N40 - Cork South Ring Bandon & Sarsfield Flyovers

L1011

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

This project is moving crazily slowly at the moment, they closed the pedestrian path alongside the at the beginning of October, with the intention of opening it 3 weeks later. Now they wont have it open till December.

No visible works at sarsfield rd for a month now.

The contractor's gone bust; there is unlikely to be any work happening for a very long time.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/commercial-property/six-parties-express-interest-in-siac-as-group-enters-examinership-1.1585750

Padraig Mor

neddynasty wrote: »

Since the flyovers are open a few momths now, schools are back, the hour has changed and we're heading deeper into winter, how is the traffic in the JL Tunnel these days? Has it settled down a bit from the days after the flyovers were opened? How does it compare now to pre-flyover days?

Absolutely savage. Very busy every evening. At the times it used to be backed up a few hundred metres towards Mahon, it's now backed up to the Bloomfield Interchange. It had settled down very quickly after the flyovers opened, so this may simply be more traffic on the roads (a la M50). One thing though is that, even though it's backed up further, it seems to be moving quicker than before. Also getting "semi back ups" now from the Douglas overpass heading East.

spacetweek

MYOB wrote: »

The contractor's gone bust; there is unlikely to be any work happening for a very long time.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/commercial-property/six-parties-express-interest-in-siac-as-group-enters-examinership-1.1585750

Oh dear. The NRA or Cork City Council will need to step in to sort this mess out.

L1011

I imagine there's at least one stage payment pending that the new owners after examinership would like to get their hands on - which would require completing the work.

Outkast_IRE

MYOB wrote: »

The contractor's gone bust; there is unlikely to be any work happening for a very long time.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/commercial-property/six-parties-express-interest-in-siac-as-group-enters-examinership-1.1585750

examinership is not bust, and there are still workers on site, just very few its progressing slowly there has been work done on the foothpaths on the bandon rd roundabout this week and last week.

kub

Has anyone spotted while approaching the Sarsfield Roundabout from the East, ie from Kinsale Rd side. When going down the approach ramp to the roundabout (Sarsfields) that the fence to the left, tarmac and kerbing slabs beneath have dipped down.

Outkast_IRE

kub wrote: »

Has anyone spotted while approaching the Sarsfield Roundabout from the East, ie from Kinsale Rd side. When going down the approach ramp to the roundabout (Sarsfields) that the fence to the left, tarmac and kerbing slabs beneath have dipped down.

Yes that was an issue that was spotted during the summer, or last spring I cant remember, but they put in more supports under that section from the side in some additional works during the summer, I am not sure have they worked though.

You can see the additional works from sarsfield rd if you look over at the spot.

Outkast_IRE

They have now changed the opening of that path alongside the road, to 20/12/2013.

That's 4 separate times they have pushed back the date on it. at this rate there is no hope of tidying up the sites by the end of the year.

hoodwinked

well the mound of dirt on the wilton -> east road is growing a lovely cover of grass!

phatmanwc

Outstanding works are slowly but surely being completed, landscaping/final grading works being completed on the BRR at present, together with laying of pedestrian walkways etc.

As far as I'm aware, all lighting has now been installed; several of the units had been omitted during the main installation works, for some reason. Otherwise, landscaping works are required at the SRR, and a sign is missing at the eastbound on-ramp, coming from the BRR.

A couple of observations:

- I've noticed this elsewhere, but the paint they've used for the road markings seems very susceptible to discolouration from tyres, leading to a blackened appearance, making them hard to see in places.

- There has been discernable settlement along the entirety of the scheme since it was opened to traffic, leading to quite a few bumps, and a not so smooth driving surface. Nothing too bad, but a little disappointing at the same time...

- Traffic management measures are still in place, along with the supposed 60km/h limit on the mainline; time to remove these, perhaps?

As regards an official opening date, has anyone heard anything? Are we to expect a ceremony of any sorts, and a mention on the Six-One?

Truckermal

Traffic heading towards the Tunnel was shocking this evening being backed up to the Kinsale Rd flyover. Slightly off topic but you can download load the jack lynch tunnel app now for your phone where you can see the cameras live??

kub

Truckermal wrote: »

Traffic heading towards the Tunnel was shocking this evening being backed up to the Kinsale Rd flyover. Slightly off topic but you can download load the jack lynch tunnel app now for your phone where you can see the cameras live??

That is beginning to become a daily occurrence, please note those that doubted this would occur.

AugustusMinimus

It had to happen IMO. Its a good thing in a way as it might speed up altering of the Dunkettle Interchange.

The N28 being built might make things even worse.

Padraig Mor

kub wrote: »

That is beginning to become a daily occurrence, please note those that doubted this would occur.

Seems to be a huge number of crashes and breakdowns recently as well on that road.

mydiscworld

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

It had to happen IMO. Its a good thing in a way as it might speed up altering of the Dunkettle Interchange.

The N28 being built might make things even worse.

If traffic becomes mental every day to the Tunnel, you'd imagine Dunkettle would start moving up the pecking order.

cork_south

kub wrote: »

That is beginning to become a daily occurrence, please note those that doubted this would occur.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.


The flyovers are opened for 5 months now and this has only been an issue the last few weeks.

I would put the recent traffic congestion there down to an increase in Christmas shoppers around Mahon and more importantly to the fact that very few commuters take the 2 weeks before Christmas off so most people are travelling in and out of work at this time of the year.

Padraig Mor

cork_south wrote: »

I would put the recent traffic congestion there down to an increase in Christmas shoppers around Mahon and more importantly to the fact that very few commuters take the 2 weeks before Christmas off so most people are travelling in and out of work at this time of the year.

I wouldn't. The heavy congestion has been ongoing since late October. I've already said that the original congestion after the flyovers opened settled down quickly so I am not ascribing the 'blame' to them. I'm not sure what's causing it - but it's not Christmas shoppers.

cork_south

Padraig Mor wrote: »

I wouldn't. The heavy congestion has been ongoing since late October. I've already said that the original congestion after the flyovers opened settled down quickly so I am not ascribing the 'blame' to them. I'm not sure what's causing it - but it's not Christmas shoppers.

I think you missed the "more importantly" part.

hoodwinked

Padraig Mor wrote: »

I wouldn't. The heavy congestion has been ongoing since late October. I've already said that the original congestion after the flyovers opened settled down quickly so I am not ascribing the 'blame' to them. I'm not sure what's causing it - but it's not Christmas shoppers.

i think its a combination of factors tbh,


at the moment Christmas shopping is causing havoc, you have ballincollig, wilton, douglas and mahon on all this road, its a lot busier then ever before,


before that though you could see it was getting busier, traffic that would have avoided it or taken alternative routes would have heard from people "oh i go the flyover its much faster now" or just use it now its open so its natural it would get busier.

Padraig Mor

cork_south wrote: »

I think you missed the "more importantly" part.

I think you missed the "2 weeks" part.

AlonzoHarris

I use the road twice a day. It has only become very heavily congested the last 2/3 weeks.

Traffic through Blackrock to Mahon for example is backed up towards the lights on the Skehard road up by the Silver Key some days due to heavy congestion in and around Mahon point.
It can take 35 minutes to get from the Silver Key to the South Ring via Skehard road at peak times.
This has only started occurring in the last 2/3 weeks and is down to the amount of people shopping in Mahon at the moment.

It is obvious this congestion has a knock on affect on the South Ring heading towards the Jack Lynch Tunnel.
As more and more cars flow out from Mahon point at a slower pace, this increases the tailback (heading northbound) on the South Ring back to the Kinsale roundabout.

I would wait to see what traffic is like on the road by late January before drawing any conclusions here, especially as the road has not had any major congestion problems in the last 6 months up until recently.

Outkast_IRE

Well they opened the path alongside the rd from bandon to sarsfield, that was closed the last few months.

All resurfaced, they did a decent job with it.

TheChizler

I don't recall seeing any 60 kmh signs on the Wilton to KRR stretch this afternoon, was it just me?

blindsider

There's a 60KPH sign as you join the N40 from Wilton (Eastbound), and there's one somewhere after the KRR (Westbound) but they do seem to have removed some others. It's certainly not indicated as well as it was.

The cones at Wilton (eastbound) are a pain - they confuse more than anything.

Also, the alignment of the dividing line as you exit the N40 at Wilton (westbound) is awful IMO. It seems to give priority to the N40 lane, at the expense of traffic exiting the N40 for Wilton. Anyone else notice this?

TheChizler

blindsider wrote: »

Also, the alignment of the dividing line as you exit the N40 at Wilton (westbound) is awful IMO. It seems to give priority to the N40 lane, at the expense of traffic exiting the N40 for Wilton. Anyone else notice this?

Well the idea behind the flyover is that it's the main road by default, you exit it to go to Wilton, instead of having to make a conscious effort to go over the flyover coming from either direction, if I'm understanding you correctly. That exit to Wilton is very poor though, very last minute and lanes not immediately obvious.

kub

I suppose that is a consequent of cramming the flyover into a limited space.

AlonzoHarris

Padraig Mor wrote: »

I wouldn't. The heavy congestion has been ongoing since late October. I've already said that the original congestion after the flyovers opened settled down quickly so I am not ascribing the 'blame' to them. I'm not sure what's causing it - but it's not Christmas shoppers.

I've been back to work since January 3rd.
I have been going through the tunnel from the West as usual around 5.20PM.

While heading in the same direction at the same time just before Christmas the queue was building near Rochestown Park Hotel and further back towards the Kinsale flyover.

I have not seen any traffic build up at the tunnel like what was seen pre-
Christmas in 2014.
In fact, from what I have seen the queue has not even gone as far as the Mahon slip road.

Outkast_IRE

Must say alot of the footpath work isn't great, there are parts of it breaking away already by the elmvale to sarsfield road roundabout side.

Also with the wet weather sections were flooded all over Christmas, but they might not be permament sections so will have to wait and see how that develops.

kub

AlonzoHarris wrote: »

I've been back to work since January 3rd.
I have been going through the tunnel from the West as usual around 5.20PM.

While heading in the same direction at the same time just before Christmas the queue was building near Rochestown Park Hotel and further back towards the Kinsale flyover.

I have not seen any traffic build up at the tunnel like what was seen pre-
Christmas in 2014.
In fact, from what I have seen the queue has not even gone as far as the Mahon slip road.

You must be lucky so that you missed the tail back as far back as the Magic Roundabout from the tunnel yesterday evening.

murphym7

kub wrote: »

You must be lucky so that you missed the tail back as far back as the Magic Roundabout from the tunnel yesterday evening.

I was just going to say the same, I got caught in that too. Since the flyovers opened I think I have been stuck on top of the magic roundabout flyover 7/8 times. Some for crashes some for no apparent reason, like Wed evening was.

blindsider

http://www.sturdyproducts.com/products/road-furniture/road-dividers/sturdy-road-divider-musior-large

When are they going to put in Road dividers? 5 months on, and still no sign of them - surely they're a necessity?

cork_south

kub wrote: »

You must be lucky so that you missed the tail back as far back as the Magic Roundabout from the tunnel yesterday evening.

There was a 3 car crash on the road yesterday which caused the tail back as mentioned by @gardacork on twitter.

Days 298

Well they still havent raised the limit yet. Bureaucracy knows no bounds.

That siad I was behind a traffic corp entering the 60 zone last week. He went 80 and pulled no one overtaking him going 100 or so.

murphym7

cork_south wrote: »

There was a 3 car crash on the road yesterday which caused the tail back as mentioned by @gardacork on twitter.

The tailback we are talking about happened on the 8th not the 9th.

cork_south

murphym7 wrote: »

The tailback we are talking about happened on the 8th not the 9th.

Yes, there were crashes on the road on both days.
Please check https://twitter.com/GardaCork

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GardaCheckpointsCork ‏@GardaCork 8 Jan
Collision N40 South Ring Rd eastbound blocking the right lane near the Mahon exit
Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More

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GardaCheckpointsCork ‏@GardaCork 9 Jan
N40 South Ring Rd closed W/bound at Bloomfield due to 3 car crash also crash E/bound at Bloomfield however traffic able to pass
Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More

=========
GardaCheckpointsCork ‏@GardaCork 9 Jan
Gardai in the process of clearing 3 car crash from N40 South Ring Rd W/bound approaching Bloomfield
Expand Reply Retweet Favorite More

moyners

Irish Examiner today:

http://www.irishexaminer.com/text/ireland/cwojojmhsnau/

Cork’s city manager has moved to ease fears about the completion of a €60m double flyover project on the city’s ring road while the main contractor works through examinership.

Tim Lucey was responding to concerns raised by Bishopstown-based Fianna Fáil councillor Mary Shields about progress on the N40 scheme.

Ms Shields described the two main construction sites — around the Bandon and Sarsfield Rd roundabouts — as "abandoned or ghost construction sites".

However, Mr Lucey said that while Siac Construction Ltd is still in the examinership process, a contract for completion of the N40 scheme remains in place.

Siac, the lead contractor on the €60m scheme, and eight related companies, employing 250 people, went into examinership in October.

The High Court heard the companies owed their lender banks €42m.

The petition stated that SCL had become insolvent due to a downturn in business caused by the recession in Ireland and losses arising from its involvement in a number of road-building projects in Poland.

The company’s directors said that SCL was under significant pressure from its trade creditors, and any petition for its winding up would have a "catastrophic domino effect" on the group as a whole.

The court was subsequently told that the various companies were involved in continuing and completed projects and were believed to have a reasonable prospect of survival.

The new South Ring Rd flyovers opened to traffic last July, taking thousands of vehicles daily off the busy roundabouts.

However, given the company’s difficulties, work on a substantial amount of completion works, including footpaths, drainage, landscaping, traffic signals, and remedial works to road pavements, has yet to be carried out.

Ms Shields told Monday’s council meeting that work on the site has almost ceased, and machinery is lying idle.

"I saw only two men with shovels on Monday working on the site," she said.

"That is surely not progress and huge work needs to be done.

"This site is now a ghost and abandoned site and surely examinership needs to be speeded up."

Mr Lucey said that, while the outcome of the examinership process is awaited, Siac is still contractually obliged to finish the work.

"Siac is well aware of that and they have committed to finishing the works," said Mr Lucey.

"There is an amount of work still to be done and we await the outcome of the examinership process.

"But there is a contractual obligation still in place to complete the project."

blindsider

Nice of him to include a committed completion date for the works....oh wait!!! :-((

Utter codswallop from Lucey - more of the same sh1te - and we're expected to roll over and take it!

hoodwinked

blindsider wrote: »

Nice of him to include a committed completion date for the works....oh wait!!! :-((
!

they can't give a completion date as more than likely they don't have one, although a contract to complete is in place paying the staff to complete it is another totally different problem which at a guess is effecting the work rate.

Baldilocks

surely there is a penalty clause for failure to complete??

Ludo

Good luck getting that out of a company in examinership .

blindsider

hoodwinked wrote: »

they can't give a completion date as more than likely they don't have one, although a contract to complete is in place paying the staff to complete it is another totally different problem which at a guess is effecting the work rate.

My point exactly!

alaimacerc

Is there anything "structural" left to do? I'm guessing if it's just tidying up the roundabout islands and doing with and that with the footpaths, absolutely no urgency whatsoever will be evinced. (I speak as a cyclist that spends much time being yelled at for not using the cycle path (whether or not a cycle path even exists at the point of yellage), and much time finding that cycle paths have a cross-country like surface, and/or built-in kerbs sufficient to throw one off one's bike.)

On the other hand, if the whole thing (or parts thereof) really is sinking...

blindsider

alaimacerc wrote: »

Is there anything "structural" left to do? I'm guessing if it's just tidying up the roundabout islands and doing with and that with the footpaths, absolutely no urgency whatsoever will be evinced. (I speak as a cyclist that spends much time being yelled at for not using the cycle path (whether or not a cycle path even exists at the point of yellage), and much time finding that cycle paths have a cross-country like surface, and/or built-in kerbs sufficient to throw one off one's bike.)

On the other hand, if the whole thing (or parts thereof) really is sinking...

Yellage...nice Word! Might have to use that sometime! :-))

alaimacerc

Grammar production rule of "add -age to the end of everything" likely patented by Joss Whedon.

cork_south

With the end of January approaching I think we can safely say the high traffic volumes at the tunnel northbound which we saw at the end of last year were down to Christmas.

In January I have not seen anything like the queuing that existed in December, except when there were accidents on the road.

alaimacerc

I've noticed that the BRR has been smartened up a fair bit, and there's some sort of work underway at the SRR. Pumps and generators running... not sure if this is just to clear the site after the recent deluge, or if it's in preparation for some sort of finishing work.

TheChizler

alaimacerc wrote: »

I've noticed that the BRR has been smartened up a fair bit, and there's some sort of work underway at the SRR. Pumps and generators running... not sure if this is just to clear the site after the recent deluge, or if it's in preparation for some sort of finishing work.

Some of the dips and bumps have been temporarily filled in all right. Hopefully we're nearly there.

AugustusMinimus

No lights at all on the Bandon flyover. Weren't they working a few months ago ?

kub

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

No lights at all on the Bandon flyover. Weren't they working a few months ago ?

I wouldn't be too concerned about it, there has been quite a lot of construction activity again out that way over the last week. Also bear in mind Audi are constructing a new garage at that old builders providers premises and may have accidentally damaged a power line or something.

alaimacerc

There seem to be huge numbers of non-working street lights around Cork in general these days. Corpo cut that department, I guess?