N8/N25/N40 - Dunkettle Interchange [under construction]

marno21

Is this + M28 being talked about election wise in Cork city? Genuinely cannot understand how there isn't uproar about the state of Dunkettle. Haven't been on the South Ring during rush-hour for quite a while but driving westbound in rush hour traffic and seeing the eastbound carraigeway blocked up all the way over the Kinsale Road Roundabout, can't understand how people can put up with it daily without pulling out all their hair.

As someone who drives in Limerick during rush hour, the Limerick SRR junctions are far from ideal but at least the traffic problems in Limerick are confined to the roads inside the SRR, rather than looking at AA Roadwatch for Cork and seeing all the city roads blocked up + the N40 blocked up for several kilometers.

Cork is really pulling the short straw for road infrastructure between the N20, N22, N25, N28 and this.

Limerick was a calamity before but now we have a fully functioning SRR, a bypass and dual carraigeway on all the commuter routes + 2 motorways to Dublin & Galway

hans aus dtschl

You're making a good point, and the honest answer is that people locally know that Cork won't have any representation in this respect.
It doesn't matter who Cork votes in next, there's no hope of investment:
The two "strong" local politicians would be Martin and Coveney, neither too inclined to follow up backyard politics because they're more interested in being national leaders.

You could argue they're both largely doing what a TD should do, in staying out of local issues, but since others (Noonan, for instance) are not playing the same game it doesn't work out very well.

Schadenfreudia

hans aus dtschl wrote: »

You could argue they're both largely doing what a TD should do, in staying out of local issues, but since others (Noonan, for instance) are not playing the same game it doesn't work out very well.

And Mr Howlin is delivering a lot of projects in, and linking to, Wexford.

marno21

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

And Mr Howlin is delivering a lot of projects in, and linking to, Wexford.

NRA announced M11 Arklow - Rathnew, M11 Enniscorthy Bypass and N25 New Ross bypass as part of the second round of PPP schemes in 2009 (along with M17/M18 Gort - Tuam and N6 Galway City Outer Bypass). Wheels were set in motion long before Howlin's time.

marno21

Also posted in N28 thread, from the front of this evening's Evening Echo

Storm over Port's Ringaskiddy plans

The Government has come under pressure to deliver funds for a €100 million upgrade of the Dunkettle Interchange and the development of a dual-carraigeway to Ringaskiddy.

This follows the decision by An Bord Pleanala yesterday to grant permission for the Port of Cork's new €100m container facility in Ringaskiddy.

Concerns have been raised about the inability of the road infrastructure to cope with the thousands of heavy truck movements in and out of the proposed Port terminal.

The Port is to move operations from Tivoli and the city docks to Ringaskiddy by 2018, but the existing road network at Dunkettle and N28 are already congested at peak times.

The construction phase of the project is expected to deliver upto 849 new jobs.

Cork Chamber Chief Executive Conor Healy welcomed the development, saying it would enable the expansion of the Port and "yield significant economic dividends for Cork".

However, he added: "Government now needs to provide the funding for the N28, Cork to Ringaskiddy Road and the upgrade of the Dunkettle interchange which are key to unlocking a myriad of economic prospects."

Fianna Fáil TD Michael McGrath criticised the decision. He said: "To grant permission for a large scale expansion of Port activity in Ringaskiddy without the upgraded N28 is absolutely illogical. The new N28 is likely to take many years yet and the existing road network is simply unable to cope with the current volume of traffic."

Schadenfreudia

I support the Port - it looks like the only way to get the road is to create enough traffic to force the Government to stump up.

Of course Fianna Fáil's catastrophic economic mismanagement is why the Government can now only deliver projects to Ministerial constituencies.

hans aus dtschl

I don't think it's even important to go into party politics on this: almost everyone locally knows the port investment is a good thing, irrespective of McGrath's comments.

It'll be a better thing if they can make a road to it.

Geogregor

So what is the current status of the Dunkettle Interchange.

I know it has planning granted, but how long is it valid? If I'm correct planning permission is only valid for a few years.

Also, how about land needed for expansion. Has it already been acquired?

Michael..

Geogregor wrote: »

So what is the current status of the Dunkettle Interchange.

I know it has planning granted, but how long is it valid? If I'm correct planning permission is only valid for a few years.

Also, how about land needed for expansion. Has it already been acquired?

The government are waiting till closer to the election to announce some goodies. That's the way it always goes...

Geogregor

Michael.. wrote: »

The government are waiting till closer to the election to announce some goodies. That's the way it always goes...

But do they already own the land needed for the construction?

If yes, then all is needed is green light from the treasury, quick tendering process, and off we go.

Michael..

Geogregor wrote: »

But do they already own the land needed for the construction?

If yes, then all is needed is green light from the treasury, quick tendering process, and off we go.

Yes, it already has planning permission. Once funding is made available they can start.

lucernarian

Going by that Evening Echo article, is it still the case that the Dunkettle interchange is expected to cost €100 million? Is it possible that this scheme could be lumped together with the N28 scheme in a design + build tender?

cork_south

http://www.eveningecho.ie/cork-news/funds-remain-an-issue-in-corks-traffic-chaos/

Leonard Hofstadter

Lots of conjecture, no commitment to actually doing anything.

At least it's good that the Cork based Minister recognises the reality that Cork's road infrastructure is from the third world (apart from the road to Dublin, obviously).

Perhaps whenever the Government announces their roads programme (which is supposed to be happening soon according to the Irish Examiner), there will be movement on the Dunkettle Interchange, and given that the Minister says the M28 will be a reality in less than 6-8 years, that as well.

marno21

Paschal Donohue on the front page of the Echo again today:

http://www.eveningecho.ie/cork-news/no-guarantee-on-vital-cork-road-funds/

Schadenfreudia

marno21 wrote: »

Paschal Donohue on the front page of the Echo again today:

http://www.eveningecho.ie/cork-news/no-guarantee-on-vital-cork-road-funds/

So, he may not be able to deliver anything - but "Minister Donohue is due in Cork today to announce a new Aer Lingus route from Cork to Dusseldorf"

Going to Cork to "announce" a single passenger service by a private company (that we already knows about) strikes me as an example of the political culture that has delivered such an appalling transport infrastructure for so long in Ireland.

If Aer Lingus cancel the service for the winter will Donohue go down and announce it again next summer?

Leonard Hofstadter

He's a bit more positive about doing something for Cork in this article. Not a whole lot more positive, but at least it's a step in the right direction - at the end of the day Cork's roads are like something from the third world and are nowhere near good enough for a city that has over 400,000 people living within a 15 mile radius of the city centre. With the hopelessly out of date city boundaries, we sometimes forget how much bigger Cork is than anything after Dublin.

Schadenfreudia

captainspeed wrote: »

With the hopelessly out of date city boundaries, we sometimes forget how much bigger Cork is than anything after Dublin.

And why are they so outdated?

Leonard Hofstadter

Beats me. They should have changed the boundaries for sure. Cork is the biggest county obviously so it probably does make sense for there to be two of them, but the City Council's remit should clearly be very much extended. Galway also has the city and county councils, but it's a much better setup as the boundaries are much more realistic (which is why Galway always appeared to be so much more heavily populated than Limerick even though they're about the same size in reality).

Schadenfreudia

http://www.n8n25dunkettle.ie/

Links to the "dedicated website for this scheme" seem to be deader than M20! :mad:

neiljung

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

Links to the "dedicated website for this scheme" seem to be deader than M20! :mad:

n8n25dunkettle'dot'jacobs'dot'com

Replacing 'dot' with a .
Forum rules won't let me paste the link.

neiljung

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

Links to the "dedicated website for this scheme" seem to be deader than M20! :mad:

Try n8n25dunkettle'dot'jacobs'dot'com

Replacing 'dot' with a .
Forum rules won't let me paste the link.

Schadenfreudia

Can't get it - I'm doing something wrong

nordydan

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

Can't get it - I'm doing something wrong

Working fine for me

spacetweek

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

Can't get it - I'm doing something wrong

Did you:
-add http:
-remove www
-change ie to com

Then it works.

Chris_5339762

Lord above

http://n8n25dunkettle.jacobs.com/

Schadenfreudia

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Lord above

http://n8n25dunkettle.jacobs.com/

Yes! Yes! Yes! :pac::):D:D

Thank you!

AugustusMinimus

Was there a reason the brown option wasn't used. Looked to have all movements free flow unlike the red option.

Schadenfreudia

Coming off the M8 heading for the city centre seems to be a bit tortuous?

AugustusMinimus

The more I think about it, the more I think that this scheme and the M28 will get funding fairly shortly. Certainly Cork will have to be buttered up to some degree by the current government facing into the next general election.

People, bookmark what I'm about to say.

The opening of the Sarsfield and Bandon Road Roundabout flyovers resulted in one huge unintended consequence. That is huge tailbacks travelling east over the Douglas flyover. The current flyover, allied with inadequate space for merging is causing this. It only became apparent though with the extra flow through of traffic that the new flyovers caused.

So, what about the other direction. At rush hour, there are considerable tailbacks travelling west over the Douglas flyover. Partially caused by merging from the Bloomfield Interchange and partially due to people slowing down going over the flyover and causing phantom tailbacks.

Now, what exactly is gonna happen here when both the Dunkettle Interchange and M28 is done. There is going to be absolute chaos backing off the Douglas flyover travelling west at both rush hours.

Both schemes will be complete and then we'll be crying out for a widening of the Douglas flyover to 3 lanes each way. It will have to be done IMO.