M17/M18 - Gort to Tuam [open to traffic]

L1011

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Not initially I don't think, but three level stacks eventually all need them.

An unlit motorway regulators RAB will be an interesting idea.

L1011

L1011 wrote: »

An unlit motorway regulators RAB will be an interesting idea.

Traffic lights or "street" lighting????

Unless it gets exceptionally busy, normal roundabout rules should be sufficient.

m17

Rathmorrisy day 5 of beam lift sorry pics are a bit dark beam lift is now done on all 3 bridges speed limit back to 120 kms and that speed van is gone

m17

Ripping drilling and blasting at ballinphuil corofin part one pic 1 28/01/15 pic 2 21/02/15 pic 3. 16/05/15 pic 4 18/05/15 pic 5 07/06/15

m17

Ripping drillinga and blasting at ballinphuil corofin part two pic1 21/06/15 pic2 19/07/15 pic3 16/08/15 pic4 06/09/15 pic5 11/10/15

m17

Ripping drilling and blasting at ballinpguil corofin part three pic1 16/10/15 pic2 22/11/15 pic3 24/11/15 pic4 28/11/15 pic5 28/11/15

Taytomal

Big thanks to m17 for keeping us all up to date with all the photos! Cheers!

mayo.mick

Taytomal wrote: »

Big thanks to m17 for keeping us all up to date with all the photos! Cheers!

Big +1 here too. Fair play and thanks a mill m17!

serfboard

m17 wrote: »

Ripping drilling and blasting at ballinpguil corofin part three pic1 16/10/15 pic2 22/11/15 pic3 24/11/15 pic4 28/11/15 pic5 28/11/15

I want to add my thanks for the fascinating collection of photos M17 - any chance you could put them on a slideshow on Flickr, Picasa etc.?

muchos04

so do i guys - well done and great forum

guylikeme

I wonder about the n66 status after this road completes.

Most doing the trip Dublin to gort or Ennis will likely continue on to M18 junction rather than getting off at loughrea. Might it be realistic that the n66 is downgraded as it is a poor road indeed. The conspiracy theorist inside me thinks that this was planned, hence no proper junction with n66 at gort exit

D Trent

guylikeme wrote: »

I wonder about the n66 status after this road completes.

Most doing the trip Dublin to gort or Ennis will likely continue on to M18 junction rather than getting off at loughrea. Might it be realistic that the n66 is downgraded as it is a poor road indeed. The conspiracy theorist inside me thinks that this was planned, hence no proper junction with n66 at gort exit

Yeah that makes sense
It really should be an 80km/h limit

m17

The underpass at ballinphuil 30/11/15 thanks for all the great comments

glineli

It looked like all the concrete beams arrived in Coole yesterday, they were parked at the turn off to Coole Park yesterday morning

Carawaystick

guylikeme wrote: »

I wonder about the n66 status after this road completes.

Most doing the trip Dublin to gort or Ennis will likely continue on to M18 junction rather than getting off at loughrea. Might it be realistic that the n66 is downgraded as it is a poor road indeed. The conspiracy theorist inside me thinks that this was planned, hence no proper junction with n66 at gort exit

The N66 has been improved recently, widened and resurfaced with asphalt for a lot of the route.
Still a few bad bends, and a narrow bridge, but much improved over a couple of years ago.

serfboard

guylikeme wrote: »

Might it be realistic that the n66 is downgraded

You'd have to think that that is going to happen eventually, since there will no longer be a need for this to be a "National" route.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it though, as downgradings seem to be done very rarely and very conservatively.

There was a thread about downgradings (detrunkings) on boards at one stage - the only one that I remember was the N80:

Wikipedia wrote:

a bypass of Tullamore (N52) and Moate (M6) involved the designation of some 26 km of N80 to R road resulting in a reduction in its total length.

marno21

serfboard wrote: »

You'd have to think that that is going to happen eventually, since there will no longer be a need for this to be a "National" route.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it though, as downgradings seem to be done very rarely and very conservatively.

There was a thread about downgradings (detrunkings) on boards at one stage - the only one that I remember was the N80:

And the N52 from Ardee to Dundalk, in addition to the N roads inside the M50 and the N71 inside the N40

ratracer

Also the N18 from Gort to Ennis was downgraded to an 80km/h limit when the M18 opened. A ridiculous decision having such a low speed limit for all of this road. Yes there are some bad bends on it, but for the most part it is perfectly capable for it's previous 100/h limit.

prunudo

ratracer wrote: »

Also the N18 from Gort to Ennis was downgraded to an 80km/h limit when the M18 opened. A ridiculous decision having such a low speed limit for all of this road. Yes there are some bad bends on it, but for the most part it is perfectly capable for it's previous 100/h limit.

Did you not know, that was done, so we can be done for speeding and be all told we're bad people and not learning to slow down so they need to introduce more scamera vans :pac:

Great work on the photos in this thread.

Cookiemunster

ratracer wrote: »

Also the N18 from Gort to Ennis was downgraded to an 80km/h limit when the M18 opened. A ridiculous decision having such a low speed limit for all of this road. Yes there are some bad bends on it, but for the most part it is perfectly capable for it's previous 100/h limit.

The old N18 was downgraded to R road status (R458) which automatically reduces the limit to 80km/h. The speed limit can be ugraded again by the council if they so choose.

serfboard wrote: »

There was a thread about downgradings (detrunkings) on boards at one stage - the only one that I remember was the N80:

Every N road that was replaced by a motorway was downgraded. The old N7 is now the R445 for example.

marmurr1916

There was a thread about downgrading national routes, like the N87 (Belturbet to north of Swanlinbar)which no longer serves any very useful purpose as a national route since the N3/A509 bridge at Aghalane was rebuilt. There's also the N83 from Tuam to Ballyhaunis which is hard to justify as a national secondary route also, likewise the N84 from Galway to Castlebar (which will be even harder to justify once the M17 to Tuam is finished), as is the Roscommon to near Claregalway section of the N63, the N65 (connects M6 to Loughrea then continues to Borrisokane where it meets the N52), the N74, the N75, the N78, the N81 and the N82 - all of these national secondary routes could be downgraded to regional routes.

And there are plenty of boreens in Ireland, especially rural cul-de-sacs, that have either no houses on them or only a handful of houses. In many European countries, roads like this would either not be public roads at all, or might only have a gravel surface dressing or would have to maintained solely at the expense of the residents.

m17

The roundabout at annagh hill last night it only feels like yesterday that big sign in the background went up

serfboard

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Every N road that was replaced by a motorway was downgraded. The old N7 is now the R445 for example.

I know that. I was responding to the posters point about possible downgrading of roads not immediately affected by the motorway - what might be called "secondary" downgrading. In this case the immediate road to be downgraded is the N18, but a perhaps worthwhile secondary downgrading could be the N66 as the poster suggested. Likewise, the secondary N80 downgrading, which I mentioned, was not superceded directly by a motorway - the road that was - the N6, was downgraded to the R446.

It was this secondary downgrading that was being referred to, more examples of which are given here:

marno21 wrote: »

And the N52 from Ardee to Dundalk, in addition to the N roads inside the M50 and the N71 inside the N40

and here:

marmurr1916 wrote: »

the N87 (Belturbet to north of Swanlinbar)which no longer serves any very useful purpose as a national route since the N3/A509 bridge at Aghalane was rebuilt. There's also the N83 from Tuam to Ballyhaunis which is hard to justify as a national secondary route also, likewise the N84 from Galway to Castlebar (which will be even harder to justify once the M17 to Tuam is finished), as is the Roscommon to near Claregalway section of the N63, the N65 (connects M6 to Loughrea then continues to Borrisokane where it meets the N52), the N74, the N75, the N78, the N81 and the N82 - all of these national secondary routes could be downgraded to regional routes.

And there are plenty of boreens in Ireland, especially rural cul-de-sacs, that have either no houses on them or only a handful of houses. In many European countries, roads like this would either not be public roads at all, or might only have a gravel surface dressing or would have to maintained solely at the expense of the residents.

Agree with all of the above 100%.

red bull

marmurr1916 wrote: »

There was a thread about downgrading national routes, like the N87 (Belturbet to north of Swanlinbar)which no longer serves any very useful purpose as a national route since the N3/A509 bridge at Aghalane was rebuilt. There's also the N83 from Tuam to Ballyhaunis which is hard to justify as a national secondary route also, likewise the N84 from Galway to Castlebar (which will be even harder to justify once the M17 to Tuam is finished), as is the Roscommon to near Claregalway section of the N63, the N65 (connects M6 to Loughrea then continues to Borrisokane where it meets the N52), the N74, the N75, the N78, the N81 and the N82 - all of these national secondary routes could be downgraded to regional routes.

And there are plenty of boreens in Ireland, especially rural cul-de-sacs, that have either no houses on them or only a handful of houses. In many European countries, roads like this would either not be public roads at all, or might only have a gravel surface dressing or would have to maintained solely at the expense of the residents.

The N84 is the main road to Mayo and is being upgraded at the moment.

marmurr1916

red bull wrote: »

The N84 is the main road to Mayo and is being upgraded at the moment.

Even now, if I was driving from Galway to Castlebar I'd take the N17, N60 route.

Once the M17 is finished, it becomes an even better choice.

There would be no need to upgrade the N84 if it wasn't designated as a national secondary route. Instead of spending money on improving the N84, the money would be better spent on improving the N17 between Tuam and Claremorris, to include bypasses of Milltown and Ballindine, and improving the N60 between Castlebar and Claremorris.

Money is scarce, even in good times, and shouldn't be wasted on unnecessary duplication of routes. There's no need for there to be two main routes between Galway and Castlebar. One route, the N17/N60 route should be sufficient, with the N84 downgraded to regional road status and developed and maintained as such. What's the point in spreading the available money across two routes instead of concentrating it on one route?

Most of the N8X routes are hard to justify as national secondary routes.

Apart from the N80 itself (which provides useful links between a number of national primary routes) the exceptions are the N85 and N86 which connect major tourist centres to the national primary or motorway networks. And both of those roads were originally regional roads that were reclassified as national secondary routes in the 1990s.

There's no real justification for the N81, N82, N83, N84 and N87 to continue as national secondary routes.

MBSnr

marmurr1916 wrote: »

Even now, if I was driving from Galway to Castlebar I'd take the N17, N60 route.

There's no real justification for the N81, N82, N83, N84 and N87 to continue as national secondary routes.

At present I wouldn't necessarily depending on time of day. I'd go up through Ballinrobe on the small 80Km/h section. Traffic in Claregalway and all that...

I'd also disagree on the N84 not being a secondary route. The amount of traffic it carries for a start. The new M17 is way too far to the East for those travelling 40 to 50Kms North. It needs the work to be done on the re-alignment regardless of the M17.

D Trent

serfboard wrote: »

I know that. I was responding to the posters point about possible downgrading of roads not immediately affected by the motorway - what might be called "secondary" downgrading. In this case the immediate road to be downgraded is the N18, but a perhaps worthwhile secondary downgrading could be the N66 as the poster suggested.

I would imagine N18 will only be downgraded (R458) between Gort and Kilcolgan south and again between Oranmore and Claregalway

Maybe from the Galway clinic roundabout to the Kinvara turnoff in Kilcolgan will become N67 continuing onto Ballinderreen

marno21

D Trent wrote: »

I would imagine N18 will only be downgraded (R458) between Gort and Kilcolgan south and again between Oranmore and Claregalway

Maybe from the Galway clinic roundabout to the Kinvara turnoff in Kilcolgan will become N67 continuing onto Ballinderreen

If that's the case will the N17 from Annagh Hill to Galway become the N63?

guylikeme

marno21 wrote: »

If that's the case will the N17 from Annagh Hill to Galway become the N63?

I can't see either happening. N roads in recent times divert one away from cities and bottlenecks where possible. The road sign would look ridiculous saying 'go this single carriageway to galway, don't use that motorway route we just built'.

Examples: N80 moate to tullamore, N65 bypassing loughrea and all N roads south of Athlone bypass becoming r roads.

Mahogany Gaspipe

D Trent wrote: »

I would imagine N18 will only be downgraded (R458) between Gort and Kilcolgan south and again between Oranmore and Claregalway

Maybe from the Galway clinic roundabout to the Kinvara turnoff in Kilcolgan will become N67 continuing onto Ballinderreen

I wonder about this.

I live pretty much beside the Kilteirnan M18 junction and I'm not sure how traffic numbers will reduce once the M18 opens.
I imagine north bound and Galway City traffic from south of the Gort junction will use the M18; however with the M18 running towards Derrydonnell Galway City bound traffic starting out from north of Gort may continue to use the old N18.

Furthermore, some Dublin bound traffic from Kilcolgan and Clarinbridge may choose to travel southbound on the N18 to join the M18 at Kilteirnan.

No doubt these local traffic issues are found along any new motorway build.