N8/N25/N40 - Dunkettle Interchange [open to traffic]

Chris_5339762

Yeah M8 was much better this morning. I guess now its a matter of adjusting so that the M8S is almost as bad as it was, to allow more time for the lights coming along N40N. Fingers crossed it'll get better as the week goes on, but I am not looking forward to my commute home from Cork tonight.

Chris_5339762

No queue at all now at 1030am from any direction. Perhaps they have adjusted a little - I would have expected a short queue, maybe into the tunnel a little as people get used to it.

The only jamup is along the N25W as people put the brakes on when they see the speed van.

Edit: Now we just need a New Little Island Junction to N25E link open, then those of us with no morals can go N40N in the right hand lane, do a loop of Dunkettle, onto Little Island, then use the new bridge and that link to get onto the N25.

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119900506#Comment_119900506

Did you ignore my other posts?

The picture from Dunkettle didn’t show how the queue of traffic back up the M8 wasn’t nearly as bad as in previous weeks.

I’ve never seen M8 South do quiet at 9.10 in the morning either.

hans aus dtschl

I've been moaning about the N8S to City flow for literally years on here. I really hope I've been wrong, but the initial reports from people using it yesterday are concerning, to say the least.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119899995#Comment_119899995

Really? Because I see loads of near misses on quiet evenings

And the interchange coming out of Douglas is a roulette

cork_south

Moving this set of traffic lights would allow more throughput on the roundabout I feel.

They could be moved up closer to the N40 northbound junction unless I am missing something obvious.

Are the lights remaining on a temporary basis or what?

I assume that this is just an interim measure, in which case we just get used to it

KrisW1001

Interim. The final interchange at the tunnel-mouth will be freeflow. The Little Island West dumbbell interchange will be light-controlled, jus like other junctions on N25.

Chris_5339762

Yes, various other loops/slips must be done before the lights can be removed, but they will be eventually.

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119902446#Comment_119902446

For exit of tunnel to be light free, the following movements need to be removed from the roundabout:

• Tivoli to Tunnel
• M8 South to Tivoli
• N25 East to M8 North

cork_south

It will be difficult to guage the change tonight, there's a broken down lorry blocking traffic coming out of the tunnel northbound for the last 20 mins on the webcam.

Chris_5339762

Yeah, tonight was a disaster but a very bad example. The rain didn't help. Rather an awful commute all said and done, I ended up ploughing through the city.

We'll try again tomorro! Stop crashing and breaking down!

Hibernicis

https://imgur.com/erRdAr2

Took a few screen grabs of the delay N40N to M8N at different stages on Monday morning.

Sailed through with no stops at 11:30. Fascinating watching some of the lane changes, especially the last minute ones. People can be so incredibly stupid.

Noticed a few redundant signs (e.g. this one at the tunnel entrance) although I doubt that it was actually contributing to the confusion.

AugustusMinimus

Still cars constantly in the wrong lanes this morning especially those driving in the overtaking lane and trying to cut in after going through the tunnel. Causing chaos at tunnel exit.

cork_south

Yeah looks bad.

10km tailbacks in Midleton direction.

namloc1980

All approaches under pressure this morning. Bit of a mess. Idiots cutting lanes at the last minute is a big problem.

Chris_5339762

I can pretty much guarantee the cutting lanes is mostly deliberate now to skip queues.

Anyone else notice that one of the westbound gantries on the N25 has both "Cork" and "City Centre" on it... that one irritates!

mcburns07

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119905914#Comment_119905914

Yep a lot of people are arseholes and the standard of driving in this country continues to decline. Not surprising really given how little policing there is of the country’s roads.

KrisW1001

6:30 this morning, coming from tunnel to N25, about six cars ahead of me, and two did a last-minute leap out into the M8 lane, one leapt into N25 (mine). In my platoon of cars, most were heading to M9 or city, which is not my normal experience of using this junction. I think that a lot of the M9 people don't know which lane to be in, and they're backlogging City/N25 traffic as a result. (N25 is actually reachable just fine if you're in the tunnel right-lane: just move left one lane once you exit the tunnel)

Also, a disturbing increase in sudden lane-changing in the tunnel. I think people who were held up yesterday are engaging in aggressing "pre-emptive" queue-jumping and this is causing more problems.

The normally shocking standard of driving in Cork is hitting a new low, though... I don't think people are really awake, and this is causing a problem.

On the upside, the actual free-flow merge for tunnel to N25 Eastbound works beautifully. Good use of tiger-tail markings to stream the traffic properly and discourage lane-jumping. I suspect the 60 km/h limit will remain on the interchange, though.

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119906059#Comment_119906059

It’ll take at least a week until this all beds down.

I’ve read a person online who claimed to have been in the overtaking lane to go to M8 north but that it turned out she was in the wrong lane. This is factually incorrect and yet even after going through the junction she has it wrong. This is the standard of driving we’re dealing with.

I was driving into Little Island from the new slip way and just had a few observations.

1. The first roundabout is very unbalanced in terms of traffic flow. There's a continuous line of traffic coming from Glounthaune which made it very difficult to enter from the end of that new road.
2. The roundabout / road is quite small at that point - is that the final version? Seems like a choke point.
3. The temporary signage needs to be improved.
4. There was an ENORMOUS tailback on the 'back road' that runs along behind East Gate and out towards the tunnel along the coast of Little Island. It was queuing right back to the entrance to East Gate.

BagofWeed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119900245#Comment_119900245

I've been convinced for many a year that one of the major contributors to Cork's brutal traffic is the weak standard of driving here. And the recent carry on at the interchange would suggest that I may well be correct. The fear people seem to have behind the wheel when it comes to using interchanges and roundabouts is beyond me and they bring it on themselves by not even reading or looking at the multiple signages available.

hans aus dtschl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119906217#Comment_119906217

This is the exact movement I've been worried about for years. This will be the Dublin to Cork main route. It's also the Tunnel to Little Island route. It's also the vulnerable user route.

I'm still convinced it will back up and choke the tunnel. My reasoning is that I remember regular tailbacks of several kilometers to get into Little Island alone. I don't think the designers appreciated that many thousands of cars arrive into Little Island at roughly the same time, when proposing the flow. Allowing those to free-flow through the tunnel interchange must surely cause a buildup at the Little Island junction. This is also the Eastbound flow, and after 20 or so vehicles are stopped, the N25 traffic flow will be negatively affected. The result will be additional rat-running from Watergrasshill and Sarsfields Court to the city, and tailbacks in the tunnel.

I still hope I'm wrong. Time will tell

mcburns07

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119906217#Comment_119906217

Isn’t that roundabout going to get traffic lights eventually?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119907181#Comment_119907181

Yeah FFS

Watergrasshill and Sarsfields Court is my way to my parents (childcare), kids school, and work in Blackpool. It's going to kill that

cork_south

Every 10th car or so is cutting in from right lane to left lane after they exit the tunnel.

This is slowing down the flow of traffic in both lanes obviously, and will lead to more crashes at the tunnel exit for sure.

The only solution to stop this is have plastic cones separating the 2 lanes down the middle from the tunnel exit up until the junction but I guess that could be problematic in itself.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119907478#Comment_119907478

Yeah, then you get assholes lane swapping inside the tunnel

markodaly

How soon would the new link appear on google map?

BagofWeed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119907181#Comment_119907181

Your not wrong at all. This will become the main entrance into LI for people coming from the tunnel and the M8 plus the roundabout will also have the traffic which comes from the N8 in by the new link so it's going to be chaotic there.

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119907181#Comment_119907181

A few random points.

• The M8 South movement will have priority at both roundabout except for those cars coming out of Little Island travelling to Glounthaune or N25 east who will have priority at the north most roundabout
• I’ve never seen a backlog of cars at the entrance to Little Island beside the tunnel entrance. I don’t think it will happen here either given the distance between the dumbbell interchange and where most employers are located. This is much more of an issue for the other entrance to Little Island further east on the N25.

BagofWeed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119907381#Comment_119907381

They claim it won't and lots of posters here also state that but I reckon it will eventually have lights there unfortunately. Remember lots of Cork drivers particularly older ones can't seem to use roundabouts so when the inevitable accident count starts to rise the calls for traffic lights will begin. Pricks that don't use indicators or don't know/care how to use them will be a danger there too.

hans aus dtschl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119907547#Comment_119907547

I hope I'm wrong. And I have no more science than "hunch" on my side, whereas the designers had significant studies done. Let's hope their calculated design is more accurate than my "hunch"!

DylanQuestion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119905914#Comment_119905914

Where does it direct you to for Cork and where does it direct to City Centre? Since both are accessed on the N8, unless they've finally decided to recognise that the N40 leads to Cork too. Coming from the N40 just before the tunnel, it directs road users to "Cork" by going east on the N8, which used to say "Cork (East)" - as mentioned above

bigtimecharlie

Small hijack, apologies if mentioned before but what is the works just east of Kinsale road junction for?

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119908298#Comment_119908298

New foot bridge to provide access to the Tramore Valley Park from Grange.

cargo

Any improvement this evening?

freshpopcorn

Dunkettle

Chris_5339762

😂 Thats a good one

Where does it direct you to for Cork and where does it direct to City Centre? Since both are accessed on the N8, unless they've finally decided to recognise that the N40 leads to Cork too. Coming from the N40 just before the tunnel, it directs road users to "Cork" by going east on the N8, which used to say "Cork (East)" - as mentioned above

IIRC off the top of my head the left hand lane on the 2-lane gantry is for "Cork", and both lanes are marked "City Centre" above that.

Be right back

Just before the tunnel, after Mahon, there is a road sign saying ↖️ for Cork. Think it's misleading as you might think the road is before the tunnel. Saw someone making that mistake tonight.

VeryOwl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119908889#Comment_119908889

The signage on the new alignments feels a bit slapdash generally.

Chris_5339762

Forgot to mention - on the Little Island slip road just at the entrance to the tunnel, there was a VMS this morning saying that the slip is closing on the 24th November.

Reckon they'll be moving the southbound lanes into the tunnel under the un-used bridge very soon too.

DylanQuestion

the new eastbound signage is just after Little Island. It says

CITY CENTRE along the top for both lanes

CORK | LIMERICK

That makes no sense to me. Only the right hand lane (N8) brings you to Limerick and City Centre. The left hand lane eventually brings you to the North Ring Road. So it should say CORK (Northside) or something. The N40 signage should say Westbound and Cork (Southside)

cantalach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119909130#Comment_119909130

They will need to close that link temporarily to place the remaining bridge beams for the N25W to M8N link.

Jeju

People need to realise that the 2 left lanes coming out of tunnel are going east, the left lane had hardly any traffic in it both times I went through while the right lane was queued upto and beyond the first set of lights.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119909144#Comment_119909144

Some of the signage is confusing. That being said, the Tivoli Dual Carriageway needs signage for CITY CENTRE. I keep seeing cars making last minute lane changes at the Silversprings flyover. I think at that point the N8 signage stops making sense as you’re basically in the city.

Either stick to City Centre / An Lar or use Cork (Central)

”Cork“ is meaningless on a sign in Cork City

As for that Dumbell setup. The roundabouts just seem far too small. The volume of traffic is going to choke on them very quickly. It’s a bad design and seems to underestimate the traffic volumes towards the city from the M8.

The merge from into the M8 is also dangerously short. I can see that both being a future choke point and potentially could cause a few accidents, especially if traffic moves faster.

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119909738#Comment_119909738

Traffic volumes from M8 to Tivoli are actually quite small. It’s easy to see the volume on the south side of the roundabout as the traffic queues at the traffic lights at the tunnel exit. You have only 10 cars max per lights sequence heading towards Tivoli. Much less than heading to the tunnel.

titan18

Not sure if it's changing in the future but the road going from city centre to Little Island is going to be a bottleneck. You've got traffic from the city centre and traffic from tunnel/dunkettle all merging into one small roundabout to go towards the "back" road to Little Island. It's difficult enough to get out from the city centre road as there's no real break in traffic.

cork_south

The traffic light sequence changes seem to have helped on the M8/N40 unless you are coming from Midleton direction on the N25 where there is another 10km tailback.

AugustusMinimus

The old N25 exit is being broken up already I see.

I really don’t understand why the N25 to tunnel movement is now so bad. The old Ibis slip surely couldn’t have been handling all that extra traffic?

mcburns07

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119910164#Comment_119910164

I think it’s a combination of all the traffic being funneled into two lanes after Little Island before it opens up again at the interchange, the 60kmh limit, constant speed vans (some people for whatever reason feel the need to go even lower than 60kmh when they see one), rubber necking at the roadworks, lane swapping.

I’ve been traveling from East Cork for years and the N25 in general is exceptionally busy these days, I haven’t seen traffic figures but at least to my eyes it is a lot busier than it used to be.