas (MSA) Progress Thread

rameire

Closure of M9 Motorway.
A notice of intention has been placed with Kildare County Council for the Closure of the M9 Motorway, for the installation of Bridge Beams.

Northbound and Southbound between Jn 2 Kilcullen and Jn 3 Athy.
From Friday 21st November at 7pm
until Sunday 23rd November at 6am

and
from Friday 28th November at 7pm
until Sunday 30th November at 6am.

Diversions will be in place.
Objections can be made to Naas Co Co Roads section before 5pm 17th Oct.

omicron

Seems strange to close it at 7pm on a Friday given that this is one of the busier times on the road. By leaving it til 9 or 10pm they could avoid a lot of traffic issues.

serfboard

omicron wrote: »

Seems strange to close it at 7pm on a Friday given that this is one of the busier times on the road. By leaving it til 9 or 10pm they could avoid a lot of traffic issues.

Agree with that but am guessing it's to do with pay rates? The later in the day you leave it the more into night-work you're getting so the more it will cost?

Reuben1210

Is there any update on the MSA on the m6 at athlone? the irishmotorwayinfo website says it has started already?
Also, is the Gorey MSA nearly complete?

OldMrBrennan83

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veryangryman

Patww79 wrote: »

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Strangely enough, this is the exact same progress level as the Athlone East MSA. Would it be fair to suspect that they are timing the opening of both to coincide with the election to say "Look what we did when in power" etc?

Although I dont really think MSA's count as "fikshing the road"

munchkin_utd

Patww79 wrote: »

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could it be that the NRA is in charge of providing the access roads and Applegreen (or whoever is running the station) is in charge of actually building the buildings, so youve 2 separate entities and one cant start before the other is finished?
Seems like theres plenty of progress. Here's Gorey services in September

http://www.n7n11.ie/n11-update/

OldMrBrennan83

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serfboard

Reuben1210 wrote: »

Is there any update on the MSA on the m6 at athlone?

From the AA:

The hard shoulder and left lane of the M6 Galway/ Dublin Rd eastbound are closed between J8 Athlone East and J7 Moate East until 19th June for works

I haven't seen the plan but, from driving by, it looks like the service station will be on one side with an overbridge.

Reuben1210

So the athlone MSA is really well underway then?....it was hard to find anything on google news articles about it!

Geogregor

Reuben1210 wrote: »

So the athlone MSA is really well underway then?....it was hard to find anything on google news articles about it!

I didn't even know there is going to be one between Jct7 ad Jct8.

Who is going to be operator there? Is it official MSA or something more like the "Obama Plaza"

STIG83

I posted this in another thread but got no reply, hopefully it ok to post it here:

I drive M9 motorway a lot to Kildare. Something I notice is the lack of county border signs, Carlow have one southbound and Kildare have one northbound.
Kilkenny had one southbound but don't see it anymore?

Can someone shed light on this?

D Trent

Geogregor wrote: »

I didn't even know there is going to be one between Jct7 ad Jct8.

Who is going to be operator there? Is it official MSA or something more like the "Obama Plaza"

It is official as it is 'online'
So it needs to meet high NRA specifications
Expect it to be Topaz or Applegreen/Burger King/Costa/Subway

veryangryman

D Trent wrote: »

It is official as it is 'online'
So it needs to meet high NRA specifications
Expect it to be Topaz or Applegreen/Burger King/Costa/Subway

Whats with the SmileyFace (Subway excluded). All of those restaurants/cafes are terrible. Haven't seen 1 decent services since Monsasterevin. They set the bar - shame nothing similar on D-G corridoor.

marmurr1916

veryangryman wrote: »

Strangely enough, this is the exact same progress level as the Athlone East MSA. Would it be fair to suspect that they are timing the opening of both to coincide with the election to say "Look what we did when in power" etc?

Although I dont really think MSA's count as "fikshing the road"

The next Irish general election isn't due until March 2016.

I doubt that MSAs will feature in any party's election campaign.

Chris_5339762

The 'official' ones will be a carbon copy of the M1 services, but just one station on one side.

vince

I passed some stations on the m1 why is there an apple green and top canopy at the same station.

flazio

Applegreen is aimed more towards the domestic motorist, Tedcastle Oil Products are for commercial vehicles.

spacetweek

Passed M9 Kilcullen MSA yesterday, lots of progress made on the slips which have their surface down, no guardrails yet though. The overbridge is substantially complete. However I couldn't see any buildings from the road.

redtelephone

STIG83 wrote: »

I posted this in another thread but got no reply, hopefully it ok to post it here:

I drive M9 motorway a lot to Kildare. Something I notice is the lack of county border signs, Carlow have one southbound and Kildare have one northbound.
Kilkenny had one southbound but don't see it anymore?

Can someone shed light on this?

Can't shed any light but I did notice the Kildare and Carlow signs are a few hundred metres apart which makes you wonder where the actual boundary is. I could be wrong but I drive that road a lot and can't remember ever seeing a sign for Co. Kilkenny. The boundary is about 2km on Carlow side of J7 (Paulstown).

Geogregor

It might not be the best place to ask but does anyone know how is construction of the two pairs of Applegreen MSAs in Northern Ireland progressing?
They started quite a while ago but I can't find any updates anywhere.

L1011

He doesn't post here at all, but Wesley Johnston would be the best person to ask I guess - http://wesleyjohnston.wordpress.com/

spacetweek

Geogregor wrote: »

It might not be the best place to ask but does anyone know how is construction of the two pairs of Applegreen MSAs in Northern Ireland progressing?
They started quite a while ago but I can't find any updates anywhere.

M1
M2

However it looks like Wesley doesn't have any updates either since last summer

MJohnston

spacetweek wrote: »

M1
M2

However it looks like Wesley doesn't have any updates either since last summer

In fairness to him, neither does the M1 MSA.

Geogregor

I routinely check his website as it is a mine of useful information but as you said no updates about MSAs since the last summer.

I thought that some of you guys might have driven there recently or saw some updates in local media.
Normally such lightweight construction should take only a few months. There should be significant progress visible by now.

The same must be true about the unofficial MSA on M8. (I know, not this thread

BTW, didn't you guys think about merging this thread with the one about unofficial MSAs?

MJohnston

Geogregor wrote: »

I routinely check his website as it is a mine of useful information but as you said no updates about MSAs since the last summer.

I thought that some of you guys might have driven there recently or saw some updates in local media.
Normally such lightweight construction should take only a few months. There should be significant progress visible by now.

The same must be true about the unofficial MSA on M8. (I know, not this thread

BTW, didn't you guys think about merging this thread with the one about unofficial MSAs?

SABRE is sometimes better for NI roads than here, I think the aforementioned Wesley frequents their forums.

BelfastVanMan

Looks like the M2 one is almost built...the fitting out of the shop has begun.

STIG83

redtelephone wrote: »

Can't shed any light but I did notice the Kildare and Carlow signs are a few hundred metres apart which makes you wonder where the actual boundary is. I could be wrong but I drive that road a lot and can't remember ever seeing a sign for Co. Kilkenny. The boundary is about 2km on Carlow side of J7 (Paulstown).

Carlow and Kildare border would be Castledermot.
Only reason I ask is for tourists who visit here every year and wouldn't know where the counties start and end.

I def remember seeing a sign for Kilkenny, as it had it's motto: "open your heart to it" on it.
Have emailed NRA about it and still waiting for reply.

jd

There a report in the Business section of the Wexford People that Sean O'Neill has said that construction of the service area near Gorey will not be complete until end of February, that 4 tenders are being reviewed, and that it would be late September/October before this opened

Also Arklow-Rathnew Motorway should open late August-September

cargo

Geogregor wrote: »

It might not be the best place to ask but does anyone know how is construction of the two pairs of Applegreen MSAs in Northern Ireland progressing?
They started quite a while ago but I can't find any updates anywhere.

Geogregor wrote: »

I routinely check his website as it is a mine of useful information but as you said no updates about MSAs since the last summer.

I thought that some of you guys might have driven there recently or saw some updates in local media.
Normally such lightweight construction should take only a few months. There should be significant progress visible by now.

The same must be true about the unofficial MSA on M8. (I know, not this thread

BTW, didn't you guys think about merging this thread with the one about unofficial MSAs?

BelfastVanMan wrote: »

Looks like the M2 one is almost built...the fitting out of the shop has begun.

Passed there on Friday. As BVM said the M2 one is substantially complete. The structure is up and the fitout is underway.

There are still at earthworks on the M1 site. They are moving a large amount of soil on this one.