Mad Cow sliproad from M50 southbound

pleba

I’ve been loving the new layout of the mad cow roundabout until the past week or so.
When going southbound on the M50 and taking the slip-road for the N7, keeping to the left hand lane to go onto the Naas Road towards town…(some mouthful that!!)…..it used to be a free flow lane to join onto the Naas Road (heading towards the long mile).

As of last week however it is no longer free-flow, you now join a lane on the Naas Road that you now need to merge from onto the main lanes.
When I did this for the first time last week there were no warning signs indicating that this would be the case (there still aren't any signs) and it was a bit dodgy. Now that I know its there it’s still a bit ropey trying to merge sometimes.

Does anyone think that it’s a bit dangerous?

mwrf

Yes, it is dangerous, especially as traffic has to cross your lane to get to the park and ride. Accident waiting to happen.

Carawaystick

There's no N7 inside the M50, it's the R110.

pleba

my mistake.

I'm referring to the sliproad from the M50 southbound to the Naas Road, as if you were heading back into town

Drax

I really don't like the design of the Mad Cow. Esp as you come off the M50 to go out the N7 - I think there are 3 sets of merges before you get to the that new flyover. Then if you are heading into town coming from the N7 the road is incredibly bendy - quite dangerous if you are not used to it. I know they were tight for space but some of the layout seems daft.

mysterious

1. They should of raised or lowed the Turnpike. to allow Naas outbound to flow freely.
2. They should of built the the LILO at the luas depot another 50metres further down. So the merge is safer for M50 NB to Naas outbound onslip. It is currently a really stupid and dangerous layout.
3. the Naas to M50SB should not of been a loop. They should of built a a three level stack slip with a pillar in the centre of the M50 median supporting the bridge over the current redcow and taper onto the M50 SB and merge with the motorway. This would free up the current layout and remove the merging with the really tight loops at present. They are awful tight. Very steep. You have to go very slow, it's not acceptable.

But the planners never listen to me.:rolleyes:

dfx-

http://www.independent.ie/incoming/my-mad-cow-break-wish-you-were-here-1269382.html

The man in reservations at the Red Cow Hotel was unfazed when I asked for a room overlooking the roundabout.

In a friendly Indian lilt he reassured me that I would be able to enjoy a fine vista of Ireland's most notorious traffic junction.

"It is only two hundred yards away,'' he boasted, demonstrating a highly-developed talent for sales and marketing that can only serve this country well. My appetite for my Mad Cow mini-break was well and truly whetted.

While Ireland's plutocrats fly away to the Bahamas at this time of year -- or perhaps take in a spot of skiing in St Moritz -- I was joining the tram set. I was off on the Luas to bask in Dublin's traffic-clogged drizzle-spattered edge city.

In 1000 years, when archaeologists go looking for signs of the great Celtic Tiger Bertieist dynasty, what will they find that truly marks out our civilisation?

The Incas had the lost city of Machu Picchu; the Greeks their Acropolis; and the Mesopotamians their Hanging Gardens of Babylon. We will leave behind for mankind the awe-inspiring N7 Wonder of the World, the Mad Cow Roundabout.

If you are going on holiday at the Mad Cow roundabout, you have to have the view.

The man in reservations was as good as his word. When I pulled back the curtain in my comfortable room -- just two doors away from the elegantly-appointed "Michelle Smith suite'' (yes, she's still a Red Cow heroine) -- there it was: the stunning vista of Ireland's most celebrated bottleneck.

There's no need to listen to the traffic reports when you can see it all for yourself from your hotel window, rumbling through the night and into the morning.

No patch of land in Ireland receives so much publicity. It leaves Newgrange and the Giant's Causeway trailing. It may not be St Tropez, but it has received more coverage than Britney Spears's backside.

The slogan of the local tourist board, based nearby in not-yet-fashionable Tallaght, is perhaps apt: "It will surprise you!''

Yes indeed it will. The area which takes in the Naas Road with its pock-marked verges and car showrooms, vast estates of council houses, several DIY superstores and much of Dublin's industrial heartland is described in the brochure, which I picked up in the lobby, as "an undiscovered jewel''.

Certainly, many tourists visiting Dublin for the first time must be surprised when they look out at the view in the morning.

In the Midlands of England they call the busy interchange, where motorways meet, the "spaghetti junction''. Our own version looks more like a dog's dinner that has been left on the pan too long.

After freshening up in my hotel room, pausing only to watch vast platoons of monstrous juggernauts thundering by, I went on an afternoon stroll. The sun would have been setting over the Plains of Kildare and the Ibis Hotel were it not for a smoggy fug.

To appreciate the Mad Cow in all its glory, one simply must walk. Surprisingly, there is actually a pedestrian path running up and over the vast mound of motorised mayhem, making it ideal for hill-walkers.

It is a wild forest of misleading signs with arrows pointing in all directions imploring motorists to watch out for trams, get in lane, go Southbound, go Northbound, go to Clondalkin and to kingdom come for all we know.

The centre of the junction is littered with piles of rubble, giant concrete tubes, rusting portacabins and half-mangled traffic cones.

A flashing electric signs tells drivers to the take slow lane to Ballymount.

But gazing in wonder from the footbridge at this mobile Manhattan, I am left pondering two questions: Why am I here? And is there such a thing as a fast lane to Ballymount?

Only when you are up close and personal with the Red Cow do you appreciate some of the finer points of those traffic signs, such as the one informing the public that the M50 motorway is not for "slow vehicles, invalid carriages, pedal cycles, pedestrians and animals.''

In fact, at five in the evening, a little souped-up invalid carriage or a compact horse would be ideal for darting through the almost stationary traffic.

To walk from one side of the Red Cow to the other, a trip that takes 20 minutes, is like following one of those loopy puzzles in a children's comic; and I imagine some motorists must get lost in it, never to be found again.

Anybody who is anybody around here is wearing one of those fetching day-glo yellow anoraks, without which one feels rather naked.

The hotel, which has a large contingent of foreign guests, is plusher than you might expect. Sadly, however, the Winter Garden restaurant looked nice but sadly does not overlook the roundabout. For those determined to eat near the hotel, there is a McDonald's drive-through nearby, and the Esso On the Run shop serves a selection of palatable chicken-based snacks only half an hour's walk away.

As well as offering Valentine's specials -- "Darling take me away from this. Take me to the Red Cow'' -- the hotel currently promotes itself as an ideal place for weddings. One can only imagine the wedding photographer trying to organise the snaps in this bustling setting.

"We'll get the bridesmaids just next to the Southbound sliproad and the groom's party by the N7 freeflow exit loop over there, but just watch that digger.''

Although the Mad Cow is not yet featured in many tourist brochures, it certainly has plenty of potential.

It is a crying shame that the then Transport Minister Seamus Brennan never proceeded with a plan to carry the Luas across the junction on stilts. If they popped a rollercoaster over the top, they could turn it into a theme park -- Tarmacworld.

Perhaps Tourism Ireland's chief executive Paul O'Toole had this splendid edifice in mind when he announced a new marketing campaign this week, saying tourists were now looking for "braggable experiences''.

"They are looking for an experience that is unique to them that they will go back and tell others about.''

And certainly the Mad Cow is uniquely Irish. Like Gaudi's famous cathedral in Barcelona, it is a giant folly that that has never been completed. It is a work in progress.

As one traffic expert informed me (before I fell asleep into my soup), the Red Cow roundabout is technically not a roundabout at all. It is a "partial free-flowing interchange'', which doesn't really trip off the tongue.

If they want to pull in the tourists, the authorities might be well advised to borrow a slogan from New York.

"Red Cow. Red Cow. So Good They Built it Twice.''

Not sure if it has been posted, but seems accurate to me:)

Victor

pleba wrote: »

Does anyone think that it’s a bit dangerous?

Report it to the council.

mysterious

leitrim lad wrote: »

i done all the excavation work on those slip roads on the mad cow and the n4, dont hold it against me ,,,,,,,,still awaiting payment for it,,,,,,,,,,but they taught it up as they went along,,,,,,,,,,,,,,i could have a slip road ready for tar today and by dinnertime they changed it again,,,,,,in the begining it was ment to be compleetly freeflow,,,,but god only knows what it is going to be now,,,,,,,,,

Can't they not move the Luas off/on ramp at least 50 metres down where an post is? Surely this is like fill a pothole job. It's just to risky to keep this junction here to close to a merge of 5 lanes and a slip into one road and another slip to the left. The merge is just not safe. When traffic levels go up it will have to be sorted out.

Turnpike also has to be tunnelled or raised.

If they can do this much I'd be happy.

mysterious

Drax wrote: »

I really don't like the design of the Mad Cow. Esp as you come off the M50 to go out the N7 - I think there are 3 sets of merges before you get to the that new flyover. Then if you are heading into town coming from the N7 the road is incredibly bendy - quite dangerous if you are not used to it. I know they were tight for space but some of the layout seems daft.

My design would of been more effiecient, cheaper also as the the slip I drew could of been built alongside the existing M50NB to Naas/Limerick outbound. The existing box shaft is two lanes wide. my layout would of given room for the N7 to M50 SB alongside.

The cost would be little difference. The other plus is the gradient and curves would not be as steep at the current loop. This would of give more room for the Recow. The Loop makes the interchange very compact and tight at present.

Can someone post up the pic on this page rather than an attachment. Also the turnpike layout was drawn by goofy pretty sleek. I outlined where a bridge or underpass would be built, it's a pretty small bridge that is needed. The turnpike can be raised or lowered on the turnpike road, so the gradient of the N7 would not have to be changed drastically. If they can put the monastery road into free flow than here can be done pretty easy, since its only crossing two lanes, and is not as busy at the N7 inbound as this is 5 lanes wide.

I don't have a pic of the lilo at the luas. They can just move it down with little or no planning.

mysterious

But the spanish engineers, could just have a bit of pride in their job, it woulnd't go a bit astray to do so as it will hold to them as a project they put their efforts into and say we built this interchange. It's called an achievement. Right now, children could come up with a better arrangement than this. I'm not saying the current layout if awful by any means. But it is still a very chaoitic and dangerous layout for merging. they could easily make a few adjustments to solve this.

They are Not paid to make an ass out of it.

Good luck with your case and courtcase. Don't back down till you get it.

leitrim lad

thanks i never back down, another point i have to make about the mad cow is the amount on nonsensical money that was wasted on the construction of it ,we worked 24/7 for 18 months there and some of it was pointless, we dug into 20 metres deep of rock at a cost of €150 per cube just to be told when we had it dug to backfill it ,they changed the plan,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, it will be another year before the hole lot is finished and then newlands will start within a year of the mad cow compleetion,,,,,,the radiant on the southbound side is crazy ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,i have seen more pile ups on it ,surprised no one has been killed on it yet ,i saw a car drive under a lorry on it one day....

D.L.R.

So have we learned our lesson? Sometimes I really wonder.

anonymousjunkie

Try it on a motorbike! Going northbound on the M50 each evening I take the turn off for the red cow, coming up off the slip I have cars pulling out in front of me and crossing my lane to make that turn off for the Luas.

Theres definately going to be an accident there. Hopefully its not me.

pleba

Victor wrote: »

Report it to the council.

i did yesterday. however I was asking if anyone else thought it dangerous?

mysterious

I knew it would be a disaster, but I was stunned by the amount of people back in the days of planning, saying "ah it will be grand"

Sometimes I think am I irish at all?. It's something I don't say for fun, nor do I say this when it's playing withpeople's lives here.

The Luas and Turnpike has to be sorrted out now. Even to this day it annoy's me. cus I was the one saying this time last year, it would of been well worth it to have sorted this then and not now, cus when the planning, excavating and digging were going on, you had a chance to put in a simple arrangement for these junctions. But no, it's fine. We will come back to it in 20 years when we have no money. And people including the planners were on here saying it will be grand as it is.


Till there's a crash. Or that traffic doesn't get backed far enough. Had murphaph telling me last year that turnpike doesn't cause any tailbacks just Redcow itself. I proved him wrong. There is no reason for tailbacks coming to the redcow since all movements are freeflow, except turnpike. So it's only one issue that is causing the tailbacks outbound. That is turnpike.

It's not funny, it's serious. This road is just far to busy to make blunders like this.

Irish and Proud

pleba wrote: »

i did yesterday. however I was asking if anyone else thought it dangerous?

...when I saw the photomontage a while back, I knew straight away that the LUAS turn-off from the N7 outbound would simply not work!

The obvious thing would have been to construct a ramp between (and off) the M50 SB/N7 and R110/N7 connectors, thereby forming a t-bridge (in concrete) instead of building the current bow-string over-bridge. The current Luas turn-off would serve the M50 NB/N7 connector only. Effectively, it would be a mirror of the connections off the Monastery Road to the M50 and R110 routes.

Regards!

mysterious

I passed it today and had a good look at the finished NB M50 ramp to outbound Naas. Seen the merge, it looks pretty scary to IMO. it's like it's designed for an accident waiting to happen.

Though the sad part, they probably won't fix this until there is an accicent.

100gSoma

Hey Pleba,

I get onto the Naas road into town too, but I come from M50 southside. We used to have the same problem as you have now. the lane would suddenly and abruptly merge into heavy traffic coming from city west area on the Naas road. IT was very very dangerous. Now we have a full free flow lane that continues onto the Naas road and no merging required. They obviously stole the space for this lane form your side?