N6 - Athlone Bypass Upgrade works

Wild Bill

OK. Heading east, the first junction on the bypass is J12. ADS.....



Then next, the "cantilever equivalent"......




and finally.....



So far, so consistent. The joining road is an N-road and all the signs are in green, no patching, N-road joins N-road. :cool:

Wild Bill

Before J12 we are reminded that Athlone has an international dimension....




And past J12 we leave the misery of the West for the fertile fields of Leinster.....

Wild Bill

Safely across the mighty Shannon we encounter the J11 ADS........


Then the "cantilever equivalent".....


Then the "gore" sign....


So, local road joins the N-road. ADS patched, "cantilever equiv" and "gore sign" take the white background of the local road. So far so good. :cool:

Wild Bill

Next, J10 where the N55 meets. The ADS below. We can excuse the rather short "A" in ADS 'cos the junctions are bunched together here.


"cantilever equivalent".....


And finally the "gore sign" - I appear to have missed a shot but if you look at the photo above it is clearly green.

So, still consistent!

Wild Bill

Next, J9. Another tight ADS, patched for a local road.....


"Cantilever equivalent" white - check!


"Gore sign" white - check!


Still all joined-up. :cool:

Wild Bill

J8, another N-road connects...



Then the "cantilever equivalent" - in this case an actual cantilever! (Note the incorrect blue countdown signs...another legacy of the NRA assuming too much :cool:)


The gore sign.....


So, in a nutshell, bar the blue signs left over from the jumping-the-gun on the re-designation the signs on the Athlone bypass are clinically consistent.

QED.

veryangryman

Wild Bill wrote: »

Next, J9. Another tight ADS, patched for a local road.....


"Cantilever equivalent" white - check!


"Gore sign" white - check!


Still all joined-up. :cool:

Its not a local road at junction 9! Its the R916 (as signposted from Cornamaddy roundabout). :mad:

God that annoys me that people (including those who put up the signposts) still wont recognise this!!

Side note - the only reason that the bypass cant be a Motorway is that J11 Coosan is a local road - Motorways can only have junctions with N or R roads. Redesignation would involve the closing of same junction

Wild Bill

OK. So it should be sign-posted the R916. But the colour of the various signs would still remain the same.

Didn't realise there was a rule that M-ways can't join local roads, even at a GSJ.

One lives and learns! :rolleyes:

Zoney

veryangryman wrote: »

Side note - the only reason that the bypass cant be a Motorway is that J11 Coosan is a local road - Motorways can only have junctions with N or R roads. Redesignation would involve the closing of same junction

Ah come on, this is Ireland. It can be an advantage at times that we aren't too stupidly bound to rules. Typical Irish solution would *not* be closing the junction, but instead redesignate the local road as an R road (at least on one side).

However, I am not sure you are correct, as I think there are motorway junctions for parallel R roads where the road across the bridge is an L road (the R road is off to the side of the junction, connected by the L road). Of course in these cases usually the R road is signposted directly as if it is the first road you join off the motorway.

icdg

Wild Bill wrote: »

OK. So it should be sign-posted the R916. But the colour of the various signs would still remain the same.

Didn't realise there was a rule that M-ways can't join local roads, even at a GSJ.

There isn't. At least, not one I've ever heard of. Although that being said I'm not aware of any junction between a motorway and a local road in Ireland. I'm sure there are motorway junctions with unclassified roads somewhere in the UK...

As for the signs they are roughly consistant with the NRA's current signage standards. There's the usual mistakes, like leaving out chopsticks on the M6 panel, and the odd patching of "(N55)" (which is probably strictly speaking correct but very odd). But the signs themselves are in general grand.

I'm assuming J12 is a LILO? An ADS like that's rare to find on an Irish dual carriageway.

Overall the signage improvements are welcome, as the existing signage on the Athlone bypass was old, patched to pieces, and in dire need of updating (particularly after they started replacing the signage with blue ones and then abruptly stopped leaving the job incomplete as they realised reclassification wasn't coming).

veryangryman

icdg wrote: »

There isn't. At least, not one I've ever heard of. Although that being said I'm not aware of any junction between a motorway and a local road in Ireland.

Im sure ive seen that rule before (but i am at pains to find the source right now).

When you think about it though, its quite logical. The main purpose of the Motorway is for high-speef long-distance traffic. Local roads that bridge over the Motorway dont have enough traffic to justify the interruptions to the vast majority of inter-urban traffic. Also the cost of building the junction etc would be prohibitive.

Side note - ive probably said this before, but its a joke that the N62 Junction (westbound) involves the need to do an almost 360 degree turn via Kilmartins. I dont use the junction much but surely the logical thing to do would have been to close the existing J8 and build the slip road towards Birr turn. Would have saved the council who are now planning to dual the road from Birr Turn-Kilmartins to help the traffic

Cheap short-term solutions come back to haunt you

Jayuu

While I also don't know where this non-local road is formally stated it wouldn't surprise me if it does exist looking at the junction maps. There are plenty of examples of minor roads joining motorways where part of the road has been designated as R or N route probably just to satisfy this requirement. Here are a couple of example and there are many more.

Junction 10 on the M50. The R838 runs to just beyond the junction on the city side and then become a local road.

Junction 17 on the N6. The N65 Loughrea road comprises of the roundabouts on either side but on the northside of the M6 the only non-motorway roundabout exit is to an L route. Clearly the N65 had to be designated as including both roundabouts.

So it would be just a matter of redesignating part of the road at Junction 11 to at least an R route. Probably the section from the end of the Ballymahon Roundabout at the N55, along Arcadia (as its called on Google maps) to the junction at Abbey Road and then the link road across the N6 to the junction at Coosan Road. I can't imagine the statutory requirements for this would be that difficult if they really did want to redesignate the bypass to a motorway and this non-local road rule did exist.

whyulittle

Jayuu wrote: »

So it would be just a matter of redesignating part of the road at Junction 11 to at least an R route. Probably the section from the end of the Ballymahon Roundabout at the N55, along Arcadia (as its called on Google maps) to the junction at Abbey Road and then the link road across the N6 to the junction at Coosan Road. I can't imagine the statutory requirements for this would be that difficult if they really did want to redesignate the bypass to a motorway and this non-local road rule did exist.

That's because that's what it's called!

veryangryman

Jayuu wrote: »

Junction 10 on the M50. The R838 runs to just beyond the junction on the city side and then become a local road.

Junction 17 on the N6. The N65 Loughrea road comprises of the roundabouts on either side but on the northside of the M6 the only non-motorway roundabout exit is to an L route. Clearly the N65 had to be designated as including both roundabouts.

Nope. In your first example, the junction was built for the R838 - thats ok. The fact that theres a local road other side dont matter - the junction itself HAS an N or R road so condition satisfied

Second Example - junction is for N65 - any other road that goes other side of it is irrelevant. The junction wouldnt be built if there wasnt an N or R road that it could lead to (of course in this case, the N65 road was built in parallel but the net result is the same)

If you have more examples, id like to apply this theory to them

Jayuu

veryangryman wrote: »

Nope. In your first example, the junction was built for the R838 - thats ok. The fact that theres a local road other side dont matter - the junction itself HAS an N or R road so condition satisfied

Second Example - junction is for N65 - any other road that goes other side of it is irrelevant. The junction wouldnt be built if there wasnt an N or R road that it could lead to (of course in this case, the N65 road was built in parallel but the net result is the same)

If you have more examples, id like to apply this theory to them

I think you're missing my point. The fact is that technically they are minor roads leading directly a motorway but in order to get around this restriction the exact point of the junction is designated as an N or R route. It doesn't matter which came first.

Irrespective of whether you agree with that or not, redesignation of the route that I suggested as an R route would remove the problem and allow Junction 11 to remain in place even if the Athlone Bypass was designated as motorway.

murphaph

Junction 10 on the M7 connects purely to an L road. The signage you can see in street view is wrong and has even been amended in the last few months to accurately show that the R445 does not touch the M7 but passes about 200m to the south, being connected by an L road.

I was surprised by this signage correction when I last visited as it always bugged me the way they signed the R445 as "touching" the motorway when it clearly never did at this point.

I am sure there is no rule about this and that it's just sort of logical that one finds very few L roads directly connecting to a motorway. The same happens in the UK with U roads, very very rare to find them having a junction with a motorway but it does happen on occasion.

L1011

The M6 junction at Ballinasloe East is also with an L road.

Zubeneschamali

Jayuu wrote: »

Probably the section from the end of the Ballymahon Roundabout at the N55, along Arcadia (as its called on Google maps) to the junction at Abbey Road and then the link road across the N6 to the junction at Coosan Road.

Google maps does not show the fact that Mary O'Rourkes house is on that road, making it completely impossible to redesignate it as a National route.

Jayuu

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

Google maps does not show the fact that Mary O'Rourkes house is on that road, making it completely impossible to redesignate it as a National route.

(Although I wasn't proposing that it become a NATIONAL route!).

flazio

Saw the most crazy and stupidest piece of signage work today. Heading west bound just after the shannon as you approach the Roscommon turn off (J12?) they have bolted onto the Traffic watch sign, a brown amenities sign. Completely blocking off the number, so now you get the words TRAFFIC WATCH and a brown turn off sign. Looks absolutely dreadful.

veryangryman

MYOB wrote: »

The M6 junction at Ballinasloe East is also with an L road.

Your not getting me. The junction was built so that Motorists can get onto the Shannonbridge (R348 i think) and Ballinasloe(R446) roadS. If there was no R road within shouting distance, id take your point, but in this case also no

YES you can have an L road at the junction. But if it doesnt have an R road nearby, then it shouldnt be on a Motoway (is my understanding of the rule)

L1011

veryangryman wrote: »

Your not getting me. The junction was built so that Motorists can get onto the Shannonbridge (R348 i think) and Ballinasloe(R446) roadS. If there was no R road within shouting distance, id take your point, but in this case also no

YES you can have an L road at the junction. But if it doesnt have an R road nearby, then it shouldnt be on a Motoway (is my understanding of the rule)

I'm getting you entirely, the entire point is that there is no such rule in this country.

Getting back to the original subject; When are the works supposed to start, we were originally told "Early October".

whyulittle

There are still tidying up works going on on it at the minute. They look to have severely cut back the trees at the Garrycastle offramp westbound, and are making their way towards the Ballymahon Road.

Anyone who are doing these works; NRA, council, or is this the contractor started already?

whyulittle

Crash on the bypass just now between Garrycastle and Ballymahon Road westbound. Single car on its roof on the central median.

Didn't look to be any injuries.

KevR

Anyone else think it's extremely hypocritical for them to have almost all of the Athlone Bypass as an enforcement zone for the new GoSafe Cameras?

Firstly, the Athlone Bypass is Dual Carriageway sandwiched between 2 very long stretches of motorway. There is nothing stopping the Minister for Transport from redesignating this road as a motorway which would make it safer (in theory no pedestrians, cyclists, slow moving vehicles, people stopping in the hard shoulder). Noel Dempsey won't redesignate it.

So we are left with a very busy Dual Carriageway which carries high speed traffic and we have pedestrians, cyclists and slow vehicles mixing with this high volume of high speed vehicles. The road is designed for high speeds, not low speeds. The Athlone Bypass doesn't have any proper streetlighting (except for some really poor lighting at junctions). If they insist that pedestrians/cyclists should continue to use this road then you would think the least they could do would be to upgrade the lighting along the full 6km (especially with the dark winter evenings in mind). But no, they are putting in "Safety Cameras". I'm sure these cameras will stop more pedestrians getting killed because they can't be seen or because of a momentary lapse in concentration by a driver. You would kill a pedestrian/cyclist even if you are well within the 100kmh speed limit. Driving at 110kmh would make no real difference.

Also, the enforcement zone doesn't cover J13 which is the worst built junction on the bypass! Not to mention a pedestrian was killed there not long ago (although this tragic accident could well have had no relation to speed).

[I accept that there would be traffic issues for the town if the bypass was redesignated but if they are really worried about safety then they should first look at redesignation or at least streetlighting before speed cameras are used]

Zubeneschamali

KevR wrote: »

Firstly, the Athlone Bypass is Dual Carriageway sandwiched between 2 very long stretches of motorway.

I don't think it's hypocrisy, it's common sense. Dog-walkers, cyclists, tractors, joggers: it's absolutely essential that Dublin/Galway traffic slows down for the Athlone bypass.

If the minister doesn't redesignate, they should speed-trap the hell out of the whole stretch.

What is disgraceful is:

1) allowing local gobsheen politicians to keep it from redesignation and
2) the pathetic/inconsistent signage coming from Galway warning road users of the end of motorway/100K limit. It's not quite so bad coming from Dublin.

billbond4

I think its a good idea as there was a few fatal collisions on the Bypass, so it meets the criteria of the safety cameras.
The speed limit on the bypass needs to be 100 Kph, end of , you cant have cars doing 120kph,as the current bypass wasnt designed for it.
So its a good idea to have it classified as a speed camera zone as it will reduce the speed of cars coming from the motorway doing to 120 to 100.

Your correct the fatality past J13, had nothing to do with speed.

Previous poster makes a good point there should be more signs, saying that your now entering a 100kph zone

antoobrien

KevR wrote: »

Anyone else think it's extremely hypocritical for them to have almost all of the Athlone Bypass as an enforcement zone for the new GoSafe Cameras?

Firstly, the Athlone Bypass is Dual Carriageway sandwiched between 2 very long stretches of motorway.

Not really, pre-motorways this was a favorite spot for speed checks (especially the Roscommon exit - saw them there every time i played golf in hudson bay). All they've done is gotten the private operators to take up the slack that the motorways has created. I noticed that there are no motorways marked on this map. The original promise (my memory might be wrong) was they would not target motorways, but would target accident prone areas.

What would annoy me about this is the areas where speed limits are artificially low (i.e. areas where the limit is 80 becuase of an r redesignation).being enforced. IMO the (current) surface of the bypass isn't up to constant 120km traffic.

Zubeneschamali

billbond4 wrote: »

The speed limit on the bypass needs to be 100 Kph, end of , you cant have cars doing 120kph,as the current bypass wasnt designed for it.

I've seen worse stretches in France with 130 limits.

The surface needs work, and the on/off ramps and associated junctions are terrible, but the actual bypass itself is OK.