The so-called "M"8 Cashel bypass: I give up!

Amtmann

Ok, so I drive it maybe twice a week at most and never fail to see at least one tractor chugging along in the hard shoulder. That particular problem is endemic; but fair enough, I've said my piece about it elsewhere on these boards.

Now we have a private company, McDonalds and a petrol seller apparently, building their very own service area at junction 8 and - get this! - not only that, but they will alter junction 8 to make it unrestricted access so that customers can get to them easily. I mean, why did the NRA bother at all with redesignating this stretch? It's made precious little difference.

To top it all off, today I encountered a Traveller-driven pony and trap going in the wrong direction on the motorway. I was on the Junction 8 slip road, accelarating to join the main northbound carriageway, when lo and behold yer man, who was heading north on the hard shoulder, clip clops his animal and cart to do a U-turn and come up against me, before leaving the slip altogether and directing his beast over some grass to his caravan. I gesticulated my astonishment at him, and his reply was two-fingered. He had broken the fencing that separates his caravan from the junction 8 sliproad to give himself direct access.

I called the Traffic Watch number and informed them, but honestly, at this stage, I'm ready to give up.

AugustusMaximus

See my thread about Gay Byrne and then sadly remind yourself about which country you're in.

I am in no doubt that most Gardai don't have a clue that vehicles under 50kph are banned from motorways. And those that do prob wouldn't care.


I must ask though, what if you had a crash with a tractor etc on a motorway ? Would the tractor be presumed to be in the wrong due to being on a motorway. Would the tractor driver be covered for insurance ?

dowlingm

Don't call the guards. Call a journalist.

Amtmann

Very true. There's a lot to grumble about in fairness, between that, the service area fiasco, and the toll road extension.

FIRE

Furet wrote: »

Ok, so I drive it maybe twice a week at most and never fail to see at least one tractor chugging along in the hard shoulder. That particular problem is endemic; but fair enough, I've said my piece about it elsewhere on these boards.

Now we have a private company, McDonalds and a petrol seller apparently, building their very own service area at junction 8 and - get this! - not only that, but they will alter junction 8 to make it unrestricted access so that customers can get to them easily. I mean, why did the NRA bother at all with redesignating this stretch? It's made precious little difference.

.

Do you have a link to an article about this Furet?

Amtmann

FIRE wrote: »

Do you have a link to an article about this Furet?

There's no article. Not one newspaper is covering any of this. Cashel and the surrounding area is full of stories about the McDonalds and other developments; that's where I'm getting the information from.

FIRE

Furet wrote: »

There's no article. Not one newspaper is covering any of this. Cashel and ther surrounding area is full of stories about the McDonalds and other developments; that's where I'm getting the information from.

Is there any protests at it going ahead?

Amtmann

FIRE wrote: »

Is there any protests at it going ahead?

Not at all. People don't seem to see anything wrong with it in the least.

BluntGuy

Furet wrote: »

Not at all. People don't seem to see anything wrong with it in the least.

No I wouldn't think they would. The general ethos is most probably: "Yay! McDonalds is coming to Cashel!".

No, it isn't people of Cashel...

It's coming to the M8.

corktina

Furet wrote: »

Not at all. People don't seem to see anything wrong with it in the least.

i have to say in the absense of a service area I cant see what the problem is....in fact when travelling in the UK id prefer to stop at such a facility than a motorway services..

Amtmann

corktina wrote: »

i have to say in the absense of a service area I cant see what the problem is....in fact when travelling in the UK id prefer to stop at such a facility than a motorway services..

I'm worried it'll set a bad precedent that says you can build whatever you like along the motorway through the Tipperary countryside. It's bad planning practice, it's unsustainable and environmentally unfriendly, and it will clog the route up with short haul traffic when that's not what it's for.

But yes, the buck stops with the NRA and its stupidity for not building service areas from the get go.

BluntGuy

corktina wrote: »

i have to say in the absense of a service area I cant see what the problem is....in fact when travelling in the UK id prefer to stop at such a facility than a motorway services..

I can see what the problem is.

If this development goes ahead, it gives the green light for any other developer and their dog to tack whatever other facilities (whether useful or not) onto an MIU.

A motorway is not meant to be a shopping centre. It is a high-speed, long distance road. One-off developments like this are a huge mistake, and undermine the very nature of the road.

What McDonalds should have done is bid with a consortium to be part of the Cashel MSA. Same with the people planning the petrol station.

Yes, food and petrol facilties are needed on our MIUs. But they should not be provided in the form of one-off developments that have a detrimental effect on the road.

He had broken the fencing that separates his caravan from the junction 8 sliproad to give himself direct access.

He can be arrested for that since he's trespassing onto a motorway and damaging the NRA's property. I want that selfish **** brought to the Guards immediately. :mad:

All of these things are getting me so annoyed. And then there's still the Cullahill-Portlaoise scheme to deal with.

corktina

have a look at the UK...there are fast food outlets and all manner of establishments at most service areas and major roundabouts.I cant see a problem with it.

BluntGuy

corktina wrote: »

have a look at the UK...there are fast food outlets and all manner of establishments at most service areas and major roundabouts.I cant see a problem with it.

I know we Irish love to copy everything from the UK (despite our firm denial), but this is one idea that we should not copy.

Isn't the countryside already ruined enough with crappy one-off housing sprawled all over the place. Why destroy the MIUs as well?

MIUs are for getting you from city to city, major town to major town, area to area. They are not for getting you from your house to McDonalds. Sadly, that's what's going to happen on the M8, where local traffic will be using the bypass unnecessarily to access an outlet that shouldn't even be there.

corktina

i would suggest that the road is there for anyone with a tax disc to use however they please and Im sure a good few locals will find employment there...what difference does it make? if they sited a McDonalds IN Cashel people would still use the M8 to get there if they so chose.

BluntGuy

corktina wrote: »

i would suggest that the road is there for anyone with a tax disc to use however they please and Im sure a good few locals will find employment there...what difference does it make? if they sited a McDonalds IN Cashel people would still use the M8 to get there if they so chose.

I have no problem with there being a McDonalds. I'm sure it will create a few (much needed) jobs. But it should be as part of an MSA. There was nothing stopping them bidding as part of a consortium. But no, they took the selfish, detrimental route they knew they could get away with, because our useless councillors don't have the balls to say "no".

Unless of course it's to things like wind farms.

I would much rather the McDonalds was located in Cashel. The people of Cashel are not going to bypass Cashel to access a fast food outlet in the middle of town. However, if you build one on Junction 8, local traffic will be needlessly shoved onto the motorway all for the want of a few Big Macs. A ridiculous situation that can be easily avoided if councillors just exercised some control. But no. Anybody can put whatever they like onto any roads they like. Just wait until we see the "M8 Business Park" popping up in the middle of no-where. Kilworth anyone?

And the N25... oh, that's screaming out for inappropiate development. I wonder how many exits they can attach onto the Grannagh interchange leading to retail parks?

crazydaize

BluntGuy wrote: »

However, if you build one on Junction 8, local traffic will be needlessly shoved onto the motorway all for the want of a few Big Macs.

While I completely agree with your point I also think that you are seriously over-estimating the amount of Big Macs that MacD's are going to sell in this new joint. Do you really expect rush-hour M50-style traffic at dinner time??

BluntGuy

crazydaize wrote: »

While I completely agree with your point I also think that you are seriously over-estimating the amount of Big Macs that MacD's are going to sell in this new joint. Do you really expect rush-hour M50-style traffic at dinner time??

The M8 near Cashel is not going to turn into the M50 because of a McDonalds. I acknowledge that. If it did, I'd be worried (more for the people of Cashel than traffic ).

However, this development couldn't come at worse time for me. My faith in the NRA and the local councillors is at an all-time low. It's not so much the fact that this particular development is going ahead, it's what it represents for the future. A future of random one-off developments scattered across our new motorway network that will turn them into shopping routes for locals, a situation I wanted to avoid (and I presume the NRA wanted to avoid by redesignating all these roads as M).

By all means have a McDonalds, but does it have to be off one of our new MIUs? Motorways are primarily for long distance travellers, not people popping out for a snack. Plopping these idiotic developments all over the place will have an overall detrimental effect on our road network.

Yes, one McDonalds won't make a difference. But wait until Tesco, Dunnes, M & S and other big names all start wanting a piece of the MIU pie. Will they locate in MSAs. No, it will be random, selfish developments such as this. Will they get planning permission? Honestly, at this stage, the question is: when will they get planning permission?

corktina

but these are developments that a lot of people WANT.... :rolleyes:

AlekSmart

but these are developments that a lot of people WANT....

Probably the quote of the year...kudos to corktina

It really could be the motto of our era

Giving people exactly what they wanted has led us into this current deep black forest of uncertainty.
It is knowing when to tell people that they cannot have everything that they WANT that sets leaders and great statespeople apart from the running slavering hordes.

Was it Mick Jagger wot sang......"You caint always get what you WANNT.....but,if you try,try,try...you might just get whaat you NEED !!".

Amtmann

The junction 8 site notice.


View of the construction site.


This must be the new access ramp.


Junction 8 sliproad leading northbound.


Same caravan; note removal of fence to allow access.

BluntGuy

corktina wrote: »

but these are developments that a lot of people WANT.... :rolleyes:

Are these the same people that love sitting on the Mahon Point slip road for up to an hour?

People need to get it into their skulls what a motorway is.

Happy Christmas. :mad:

Amtmann

The NRA will surely struggle to get their own service area built now.

BluntGuy

Furet wrote: »

The NRA will surely struggle to get their own service area built now.

Absolutely.

It's all down to the amount of time the NRA spent wasting getting the MSA programme started combined with the usual corruption of our councillors.

At least there's a petrol station, so that's one positive. But THIS should all be part of an MSA. The location they've chosen pretty much garuntees that the M8 will lose out of one of its service areas.

Thanks McDonalds. Thanks Crappy Councillors and last but not least thank you NRA for doing **** all to stop this.

Disgrace.

corktina

BluntGuy wrote: »

Are these the same people that love sitting on the Mahon Point slip road for up to an hour?

People need to get it into their skulls what a motorway is.

Happy Christmas. :mad:

cant be surely...the N25 isnt a motorway...its a ring road ...for feeding and distributing trafiic.

Amtmann

I'm assuming that identical developments are being hatched across the country for the M7, M9 and M6. Perhaps other posters will let us know in time.

I'm not very happy with the nascent slip road there either; it looks very short and stocky, rather than long, like it should be.

BTW, does anyone know how you upload videos to Youtube from a camera (Fugifilm Finepix F60)? My computer converts the file to a windows media player format, which Youtube doesn't seem to like. I took advantage of the quiet roads and filmed the stretch between Cashel and Cahir before sitting down to my Christmas dinner!

Merry Christmas to everyone, by the way!

BluntGuy

Furet wrote: »

I'm assuming that identical developments are being hatched across the country for the M7, M9 and M6. Perhaps other posters will let us know in time.

I'm not very happy with the nascent slip road there either; it looks very short and stocky, rather than long, like it should be.

BTW, does anyone know how you upload videos to Youtube from a camera (Fugifilm Finepix F60)? My computer converts the file to a windows media player format, which Youtube doesn't seem to like. I took advantage of the quiet roads and filmed the stretch between Cashel and Cahir before sitting down to my Christmas dinner!

Merry Christmas to everyone, by the way!

Send the file to me and I'll convert it to a YouTube friendly format using Ulead Video Studio 11 or MAGIX Music Maker 14.

Just host the file on MediaFire or something then post the link here... I'll download it and convert it for you.

corktina wrote:

cant be surely...the N25 isnt a motorway...its a ring road ...for feeding and distributing trafiic

The ring road should have motorway restrictions, but that's an argument for another day.

Anyway I've lost all hope for the SRR. It may as well be pedestrianised at this stage with the pace traffic moves at. All caused by the Mahon Point stupidity...

Amtmann

BluntGuy wrote: »

Send the file to me and I'll convert it to a YouTube friendly format using Ulead Video Studio 11 or MAGIX Music Maker 14.

Just host the file on MediaFire or something then post the link here... I'll download it and convert it for you.

The file is about 260MB. I'll have to wait until I'm back in Cork; my connection speed isn't very high here. I got a new camera recently, and have been dying to try it out. The quality is quite high.

BluntGuy

Furet wrote: »

The file is about 260MB. I'll have to wait until I'm back in Cork; my connection speed isn't very high here. I got a new camera recently, and have been dying to try it out. The quality is quite high.

260 MB?

Must be quite a high resolution. My connection is nothing to write home about so...

Here is a link to a demo of Ulead Video Studio 11, it supports automatic uploading to YouTube - at least in the full version, although I think the demo version does as well. Even if it doesn't, you can still convert it to wmv or avi pretty easily... just import the video and away you go...

http://www.download3000.com/download-ulead-video-studio-plus-count-reg-50103.html

It's 140 mb or something like that...

corktina

BluntGuy wrote: »

Send the file to me and I'll convert it to a YouTube friendly format using Ulead Video Studio 11 or MAGIX Music Maker 14.

Just host the file on MediaFire or something then post the link here... I'll download it and convert it for you.




The ring road should have motorway restrictions, but that's an argument for another day.

Anyway I've lost all hope for the SRR. It may as well be pedestrianised at this stage with the pace traffic moves at. All caused by the Mahon Point stupidity...

I use the SRR often and i rarely have problems with slow or stationery traffic. do you only use it at peak times perhaps?

Amtmann

The M8 southbound between Exits 9 and 10. The quality of the recording suffered a bit when I converted it from AVI to WMV, but it's still ok.