N69/N22/N70 Tralee Bypass

delthedriver

Took a spin on the bypass this am.

Wow! a fabulous piece of Civil Engineering.

Thank you Carchaeologist for all your work during construction.

Just wondering on signage coming from Cork to Ballyheigue, Ballybunnion?

Is it the intention to bring that traffic through town via Dan Spring Road?

Perhaps I missed something ?

carchaeologist

Just driving up through the town from Castle street, Boherbee, and up by Joe Connors, its absolutely amazing how quiet it is.
Practically zero traffic!
Bearing in mind that it was 4pm on the Sunday of the Festival and the town is full of people, it shows even at this early stage only a few days after the bypass opening its obvious that its already making a huge difference to that area at least.

michael999999

carchaeologist wrote: »

Just driving up through the town from Castle street, Boherbee, and up by Joe Connors, its absolutely amazing how quiet it is.
Practically zero traffic!
Bearing in mind that it was 4pm on the Sunday of the Festival and the town is full of people, it shows even at this early stage only a few days after the bypass opening its obvious that its already making a huge difference to that area at least.

The likes of the spar on the listowel road and businesses like them are going to take a huge hit with the loss of passing traffic.

Traffic from Listowel comimg to tralee for shopping may skip going into Tralee town, and now just go to Manor as it is now so convenient.

xxyyzz

michael999999 wrote: »

The likes of the spar on the listowel road and businesses like them are going to take a huge hit with the loss of passing traffic.

Traffic from Listowel comimg to tralee for shopping may skip going into Tralee town, and now just go to Manor as it is now so convenient.

The ballymullen roundabout was under serious pressure this afternoon. You had traffic coming from Manor, killorglin Rd and the new road. Glad I won't have to come through that side of town in the mornings

Howard Juneau

carchaeologist wrote: »

Just driving up through the town from Castle street, Boherbee, and up by Joe Connors, its absolutely amazing how quiet it is.
Practically zero traffic!
Bearing in mind that it was 4pm on the Sunday of the Festival and the town is full of people, it shows even at this early stage only a few days after the bypass opening its obvious that its already making a huge difference to that area at least.

Street closures in operation from 12pm, is the main reason behind this, not much to do with the bypass, you can't drive thru town at all

carchaeologist

Howard Juneau wrote: »

Street closures in operation from 12pm, is the main reason behind this, not much to do with the bypass, you can't drive thru town at all

True about the street closures, but there would still be traffic crossing over the John Joe Sheehy road and down Clash to and from from the N69, and there wasn't.

Howard Juneau

carchaeologist wrote: »

True about the street closures, but there would still be traffic crossing over the John Joe Sheehy road and down Clash to and from from the N69, and there wasn't.

People just don't drive into town on the Sunday of the festival, never have, it's too much aggro & the parade causes johns Pk onto jj sheehy road to become a nightmare as its closed off to let the parade assemble & pass.
Realistically, next Sunday will be the acid test imo

delthedriver

xxyyzz wrote: »

The ballymullen roundabout was under serious pressure this afternoon. You had traffic coming from Manor, killorglin Rd and the new road. Glad I won't have to come through that side of town in the mornings

This roundabout was already too small. Are there any plans to reconstruct, I guess there is enough space nearby to rebuild it. I have a vague recollection that it was a T junction at some stage.

The Bypass is fantastic, had a spin around to familiarise myself with all the options and routes.
Gosh there was hardly a car on the road between the Roundabout for Castleisland/ Limerick and the roundabout at Ballygarry hotel. Most unusual for a Sunday afternoon.

michael999999

Herd of cattle loose on bypass
Be careful.

Machinehead

Any link available for a high res map of the new bypass to view roundabouts & flyovers?
Ballymullen the new place to avoid in Tralee, everything from the N69, N21 & N70 heading west on the N86 now being funnelled from the bypass into Ballymullen.

mackerski

Machinehead wrote: »

Any link available for a high res map of the new bypass to view roundabouts & flyovers?

http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/52.2672/-9.6916

pickled101

I hear from a reliable source that someone drove down the wrong side of the new bypass on Friday night/Saturday morning less than 24 hours after it opened!

I'd say we will see new signs on the road indicating which lane to be in.

Machinehead

mackerski wrote: »

http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/52.2672/-9.6916

Thanks for the map link mackerski. Definitely look like Ballymullen/Killerisk/Manor is going to an even bigger bottleneck at busy periods. An extension now needed from the N70 to the N86 beyond Blennerville, possibly near Tonavane cross, although I thought linking with the "West" (N86?) was part of the original plan.

xxyyzz

Machinehead wrote: »

although I thought linking with the "West" (N86?) was part of the original plan.

Going the other way though - i.e. running north from blennerville through the Kerries and joining to the Fenit road IIRC.

It wouldn't be financially feasible bringing it through Ballyard as you are in the foothills of the Slieve Mish mts.

hanamandiol

Traffic moving amazingly well this afternoon All well known blackspots moving We must wait for schools and college to return though before passing judgement Pity our local council did not have the foresight to cut back gorse/briars/shrubs on the new Clash exit from Heiton Buckley to Clash Road

traleespud

hanamandiol wrote: »

Traffic moving amazingly well this afternoon All well known blackspots moving We must wait for schools and college to return though before passing judgement Pity our local council did not have the foresight to cut back gorse/briars/shrubs on the new Clash exit from Heiton Buckley to Clash Road

Agreed that road in clash is actually much wider as it is. It was narrowed years ago to prevent travellers parking caravans there. All they did was put in concrete kirbing. I'm sure it wouldn't be a big job to re widen it!!!!

ongarboy

pickled101 wrote: »

I hear from a reliable source that someone drove down the wrong side of the new bypass on Friday night/Saturday morning less than 24 hours after it opened!

I'd say we will see new signs on the road indicating which lane to be in.

Loose cows, wrong side of road drivers...what next...selling strawberries on the side of the road??!! :rolleyes:

I think the Ballymullen roundabout congestion that is now being experienced was predicted by many of us on this thread going back years....I wonder had the planners already accepted that this was an unavoidable compromise when planning the bypass?

carchaeologist

ongarboy wrote: »

Loose cows, wrong side of road drivers...what next...selling strawberries on the side of the road??!! :rolleyes:

I think the Ballymullen roundabout congestion that is now being experienced was predicted by many of us on this thread going back years....I wonder had the planners already accepted that this was an unavoidable compromise when planning the bypass?

Well, the Bypass was only built to join the National roads, so its up to the council to sort it that issue I would imagine?

That roundabout was built too small first day, like a few roundabouts in the town.

Hoof Hearted

So is there anything concrete stopping roadside developments having roadside access on the new bypass like happened on the Killarney bypass? AFAIK only motorways prevent a development having roadside access.

adam88

Is ballymullen very bad?????

ongarboy

Hoof Hearted wrote: »

So is there anything concrete stopping roadside developments having roadside access on the new bypass like happened on the Killarney bypass? AFAIK only motorways prevent a development having roadside access.

I understand the general planning policy is to refuse or at least discourage any new developments with access onto national primary routes (despite certain high profile rural TDs campaigning for such developments to be allowed and therefore completely ignoring the safety hazards that would be created). Whether there is actual legal prohibition, I'm not sure.

I would think the fact that the Tralee bypass being dual carriageway and grade separated would prevent any development with access onto the bypass from ever being allowed.

murphy05

Drove on the bypass on Saturday - brilliant job done by all especially Carchaeologist.
Does anyone know if normal rules apply on the bypass roundabouts? Pity there was no signage indicating the correct lanes.

I came across someone driving at 60km per hour driving on the white in the middle - about 20 cars behind when I was there.

carchaeologist

murphy05 wrote: »

Drove on the bypass on Saturday - brilliant job done by all especially Carchaeologist.
Does anyone know if normal rules apply on the bypass roundabouts? Pity there was no signage indicating the correct lanes.

As far as I know they do. Common sense should apply here too.

murphy05 wrote: »

I came across someone driving at 60km per hour driving on the white in the middle - about 20 cars behind when I was there.

Not surprising this, many people around here would never have driven on a dual carriageway in their lives! There should be a training course set up for some idiots out there.

murphy05

Common Sense + Roundabouts + Tralee = Does not happen in my experience.

carchaeologist

When I posted up the picture of the quarry section of the road last week, a friend of mine saw it and sent me a pic that he took while he was working there during construction, taken from almost the very same place, its a good comparison that shows exactly how far the surface of the road is now from the floor of what was the quarry.

Last year..


This year..

spacetweek

Hoof Hearted wrote: »

So is there anything concrete stopping roadside developments having roadside access on the new bypass like happened on the Killarney bypass? AFAIK only motorways prevent a development having roadside access.

That is also the case for all national roads in the case where the access is directly onto the road. (If it's via a roundabout that intersects the road, that doesn't count).
This rule wasn't applied retrospectively though so there are thousands of incursions all over the country onto national roads.

ongarboy

Has anyone found the new exit only for Clash beneficial for accessing Lower Oakpark/Rock St/Monavalley via Racecourse Road or are you better off taking the roundabout that leads you to Forge Cross and come back down the Oakpark Road?

Trying to figure out what the best route would be for me coming from Dublin tomorrow for my first spin of the bypass. It will be an anticlimax if I find that the existing Rathass/John Joe Sheehy Road route is the quickest!.....:)

pickled101

ongarboy, the exit to Clash should be quicker for access to lower oakpark. That is a really handy exit and was a great idea, although if its over used then there will be delays exiting onto Clash as that can be hard to get out of at times anyway.

On another note
The Cork/Killarney new bypass route is a mile and a half longer than the old road and I've heard many drivers say they will continue to use the old road. What planner thought cars exiting Tralee heading for Killarney would go right at the roundabout when its much shorter to keep going out the old road.

xxyyzz

pickled101 wrote: »

On another note
The Cork/Killarney new bypass route is a mile and a half longer than the old road and I've heard many drivers say they will continue to use the old road. What planner thought cars exiting Tralee heading for Killarney would go right at the roundabout when its much shorter to keep going out the old road.

It does depend on what side of Tralee you are coming from, if you were coming from the Ballymullen side, then you'd take the new road. I'd imagine if you were coming from Manor then you'd go the old way. Also, the new section is all 100km/h, on the old road you hit traffic calming at the garden centre and then the Earl of D roundabout, winding road to the new junction so you're average speed is considerably lower.

pickled101

xxyyzz wrote: »

It does depend on what side of Tralee you are coming from, if you were coming from the Ballymullen side, then you'd take the new road. I'd imagine if you were coming from Manor then you'd go the old way. Also, the new section is all 100km/h, on the old road you hit traffic calming at the garden centre and then the Earl of D roundabout, winding road to the new junction so you're average speed is considerably lower.

Funny how we only look at things from our own perspective You make a valid point xxyyzz

Can't say I'm looking forward to school and colleges starting again but it will be interesting to see where the bottle necks develop if any..