N52 - Tullamore Bypass

murphaph

Is there a thread on this (search is not working)? If not, anyone have any info/pics? it's due to open Friday I believe.

Amtmann

murphaph wrote: »

Is there a thread on this (search is not working)? If not, anyone have any info/pics? it's due to open Friday I believe.

There's a thread in the Offaly forum here. It's already been infiltrated by myself and Wild Bill.

Website here.

Tech3

Furet wrote: »

There's a thread in the Offaly forum here. It's already been infiltrated by myself and Wild Bill.

I saw that alright, I asked for a few photos a few pages back further. I have to admit I dont have any photos uploaded to the Castleisland bypass thread yet either which needs to be soon as it's months in since it started.

Anyone got a map of the scheme. It's WS2 right?

Edit: Just looked at the brochure and it's WS2

Amtmann

Newsletter here.

nordydan

Recent photos here, and more here

I'll be heading back to Dublin from Roscommon on Friday, I might pop in and have a look.

L1011

The 'forgotten bypass' on here it seems. Last ever WS2 scheme all going to plan - although I think bog-standard S2 and bog-standard S2 with climbing lanes still feature a bit?

road_high

Tullamore is an awful bottlekneck. Good to see it go, will make crossing the Midlands that bit easier.

D'Peoples Voice

tech2 wrote: »

It's WS2 right?

Edit: Just looked at the brochure and it's WS2

you better believe it, they only believe in the best in Offaly, two motorways in the M6 and the M7, and now a top-notch bypass.
Offaly is open for business;)

marmurr1916

I hope that the N80 between Tullamore and Portlaoise is upgraded soon, to include bypasses of Mountmellick and Portlaoise.

That would create a high-quality route from Cork to Athlone via the M8/M7/N80/N52/M6.

Improvements to the N77 from Kilkenny to Durrow, with an extension to join the M8, would create a high-quality route from Waterford and Kilkenny to Athlone.

Not only would this provide valuable high-quality road links between the south-west, the south-east and the midlands, it would also make the most of the new motorways.

medoc

This is my first time to try to post pictures so hope they work.

The road is indeed to open on Friday by Brian Cowen. The road is Single Carriage way with seven roundabouts on its length There was a lot of work going on today. I was unable to drive on some of the sections as there was works in the way and 89 OY Micra looked out of place with all the Northern Reg Fords, Toyotas and Jeeps. The sections with the rail,river and canal bridges were inaccessable. The old N52 will be renumbered the R421 from the Kinnity road roundabout to the junction with the N52 at the Kilbeggan end. The old N80 from the Portlaoise roundabout will be the R443 i.e. the number of the Western Relief road. The N80 link will not be ready to open on Friday and will be a couple of months. Here are 4 photos I have more and will put them up when I get time.




The Junction with the old N52 (will now be R421), the Western Relief Road now R443 (probably be the N80) and the N80 link to the Bypass




TYrells Road passing under the Bypass with the New private hospital site just before



Looking North with Mucklagh Roundabout in the distance.



Looking South in the Birr Direction from the same Screggan road overbridge with the Tie in to the old N52 in the distance

murphaph

Is that S2 or WS2? What is the carriageway cross section? Great pics by the way but can't help feel this should have been 2+2 for the sake of the barrier and a little bit more cross section. When you go to all the trouble of doing the cuttings and building the over/underbridges it really makes no sense to go with S2 instead of 2+2.

The alignments look nice but being a fast S2 road you can be certain it'll see its fair share of head on's.

JupiterKid

I wonder if the Tullamore bypass is future proofed, so that at a later date it can be widened to D2? From some of those photos, it seems like there's a side cutting with extra space at the sides of the road.

I also think D2+2 would have been a better, safer configuration for the bypass. I had thought that it was originally supposed to be a D2 at any rate and was scaled back?

medoc

Kinnitty road roundabout in distance with Bypass continuing straight ahead. This section of N52 is also marked R421 in brackets.

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Short improved section of N52 from Kilbeggan with tie in to bypass in distance. The R421 (old N52) into Tullamore joins at a T junction here on the right which is signed Ardan. Tullamore is signed straight ahead here. Tullamore North and Tullamore South appears on signs along the bypass depending on location.

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The above mentioned junction from the Tullamore direction

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The Ballinagar roundabout coming out from Tullamore. The sign approaching from Ballinagar shows Tullamore North to the right, Tullamore South to the left and Town centre straight ahead.

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The T junction of the altered old N52 with the bypass right and Birr left

medoc

Online upgrade of the existing N52 between Mucklagh roundabout and Charleville roundabout driving in the Tullamore direction.

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Same section nearer the roundabout. The town is signed as Tullamore South R421 straight ahead and Tullamore North and Mullingar N52 (R421) are signed right. One problem is the fact there is no mention of Kinnitty here, the old R421 coming out of town is closed now with traffic now proceeding through this r/b and on to the Kinnitty road r/b where the R421 leaves

road_high

I think it looks a fine scheme. Anything would be better than being stuck, crawling down Bridge (?) Street in the centre of the town waiting for those blasted lights to change and pedestrians flying in all directions.

biffoman

i dont think this was to be dc.afaik it got the go ahead because of congestion and not nesseccerly traffic numbers.there seems to be more scope for future upgrades of this road as compared to the bad planning of the n7.

Irish and Proud

murphaph wrote: »

Is that S2 or WS2? What is the carriageway cross section? Great pics by the way but can't help feel this should have been 2+2 for the sake of the barrier and a little bit more cross section. When you go to all the trouble of doing the cuttings and building the over/underbridges it really makes no sense to go with S2 instead of 2+2.

The alignments look nice but being a fast S2 road you can be certain it'll see its fair share of head on's.

To me, it looks like the old S2 standard of 13.5m (2 x 3m H/S - 2 x 3.75m Lanes) - however, I'd imagine that the current S2 (12.3) standard was used. What's interesting though is the width of the verges - wonder do these continue under the flyover? - if so, it's a demonstration of forward thinking - at least a 2+2 should be possible then.

Regards!

road_high

After 2 pm tommorrow according to AA Roadwatch it's to open.

munchkin_utd

Indo

Cowen to open new €45m Tullamore bypass

Friday October 23 2009
The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, is due in his home town this afternoon to open the new Tullamore bypass.

The €45m scheme has been completed 10 months ahead of schedule.

It is designed to ease traffic congestion in the Co Offaly town.

Mr Cowen turned the first sod on the 14km route when he was Finance Minister in February 2008.

road_high

Thought I read €118 million elsewhere
Doubt they built that for €45 million to be fair.

rameire

im heading to Galway from Athy tomorrow, and will hopefully be using the road, edit just realised i wont be using it.

Doh. stupid N80.
might get some pics anyway.

munchkin_utd

its a different financial atmosphere now maybe? Maybe (the outrageous) land acquisition costs are ommitted to make it not sound like such an excessive cost, the only major project not on an intercity route, just co-incidentally in the same constituency as the then minister for finance and now Taoiseach??
Seriously, look at the Transport 21 official website linked below and spot the odd one out!!
http://www.transport21.ie/Projects/Roads/Roads.html

Anyhow, a transport 21 document linked below mentions 116 million for the by pass project which is way more than what the Government press agents are now claiming the cost is, and probably the figure you heard before:
http://www.transport21.ie/Projects/upload/File/N52_Project.pdf

medoc

rameire wrote: »

im heading to Galway from Athy tomorrow, and will hopefully be using the road, edit just realised i wont be using it.

Doh. stupid N80.
might get some pics anyway.

The N80 will eventually be bypassed using this road. However this will not be opening for a couple of months.

Regarding the queries about WS2 or S2 the sections i drove the other day seem to be S2. I didnt get on to some sections so not sure about them. Lookin forward to a full run along it later.

murphaph

More pics of it would be great too medoc, if possible. Cheers.

spacetweek

The €45m scheme has been completed 10 months ahead of schedule.

Although having it open early is great an all, this whole thing of roads opening 10 months early is getting ridiculous. Why don't they just tell us at the beginning what the real timescale is going to be instead of massively overestimating it and then trumpeting how early it was?

Sponge Bob

So it cost €116m made up of €45m for the road and €71m for getting biffos out of the way + archeology/fencing/design but these were tiny leading to an admitted grand total price of €116m

What was the land take does anyone know ??? At the very most they took 70Ha so shifting biffos cost them €1m a Ha on average. Shockin

road_high

Tiny clip on the news. Pity, I'd have liked to see a bit more

westtip

mfitzy wrote: »

Tiny clip on the news. Pity, I'd have liked to see a bit more

RTE no longer giving Party Political Broadcasts every time a new road opens - good thing too.

Delighted it is open will help on my 4 times a year drives to Carlow from Sligo.

nordydan

Came down the western part today for a look, v good WS2 for a few k and the rest standard, not upgradable, S2. I remember sending an email to Offaly CC about 3 years ago about the N52, and they stated the long term aim was DC from the north of Tullamore to the M6, this would seem to have been easily acommodated by this.

nordydan

nordydan wrote: »

Came down the western part today for a look, v good WS2 for a few k and the rest standard, not upgradable, S2. I remember sending an email to Offaly CC about 3 years ago about the N52, and they stated the long term aim was DC from the north of Tullamore to the M6, this would seem to have been easily acommodated by this.

I remember a few sections of bypass built this way in the UK that appeared not to be easily upgraded, i.e. overbridges with a single span etc.

But when the road was dualed (only 7 years after the original bypass was built) the second carriageway was just dropped into place with no problems at all, even the overbridge had the deck extended (without any demolishion) In hindsight the original one looked a bit lopsided. Another section of the same road had a "ghost carriageway" beside it that was simply surfaced and used.

Amtmann

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen officially opened the €116 million N52 Tullamore bypass in Co Offaly yesterday, 10 months ahead of schedule. The road is expected to remove 10,000 cars from the town every day.
“I want to thank everyone from the design team who put it right behind my back door,” Mr Cowen said at the opening of the 14km route.
“I’m probably the only person who they could see wouldn’t be objecting to it. I want to thank them for their foresight in coming up with that particular solution.”
Speaking of future road projects under the Government’s Transport 21 scheme, given the economic climate, Mr Cowen said: “The major inter-urban network will be completed by the end of next year and then we will move into the next phase of developments.”
He said the plans were subject to resources, but “the important thing is that the plans are in place”.
According to the National Roads Authority (NRA), the new bypass will alleviate congestion in Tullamore and remove 10,000 cars from the town daily.
Mr Cowen said the on-budget early completion of the project was “a great testament to partnership between the private sector, the National Roads Authority, who have been given statutory authority for this kind of work, and the local authority”.
NRA chairman Peter Malone thanked the Taoiseach and Minister for Transport for their support. “Tullamore has now been given back to the citizens like other bypassed towns in Ireland.”
He said the NRA was working to provide an “excellent and safer road network”. Progress had been made on a number of routes recently and the M50 works were near completion.
Offaly county manager Pat Gallagher described the bypass as being of “great importance in developing Tullamore’s role as part of the midland gateway project”. He said the bypass was completed in a timely fashion despite extensive archaeological investigations.
Tullamore County Council chairman Noel Bourke welcomed the completion of the project. “It is a big investment in this particular area and those who live in Co Offaly are very thankful for that.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1024/1224257392317.html

L1011

Deleted User wrote: »

Another section of the same road had a "ghost carriageway" beside it that was simply surfaced and used.

Been done on this island - Banbridge Bypass had all cuttings, all land take done for a dualler but was built as S2 along one side of it, had the second carriageway dropped in later.

KevR

MYOB wrote: »

Been done on this island - Banbridge Bypass had all cuttings, all land take done for a dualler but was built as S2 along one side of it, had the second carriageway dropped in later.

That's what is supposed to happen to the Seamus Quirke and Bishop O'Donnell road in Galway. The existing carriageway will have to be fully resurfaced though because it's in an aweful state.

Annoyingly the plan now is that there will be bus lanes in each direction so no extra capacity for other vehicles. I personally can't see enough buses using the bus lanes for them to be justified. Obviously if they just dualled it with 2 lanes for all vehicles in each direction (no bus lanes) buses would still have a good improvement in their journey times.

TestTransmission

So,how long does the journey take from where the bypass begins before Mucklagh to where it ends in Gormagh (Durrow)?

Any rough ideas anyone?

mackerski

The Bypass is now mapped on OpenStreetMap.

medoc

Heading south in Birr direction under Screggan road bridge (from where first pic on page 1 was taken)

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Tullamore direction of same. This section bypasses Mucklagh

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Sign on N80 road at bypass

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Canal bridge in distance heading South ( Birr direction)

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WS2 section approaching the N80 Link (not yet open) with Private Hospital in background. This is a larger roundabout than the others with 5 exits (5th one for the hospital)

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Tie in at kilbeggan side, this is WS2 from here to the roundabout above.

medoc

Art works on kilbeggan end, This was where the opening was performed

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N52 and R443 roundabout

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Chris_533976

medoc wrote: »

I wonder if there are long term plans to put 2+2 in some of these areas, but not the whole thing. The cross section here is MASSIVE, it could easily take motorway, possibly D3M of all things. Not that Tullamore needs a motorway bypass.

Funny too that theres no way you can see the distance indicator sign as its too far from the road.

medoc

Chris_533976 wrote: »

I wonder if there are long term plans to put 2+2 in some of these areas, but not the whole thing. The cross section here is MASSIVE, it could easily take motorway, possibly D3M of all things. Not that Tullamore needs a motorway bypass.

Funny too that theres no way you can see the distance indicator sign as its too far from the road.

There is a lot of space along the verges of some areas alright. There are plans for a 2+2 from kilbeggan to tullamore which would finish at the Tullamore north roundabout and the WS2 section is along that section (photo above) (although the camera makes wider than it is). In my opinion 2+2 should have been used from here to the Portlaoise N80 road, even if traffic numbers dont justify it now.

Tech3

medoc wrote: »

In my opinion 2+2 should have been used from here to the Portlaoise N80 road, even if traffic numbers dont justify it now.

It doesnt matter the NRA are building roads as 2+2 for national routes from now on. Now more new WS2's will be flying about. 2+2 is replacing WS2 basically for new builds.

road_high

Drove it yesterday. Was not particularly impressed with it, considering it ia reported to have cost 116 million, I fail to see where that amount of money went; the CPO's must have been very excessive.
I thought it full of roundabouts unfortunately.

EDIT; Though I do think of course it is way better than being stuck in the town. It was extremely busy and full of rubberkneckers crawling along and getting used to the new layouts.

CrowdedHouse

Sorry about this Folks, I'm a bit slow......but looking at the map someone linked to above I'm

If I'm coming from Birr and want to go to Clara do I still have to go through the town ? (Tullamore)

mackerski

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

If I'm coming from Birr and want to go to Clara do I still have to go through the town ? (Tullamore)

I think so - though you can fairly well choose a number of different ways to do it.

You can take the bypass until you hit the N80 eastbound, then turn left.
You can go through the old way. You could even, in theory, go almost to the Kilbeggan end, then approach from the north of the town.

There is a link still under construction which I understand is to be the "official" N80 routing. For now, based on the signs on the ground, OSM actually has a gap in the N80.

medoc

mackerski wrote: »

There is a link still under construction which I understand is to be the "official" N80 routing. For now, based on the signs on the ground, OSM actually has a gap in the N80.

True but the under construction link is signed as the R443 from the bypass. That still leaves the N80 heading into the town centre which dosent make sense.

medoc

medoc wrote: »

True but the under construction link is signed as the R443 from the bypass. That still leaves the N80 heading into the town centre which dosent make sense.

Maybe the N80 to Clara is being downgraded to become the R443.

The preferred route to Athlone etc is now via Kilbeggan (M6)

medoc

Deleted User wrote: »

Maybe the N80 to Clara is being downgraded to become the R443.

The preferred route to Athlone etc is now via Kilbeggan (M6)

The N80 to Moate from Tullamore is to be down graded to the R420. I emailed Offaly County Council about this. It is currently awaiting Ministerial order. The Tullamore Kilbeggan road is been planned as 2+2. I will post a copy of the mail later.

westtip

medoc wrote: »

The N80 to clara from Tullamore is to be down graded to the R420. I emailed Offaly County Council about this. It is currently awaiting Ministerial order. The Tullamore Kilbeggan road is been planned as 2+2. I will post a copy of the mail later.

That all makes sense - no point building these fancy new roads which are safer to drive on more fuel efficient etc and make towns like Clara thankfully another place in Ireland I need never go to again ...Moate...Knock...Claremorris...Bundoran..Ballyshannon..Athlone..etc etc.

The old road might be slightly shorter - but I doubt it is quicker and I know it is not safer.

murphaph

westtip wrote: »

That all makes sense - no point building these fancy new roads which are safer to drive on more fuel efficient etc and make towns like Clara thankfully another place in Ireland I need never go to again ...Moate...Knock...Claremorris...Bundoran..Ballyshannon..Athlone..etc etc.

The old road might be slightly shorter - but I doubt it is quicker and I know it is not safer.

Certainly if the N52 is upgraded to 2+2 it makes sense to encourage traffic onto it via the M6 and get it off the old N80. Makes it even stranger that the Tullamore bypass wasn't 2+2 though.

nordydan

murphaph wrote: »

Makes it even stranger that the Tullamore bypass wasn't 2+2 though.

Maybe they couldn't build an isloated stretch of 2+2 without upgrading the other part of the N52, 2+2 then S2 might have been a bit dodgy. At least they have made provision.

The old road might be slightly shorter - but I doubt it is quicker and I know it is not safer.

Indeed, that's the attitude that should be taken. You often hear of bad smashes in the midlands

I presume they'll have to re-signs these if the reclassification goes ahead.

spacetweek

medoc wrote: »

The N80 to clara from Tullamore is to be down graded to the R420. I emailed Offaly County Council about this. It is currently awaiting Ministerial order. The Tullamore Kilbeggan road is been planned as 2+2. I will post a copy of the mail later.

Didn't know about this - it's good news.

L1011

nordydan wrote: »

Maybe they couldn't build an isloated stretch of 2+2 without upgrading the other part of the N52, 2+2 then S2 might have been a bit dodgy. At least they have made provision.

The other 2+2 schemes (all one built and one under construction) in existance are book-ended by S2 or WS2; I'd say it was more a case of the Tullamore scheme being too far advanced by the time they'd decided that Dromod/Roosky was a success.