What's being built just west of Enfield on the M4?

JHMEG

Could it be Ireland's first motorway services?

SeanW

I think so. Not sure though.

Cionád

Yep, there are two being built on the M1 at the moment also. Don't know which will open first!

Mimikyu

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JHMEG

Captain Morgan wrote: »

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That makes no sense as the service areas will be gold mines.

KevR

JHMEG wrote: »

That makes no sense as the service areas will be gold mines.

And surely now would be the best time to purchase the sites, when land prices are low.

kdouglas

It'll be nice to finally see proper rest stops on Irish motorways, could do with one somewhere between Cork and Dublin.

Drove the M9 from Kilkenny back to the M7 last night for the first time, lovely new road, but only saw one lay-by along that stretch.

Cookie_Monster

JHMEG wrote: »

That makes no sense as the service areas will be gold mines.

I don't think so. There's no need to stop on the Dublin - Galway route anyway, just not a long enough drive to justify stopping for anything, sure you'll do it in about 2.5 hrs these days. Can't see too many people stopping for a break/ lunch etc on such a short trip

Jip

I don't know, just look at Mother Hubbards on the old N4, you were only a stones throw out of Dublin and lots of people would stop there for a break and a bit of grub.

Tech3

KevR wrote: »

And surely now would be the best time to purchase the sites, when land prices are low.

I cant see land prices increasing for the forseeable future. In fact they will decrease further in the next few years. NAMA might have something to say about that though.

godtabh

Is the price tag correct? For 3 stations? Where is the value for money?

JHMEG

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

I don't think so. There's no need to stop on the Dublin - Galway route anyway, just not a long enough drive to justify stopping

If you need petrol or a slash you have no choice but to stop, or leave the motorway.

veryangryman

Jip wrote: »

I don't know, just look at Mother Hubbards on the old N4, you were only a stones throw out of Dublin and lots of people would stop there for a break and a bit of grub.

It took longer than 2 and a half hours to get from one to the other back then though.

MH is near Moyvalley. With pre-M4 Enfield/Maynooth/Leixlip traffic, youd do well to get to the city in an hour from there back in 'day

Jip

Nah, it wouldn't have been Dublin to there at 2/2.5 hours unless you got stuck in particularly bad traffic on a Friday evening, it was nowhere near that.

L1011

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

I don't think so. There's no need to stop on the Dublin - Galway route anyway, just not a long enough drive to justify stopping for anything, sure you'll do it in about 2.5 hrs these days. Can't see too many people stopping for a break/ lunch etc on such a short trip

One word: FUEL

My personal car can barely do Dublin - Galway on a tank (30l, high fuel consumption hot hatch). Stations either on or clearly signed from motorways are absolutely essential.

I've done the Galway Clinic to my office in Tallaght in 91 minutes, btw - 2.5hrs is very, very pessimistic!

Cionád

MYOB wrote: »

I've done the Galway Clinic to my office in Tallaght in 91 minutes, btw - 2.5hrs is very, very pessimistic!

Absolutely, Leixlip -> Galway took me around 90mins on a Saturday, it's only around 120 miles, so about 130km/h average speed.

You must have floored it, no wonder you nearly need a refill to get down! "11 seconds, i fukin' floored it Fintan"

JHMEG

MYOB wrote: »

One word: FUEL

My personal car can barely do Dublin - Galway on a tank (30l, high fuel consumption hot hatch). Stations either on or clearly signed from motorways are absolutely essential.

I've done the Galway Clinic to my office in Tallaght in 91 minutes, btw - 2.5hrs is very, very pessimistic!

That's around 130 miles, putting your average speed at ~87 mph.

I did a test in a small hatch a while back. Fuel consumption doubled at those kind of speeds. Bigger engines will cope better with speed, small engines get hammered and lose all their economy advantages.

L1011

JHMEG wrote: »

That's around 130 miles, putting your average speed at ~87 mph.

I did a test in a small hatch a while back. Fuel consumption doubled at those kind of speeds. Bigger engines will cope better with speed, small engines get hammered and lose all their economy advantages.

The 91 minutes is in a middle sized diesel carvan not my own car; and yes that'd be my motorway cruising speed more or less.

My own car would still be running it tight doing it at ~75mph, though. It doesn't have fuel economy advantages at any speed!

baalthor

So there will be no services on the Dublin-Cork route??

L1011

baalthor wrote: »

So there will be no services on the Dublin-Cork route??

No NRA-anointed ones yet.

There are 4 service stations Cork-bound between the M50 and the M7, and 2 Dublin-bound. There is also going to be a privately set up (Topaz/McDonalds rather than Applegreen/Burger King) one right off the M8 at Cashel.

The NRA has plans for two or possibly three along the route eventually - one at Kilworth is all I can remember right now.

SeanW

Here's what I dont understand about the Motorway Service Areas.

You have to think that sometimes there won't be all that many people using them, and that it might have been a better idea, i.e. made each MSA building more viable to run, if they had just built one per site and made ramps connecting both carriageways to/from a single MSA instead of one each side.

Why was side-by-side model chosen?

L1011

To cut down on the initial costs of an overbridge, I'd suspect. Single sided would make a lot more sense - you'd be able to provide a lot more services for a starter.

Chris_5339762

MOST will be single sided with a bridge but the busier ones will be two sided with no bridge.

L1011

All three under construction now are dual-sided, though....

mysterious

Service stations are built at half way points not just outside Dublin.


Stupid planning again.:mad:

The points should be
M6 Moate Kilbegan
M7 Mountrath Borris in ossary
M8 Urlingford -Johnstown
M9 Carlow

These are the correct areas for service areas.


If I'm travelling from the West doing a long haul drive I'm not gonna stop near Dublin at ****ing Enfield and the same applies for the opposite direcdtion starting at Dublin, its utterly pointless to stop this close to Dublin aswell.

JHMEG

Well the M4 services will get traffic from the M4 and the M6, and I would say where they are building services sees the greatest volume of traffic on the M4/M6, and makes sense.

The west consists of far more than Galway.

L1011

mysterious wrote: »

Service stations are built at half way points not just outside Dublin.


Stupid planning again.:mad:

The points should be
M6 Moate Kilbegan
M7 Mountrath Borris in ossary
M8 Urlingford -Johnstown
M9 Carlow

These are the correct areas for service areas.


If I'm travelling from the West doing a long haul drive I'm not gonna stop near Dublin at ****ing Enfield and the same applies for the opposite direcdtion starting at Dublin, its utterly pointless to stop this close to Dublin aswell.

One per motorway is not enough distance wise. Your suggestions are all pointless by virtue of being too *far* from Dublin.

Conventional wisdom is that you have a service area every 45-50km or so. The UK rule is 27 miles - but they often have them much closer. Enfield makes sense as the first site for the M4/M6 in this case. A little further west would be grand too but it saves having to build a further set close by on the M4 by having them before the turnoff.

I would suspect the exact site was picked for land price reasons. Also bear in mind that a lot of traffic is not coming "from Dublin", but off other routes via the M50 (and vice versa). There won't have been a services since Lusk.

Chris_5339762

Their original plan for M4/6 was one every 60km. That means one at Enfield, one east of Athlone. However, with the M6/17/18 one at Rathmorrisey gone, they need one between Loughrea and Ballinasloe.

csd

Here's a shot of the westbound work site, taken from the mainline. Some progress earth works, but overall they seem to be behind when compared with the M1 MSAs, where steel superstructure has been erected.



/csd

JHMEG

I think there's more to it that that, which you can see when coming from the opposite side.

L1011

The steel superstructure for both is erected with the roof being on the westbound one! The westbound one isn't easily visible when heading west due to a pile of earth

JHMEG

MYOB wrote: »

The steel superstructure for both is erected with the roof being on the westbound one! The westbound one isn't easily visible when heading west due to a pile of earth

That's what I thought tho I wasn't sure if the primitive barn structure was part of the finished plan, or temporary storage.

kildarecommuter

Why is anyone surprised at the way or location service stations are being built ? The same NRA once thought a hedge was ok as a central crash barrier unlike rest of EU, no rest stops, no proper motorway interscections etc....