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

kub

Markcheese wrote: »

The current works at the glanmire roundabout seem to include traffic lights ,
So that'll be fun ..

I thought all the works was about those traffic lights.

Cork Trucker

Markcheese wrote: »

The current works at the glanmire roundabout seem to include traffic lights ,
So that'll be fun ..

Drove by there earlier, first time seeing these lights, that’ll cause mayhem by the looks of it

Chris_5339762

Yes, the Glanmire roundabout is being signalised.

The current works, basically, are that, the freeflow N8 outbound to M8 north slip (easy to build) and a slip connecting the N8 outbound directly to the old Glounthaune Road plus a roundabout along there. Also, a roundabout on Little Island and diversion of services including a massive water main.

The roads being build as part of the current works I am guessing without any evidence can be used to divert traffic somehow away from the Dunkettle Interchange during what I think will be many, many nighttime closures over the next few years.

AugustusMinimus

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Yes, the Glanmire roundabout is being signalised.

The current works, basically, are that, the freeflow N8 outbound to M8 north slip (easy to build) and a slip connecting the N8 outbound directly to the old Glounthaune Road plus a roundabout along there. Also, a roundabout on Little Island and diversion of services including a massive water main.

The roads being build as part of the current works I am guessing without any evidence can be used to divert traffic somehow away from the Dunkettle Interchange during what I think will be many, many nighttime closures over the next few years.

This sounds horrendous. The junction prob needs some sort of upgrade to make it more bicycle friendly but that’s it.

Traffic lights appear to be the solution for everything in Cork.

hans aus dtschl

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

This sounds horrendous. The junction prob needs some sort of upgrade to make it more bicycle friendly but that’s it.

Traffic lights appear to be the solution for everything in Cork.

Yeah the bicycle-friendly part of the design is a "get the out of here" slip lane, and dedicated beg buttons and islands. It's pretty pathetic to be honest.

marno21

Loads of room along there for a segregated pedestrian/cyclist facility. It's lunacy there isn't one there given where Little Island is and its proximity to the city.

Surely this'll become even more of an issue when the Tivoli redevelopment starts gathering pace.

hans aus dtschl

marno21 wrote: »

Loads of room along there for a segregated pedestrian/cyclist facility. It's lunacy there isn't one there given where Little Island is and its proximity to the city.

Surely this'll become even more of an issue when the Tivoli redevelopment starts gathering pace.

It's an issue now tbh. The Silversprings/Dunkettle area is very unattractive for pedestrians and cyclists.

I don't think the council and TII really appreciated how bad their new design at Silversprings was, and maybe thought people were being "hysterical" about it. But most of the new protective wands (which were in-turn protected by raised kerbs!) have been destroyed within the first few months. They need a short-term plan to sort this whole area out. The money will be available, the space is available, it's really low-hanging fruit.

For their part, the NTA's stated solution when asked last Autumn was for everyone to get the train, which is unrealistic and ridiculous.

The long-term plan is - using the Tivoli redevlopment as a driver - to provide a route through what's now the Port, via a dedicated bridge over the Glashaboy river, south of the existing bridge. This would connect Tivoli (where the cars are stored) and the Tunnel Management building road. The causeway there is currently walkable, but I believe the plan is to go next to the railway tracks. This obviously isn't viable as a short-term solution. So again, they need a short-term plan to sort the area out.

Between us all on here we could probably think of four or five short-term solutions offhand, but there's nothing on the drawing board right now I'm afraid.

marno21

N8E -> M8N slip road to be complete by September as per today's newsletter.

steeler j

marno21 wrote: »

N8E -> M8N slip road to be complete by September as per today's newsletter.

Was there a reason for not doing the slip road before , just curious

AugustusMinimus

steeler j wrote: »

Was there a reason for not doing the slip road before , just curious

When they put lights on the roundabout about 15 years ago the plan was to do 2 additional slips.

N8 East to M8 North and
M8 South to N25 East

Never happened for some reason.

steeler j

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

When they put lights on the roundabout about 15 years ago the plan was to do 2 additional slips.

N8 East to M8 North and
M8 South to N25 East

Never happened for some reason.

I'm surprised they didn't do it ,it would be interesting to hear why

Chris_5339762

N8 East to M8 north is very easy (thats why they are doing it now, doesn't even cross the railway line). M8 South to N25 East doesn't have a simple option, many structures are required, there is water in the way and the Glounthaune slip makes things very awkward. I'm not surprised that got bundled into the big scheme.

steeler j

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

N8 East to M8 north is very easy (thats why they are doing it now, doesn't even cross the railway line). M8 South to N25 East doesn't have a simple option, many structures are required, there is water in the way and the Glounthaune slip makes things very awkward. I'm not surprised that got bundled into the big scheme.

M8 south to n25 east would require a lot of work compared to the n8 east to m8 north

AugustusMinimus

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

N8 East to M8 north is very easy (thats why they are doing it now, doesn't even cross the railway line). M8 South to N25 East doesn't have a simple option, many structures are required, there is water in the way and the Glounthaune slip makes things very awkward. I'm not surprised that got bundled into the big scheme.

The new slip is utilising a lot of the area which was the old N25 which was closed after the new Dunkettle roundabout alignment was opened.

marno21

Poles for lighting are up now on the N8E -> M8N slip road.

On a side note, there's an old story referred to frequently around here that someone in the council once put in an order for traffic lights and put in an extra zero in the quantity box and the council got 10x the number of traffic lights they were originally meant to order. When you drive through the Dunkettle roundabout (the Glanmire Road one) you can understand the basis of this story.

AugustusMinimus

Having a look at the plans for the junction, I see that a separate slip off the N8 East to M8 North slip road goes under the M8 and onto the new roundabout at the beginning of the old N25. That’ll take a bit more pressure off the main roundabout until full construction starts.

Anyone know if they are planning to open this with the slip road itself?

hans aus dtschl

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Having a look at the plans for the junction, I see that a separate slip off the N8 East to M8 North slip road goes under the M8 and onto the new roundabout at the beginning of the old N25. That’ll take a bit more pressure off the main roundabout until full construction starts.

Anyone know if they are planning to open this with the slip road itself?

My understanding is that they're not.

This one would be the road I'll personally benefit most from. You can imagine it would make the most logical sense for a pedestrian/cycle routing too, and I've no idea why they don't use it accordingly.

But this will need a new structure (bridge) to be created so that this slip road can pass under the M8, exactly the same way the railway currently does. The disruption on the M8 will be significant. I don't think it's happening until the main scheme.

AugustusMinimus

hans aus dtschl wrote: »

My understanding is that they're not.

This one would be the road I'll personally benefit most from. You can imagine it would make the most logical sense for a pedestrian/cycle routing too, and I've no idea why they don't use it accordingly.

But this will need a new structure (bridge) to be created so that this slip road can pass under the M8, exactly the same way the railway currently does. The disruption on the M8 will be significant. I don't think it's happening until the main scheme.

Ah ok. Wasn’t sure if there was a pre-existing bridge or they just troubled up the existing area for the M8.

It would make huge sense to do a 2 way cycle path on the side of this. It would still need full segregation from motor traffic however, given the slip would split half way along it.

hans aus dtschl

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Ah ok. Wasn’t sure if there was a pre-existing bridge or they just troubled up the existing area for the M8.

It would make huge sense to do a 2 way cycle path on the side of this. It would still need full segregation from motor traffic however, given the slip would split half way along it.

Their original design was for the segregated cycle path to travel on the North side of this, and then swap over to the south, but they had no safe crossing. The design was a "dash" across the multi-lane slip ramp for pedestrians, which obviously wouldn't do.

Unfortunately there isn't a pre-existing bridge. They bulldozed earth onto the old road for the creation of the M8/Dunkettle interchange. The old road surface likely still exists underneath!

As I say, I'm waiting for this particular slip road more than the others.

m17

Dunkettle interchange

AugustusMinimus

Great picture in this weeks update email. They’re surfacing the new slip road. They’ve also partially surface the one from N8 East to old N25 but obviously a bridge under the M8 is required to complete it.

marno21

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Great picture in this weeks update email. They’re surfacing the new slip road. They’ve also partially surface the one from N8 East to old N25 but obviously a bridge under the M8 is required to complete it.

Going by the published timescales the main construction contract should be awarded around the same time as the N8 -> M8 link opening.

With the other advance works ongoing in the area there should be a reasonably uninterrupted flow of work now until the whole job is done in 2023.

Chris_5339762

Hopefully Mr Ryan will not put his thumb up his you-know-what, and will sign it. This'll be the first Road Scheme he'll have signed off on, so fingers crossed he does what he should and does not prevaricate at all.

I also look forward to using the new slip road to get from Cobh - Dublin at rush hour, loop of the Dunkettle Roundabout at Glanmire and avoid the interchange itself. I'd hazard a guess I won't be the only one.

steeler j

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Hopefully Mr Ryan will not put his thumb up his you-know-what, and will sign it. This'll be the first Road Scheme he'll have signed off on, so fingers crossed he does what he should and does not prevaricate at all.

I also look forward to using the new slip road to get from Cobh - Dublin at rush hour, loop of the Dunkettle Roundabout at Glanmire and avoid the interchange itself. I'd hazard a guess I won't be the only one.

Hopefully he will sign off on it and it should give us a small guide to how he might be about other projects as well

AugustusMinimus

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Hopefully Mr Ryan will not put his thumb up his you-know-what, and will sign it. This'll be the first Road Scheme he'll have signed off on, so fingers crossed he does what he should and does not prevaricate at all.

I also look forward to using the new slip road to get from Cobh - Dublin at rush hour, loop of the Dunkettle Roundabout at Glanmire and avoid the interchange itself. I'd hazard a guess I won't be the only one.

Always suspected that is the quietest of all the primary movements followed by M8 South to N25 East.

Pete_Cavan

Isn't it Cabinet that signs off on such projects, not the Minister him/herself?

Cookiemunster

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

Isn't it Cabinet that signs off on such projects, not the Minister him/herself?

I think that the Minister has to bring it before Cabinet before before they can sign off on it. If he dallies on that, then the project gets delayed.

Saying that, during the election the Greens said that they were pro upgrades of existing roads rather than new builds, so I wouldn't expect many more delays here.

hans aus dtschl

Thread seems to be full and failing to work properly as a result: could a moderator lock and start a new one perhaps?

L1011

hans aus dtschl wrote: »

Thread seems to be full and failing to work properly as a result: could a moderator lock and start a new one perhaps?

boards as a whole is wonky at the moment ant its 10k posts not 1k that causes the extra special breakages.

hans aus dtschl

L1011 wrote: »

boards as a whole is wonky at the moment ant its 10k posts not 1k that causes the extra special breakages.

Thanks: you properly addressed what I was attempting to articulate!