M1 New Section of D3 (three lanes) at Swords

Chris_5339762

If the M50 and N7 are anything to go by, then no, we dont need the extra 20kmh.

lucernarian

What?? That attitude makes no sense for intercity routes as if all the different routes were regarded as such then you'd be turning a 2.5hr journey into a 3hr one... It's hardly an insignificant amount if you start applying it to all areas. Accidents at 120kph on motorways are rare in comparison to the roads that have 100kph speed limits.

KevR

I think 120kmh should be fine on the M1, especially on the carriageway that has 3.65m lanes - the extra bit of space really does make a difference.

Remember the lanes on the M50 are narrower than 3.5m - I'm not sure of their exact width but they are definitely narrower than 3.5m.

I actually think lane discipline on the M50 and Lucan BP has improved a little bit in the last while. However, further improvement is certainly still needed.

GristlyEnd

It's now 100 Km/h southbound from just before the new lane starts. Looks like the poles for the new speed limits where put up in a hurry

spacetweek

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

All 3-lane DCs and motorways in Ireland should be max 100kmh, only because Irish drivers cant be trusted with lane discipline for 120.

The attitude that something should be illegal because people can't be trusted is pretty repressive, Chris.

dubhthach

Anyone know how wide the lanes are in Italy? I had no problem doing 130km/h on Italian three lane autostrada last year.

Didn't have any great expectations of Italian driving but in general found they were better motorway drivers then your average Irish driver.

ardmacha

Not only that but 3 lane Italian autostrade can have a 150kmh limit, where some here seem to think that 3 lane routes should have a lower limit!

csd

Folks,

I've uploaded some pics of the soutbound carriageway (and the port tunnel) to Skyscraper City - click here.

/csd

spacetweek

dubhthach wrote: »

Didn't have any great expectations of Italian driving but in general found they were better motorway drivers then your average Irish driver.

Haha, no way do I agree with that.

spacetweek

Guys I know I asked already and I don't want to push it, but was there an official date for the opening of this widening project? Just for posterity. I didn't see an announcement or anything.

chinchin

spacetweek wrote: »

Guys I know I asked already and I don't want to push it, but was there an official date for the opening of this widening project? Just for posterity. I didn't see an announcement or anything.

The final leveling off and tiding up where the site compound was located just off the Holywell on ramp finished up about a week and a half ago. Hard to know what you would say was an official date for the opening was though, Friday 17th June 2011 would be close to the end of works on the site.

spacetweek

Thanks chinchin.

Does anyone know what it cost?

spacetweek

Work due to kick off on widening of Drinan-Lissenhall from 4 to 6 lanes in November of this year.

Mr. xxxx,
The scheme is currently out to tender. The plan is to commence construciton Nov. 2011 and completion within one year.
Regards,
Pat O'Callaghan

amacachi

Ah crap, was lookin forward to a comfortable commute for a while.

Kumsheen

spacetweek wrote: »

Work due to kick off on widening of Drinan-Lissenhall from 4 to 6 lanes in November of this year.

I wish they would have left this alone, the traffic seems to be flowing ok now with the current setup, and the prospect of a year of road works and delays associated with it i won't be looking forward to.

Chris_5339762

Its going to be quite a squeeze to get 3 lines over the viaduct, should be interesting to see.

Edit: That said, I wish they'd widen the Naas bypass to the Waterford junction instead, but that got completely canned.

L1011

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Its going to be quite a squeeze to get 3 lines over the viaduct, should be interesting to see.

Edit: That said, I wish they'd widen the Naas bypass to the Waterford junction instead, but that got completely canned.

There's a full lane of space in the median on the viaduct. It has no H/S already.

ardmacha

There's a full lane of space in the median on the viaduct.

Indeed it was designed with this in mind, according to this document

The bridge cross-section will accommodate two separate motorway carriageways as follows
• At opening: 2 x 3.75m wide running lanes, a 3.65m wide raised median, plus 1.0m and 1.4m wide hard shoulders;
• Long Term Median Widening: 3 x 3.75m lanes plus adjusted hard shoulders.

amacachi

For some reason they concreted the median over the bridge, I don't understand why they didn't just tarmac it and close it off when originally opening the road, it's just creating extra work.

Irish and Proud

amacachi wrote: »

For some reason they concreted the median over the bridge, I don't understand why they didn't just tarmac it and close it off when originally opening the road, it's just creating extra work.

I've been kind of wondering about that too - as you say, would it not have made more sense to tarmac the median space on the bridge - maybe the planners at the time were afraid that the extra space (for 300m+) would be abused for overtaking by reckless drivers. If that was the case, would a temporary barrier not have done the job? However, I believe that this scheme is due to commence in November according to an earlier post.

Regards!

Bluetonic

Kumsheen wrote: »

I wish they would have left this alone, the traffic seems to be flowing ok now with the current setup, and the prospect of a year of road works and delays associated with it i won't be looking forward to.

Yes no point in planning for the future, we can worry about the congestion when the congestion arises!

amacachi

Also I may be very, very wrong here, but when the last bit of widening was being done it looked at though services etc. were being dug up and moved, does anyone know if this is the case?

celticbest

spacetweek wrote: »

Work due to kick off on widening of Drinan-Lissenhall from 4 to 6 lanes in November of this year.

Anyone have an update on a specific start date? I have been searching around but cannot find any info.

Kumsheen wrote: »

I wish they would have left this alone, the traffic seems to be flowing ok now with the current setup, and the prospect of a year of road works and delays associated with it i won't be looking forward to.

I have to say that this widening is badly needed, traffic has been coming to a stand still under the Airport Flyover recently and then crawling until after the Three lanes merge back into Two.

Yes the work will add to it for a while but in the long term it should be worth it. The R132 is an option to avoid the M1 & the resurfacing works should be complete by the time the upgrade starts.

spacetweek

celticbest wrote: »

Yes the work will add to it for a while but in the long term it should be worth it. The R132 is an option to avoid the M1 & the resurfacing works should be complete by the time the upgrade starts.

in fact the R132 works constitute a major rebuild and may take 6 or more months.

celticbest

spacetweek wrote: »

in fact the R132 works constitute a major rebuild and may take 6 or more months.

VMS say works to be completed by 20th of November?

Are there more works to be carried out after this date?

Irish and Proud

celticbest wrote: »

VMS say works to be completed by 20th of November?

Are there more works to be carried out after this date?

I'd imagine the works that the VMS refers to are the 2 major resurfacing projects along the R132 - one from Santry Cross to Collinstown Cross, and the other from Cloghran Roundabout to the Pinnock Hill Roundabout in Swords. There is a major widening of the R132 planned from Collinstown Cross to the Airport Roundabout - this will involve 1 bus lane and 2 traffic lanes each way. I heard that this work was supposed to start by the end of the year, but I'm not totally sure. AFAIK, the M1 widening scheme from J3 (Drynam) to J4 (Lissenhall) is scheduled for construction in November.

Regards!

Kersh

I have seen quite a few big accidents at that fast lane merge in the past few weeks. Its a disaster. Cute hoors tearing up the outside lane and then ducking in, causing cars to slam on,

Anyway, anyone know when the works begin to continue on the merge over the viaduct?

Irish and Proud

Kersh wrote: »

I have seen quite a few big accidents at that fast lane merge in the past few weeks. Its a disaster. Cute hoors tearing up the outside lane and then ducking in, causing cars to slam on,

Anyway, anyone know when the works begin to continue on the merge over the viaduct?

There should be a tender announcement soon - the intention was for construction to start this month. However if I remember correctly, work on the previous section of M1 was due to commence at the end of 2010 - however, it started early 2011 - with this in mind, the section across the Broadmeadow may start early in the new year (again, a short delay of a couple of months).

I can't offer anything more concrete than that.

sk8board

Lets hope thats still the case - 3 rush-hour accidents in 4 days this week - yesterdays one was the winner - 5 cars FFS (how?). its starting to become a total pain in the ass.

dcr22B

It's getting absolutely retarded now with some of the driving in the 2nd and 3rd lanes.

3rd lane bandits waiting until the last minute and 2nd lane drivers who'll refuse point blank to let them in.

The book should be thrown at them!