N roads you hate

lottpaul

Brabus wrote: »

Where is the N82? I'm guessing in the Dublin area but I searched the map and couldn't find it.

Found the N32 which goes from the junction of M1 & M50 to the Malahide road and thats only 3km!!

The N82 links the N7 and the N81 through Citywest industrial estate. It's pretty short and doesn't resemble most N roads I'm familiar with. I'd guess it's a few km in length at most - several roundabouts etc too.

Carawaystick

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Either way.
a) within weeks it'll no longer be an N road

It'll become the N66, from the end of the N66 to the M18

mk6705

N22, both from Farranfore to Killarney and from Ballvourney to Cork, 7km of non-stop sharp bends, tiny narrow S2 road. Not up to spec at all.

icdg

lottpaul wrote: »

The N82 links the N7 and the N81 through Citywest industrial estate. It's pretty short and doesn't resemble most N roads I'm familiar with. I'd guess it's a few km in length at most - several roundabouts etc too.

Like I said, its' a strange anomaly. It shouldn't even be a classified road at all, it is almost entirely in a business park! I'd have assigned N82 to R113 or R136 (although political considerations would not premit the latter) both of which do the same route, but are public roads and dual carraigeways to boot!

The N32 has even less reason to be a national road. In fact the only reason I can think of for it to be one is that it was constructed as part of a national road project (the M50). It is only 3km long, is a WS2 (with a bus lane that has no buses running on it!) and links an R-road with the M50. Its' of no national importance whatsoever and I see no good reason for the NRA rather than Fingal County Council to be the road authority for it.

marmurr1916

icdg wrote: »

Like I said, its' a strange anomaly. It shouldn't even be a classified road at all, it is almost entirely in a business park! I'd have assigned N82 to R113 or R136 (although political considerations would not premit the latter) both of which do the same route, but are public roads and dual carraigeways to boot!

The business park wasn't there when the N82 was first designated. In fact, the original N82 didn't follow this route at all.

I'm not sure if the R113 or R136 were dual-carriageways (or even existed) when the N82 was first designated.

That said, I don't see a problem with having the Belgard Road section of the R113 from Newland's Cross (N7) to the Tallaght Bypass (N81) re-numbered as the N82, with the existing N82 assigned a completely new regional road number. Maybe this will happen when the Newland's Cross upgrade is finished.

icdg wrote: »

The N32 has even less reason to be a national road. In fact the only reason I can think of for it to be one is that it was constructed as part of a national road project (the M50). It is only 3km long, is a WS2 (with a bus lane that has no buses running on it!) and links an R-road with the M50. Its' of no national importance whatsoever and I see no good reason for the NRA rather than Fingal County Council to be the road authority for it.

Agreed. It's high time the NRA sat down and did a thorough re-appraisal of the national route network. There are plenty of existing national routes which are prime candidates for downgrading to regional roads, either immediately or when road projects are completed.

JupiterKid

The N52 - especially the section between Kells and Mullingar.

Apart from a few very short recently improved sections just outside Delvin, this road a narrow, twisty, hedgerow enclosed death trap with the most atrocious standard of driving I have ever seen. Also full of lorries and trucks too.

Benny_Cake

I have a real hate for the N62 from Roscrea to Thurles, probably because i drive it a fair bit. The stretch from Templemore to Thurles is particularly awful, drivers pulling out of laneways, dangerous bends, surface quality extremely poor at times.

brandon_flowers

OK I'm from North Kerry so to get to anywhere other than Dublin means an N road or an R road. In the past 18 months I've been working in Kinsale, Lisdoonvarna, Barna in Galway, Carrick-on-Shannon and a small place just outside Waterford city.

So to get to Kinsale the N22 from Farranfore to Killarney was the first killer, then the section from Ballyvourney all the way to the Ballincollig bypass was torture.

Lisdoonvarna - across the ferry at Tarbert and the N67, not a bad surface but no one takes any notice of keeping to their own side of the road or pulling out of gaps without looking. Crazy stuff.

Barna in Galway - The N18 from Crusheen to Oranmore is just cruel and then the N6 with all the f****** roundabouts to get to the far side of the city. It was fine at 7 in the morning but any other time was 5kph stuff.

Carrick-on-Shannon - the furthest and by far the easiest drive. Limerick-Borrisokane (R438)-Athlone-Ballymahon-Longford-Carrick.

And finally the N24 which I spent the most time driving in the past 8-9 months. Initially I went to Limerick on the N69 and then M7 as far as the Ballysimon junction. From then on it was just hell. Murroe, Boher, Pallasgreen, Oola, Monard, Dromkeen, Limerick Junction, Tipp town, Bansha, Clonmel, Kilsheelan, Carrick-on-Suir, Mooncoin and then Waterford. Bad drivers, tractors with no lights, hedge-cutting, lethal junctions, the surface at the lights in Carrick-on-Suir, the little roundabouts in Carrick, the roundabouts in Clonmel, the travellers sulky racing near Gortnafleur, the stupid 2+1 at Piltown and I could go on and on. In the past few months I started cutting across country to Mitchelstown and up the M8 as far as the N24 junction but still have Clonmel-Waterford section which is completely unavoidable. For the volume of traffic it takes it is definitely the most neglected road in the country.

Conclusion: The N24 wins this argument by about 80 miles.

Edit: That road between Tipp town and Cashel (N77 I think) is a hopeless version of an N road, traffic was diverted along this for a while that is what made me drive to Mitchelstown instead.

JupiterKid

There should be a poll on this thread. The National Secondaries don't come out well, but it looks like the N24 wins hands down for being way below the standard it should be.

Danno

n77

icdg

marmurr1916 wrote: »

The business park wasn't there when the N82 was first designated. In fact, the original N82 didn't follow this route at all.

I'm not sure if the R113 or R136 were dual-carriageways (or even existed) when the N82 was first designated.

When the original N82 through Saggart was designated in 1977, the R136 certainly didn't exist - it was almost entirely new build and only built in the last five years. Unfortunately the planning conditions attached to the route would almost certainly prevent it from being designated N82.

Parts of the R113 would have alright, I'm not sure what date the Belgard Road was constructed though it would have been in the 1970s I think?

Having said that, when Citywest was opened, a deliberate decision was made to route the N82 through the business park instead of its old route through Saggart, rather than designate one of the alternatives available. Indeed to my mind the M50 has perhaps made the N82 redundant as a cross-city route in any case.

The R-roads only existed on an administrative basis until 1994 and often during the 1980s weren't signed at all (or blank patches were left to be filled in later).

Mike 1972

For me it would have to be the N16 (Enniskillen/Sligo)
Used to travel the N52 (Dundalk/Mullingar) years ago and it was pretty terrible as well

Developed countries dont have roads like these.

Tech3

JupiterKid wrote: »

There should be a poll on this thread. The National Secondaries don't come out well, but it looks like the N24 wins hands down for being way below the standard it should be.

The N24 might be the most hated national primary road but the worst primary in the country is the N16 by a good margin.

saywhatyousee

Mike 1972 wrote: »

For me it would have to be the N16 (Enniskillen/Sligo)
Used to travel the N52 (Dundalk/Mullingar) years ago and it was pretty terrible as well

Developed countries dont have roads like these.

have to agree about the n16/a4 terrible from sligo to the belfast side of enniskillen
the n17 colloney to tubbercurry is terrible

Mike 1972

Other thing about the N16(/A4) is that a lot of other bad roads would have alternatives one could take even if it meant taking longer and going out of ones way a bit.

But this isint really the case here.

But at least we have the small mercy of the Sligo bypass (originally mooted in the early seventies) opening a few years ago.

Tech3

I agree with the N17 Tubbercurry-Collooney section being a really hated road. I drive this often enough and is the most dangerous part of the N17. Ballindine-Milltown is also reckless but doesn't run as long as the other section. We should create a thread for the N roads we love now!

TestTransmission

Berty wrote: »

This used to be the route from Limerick to Dundalk I used to take for 3 years. Nightmare of a road.

BluntGuy wrote: »

Ah, the N52. Truly terrible piece of roadway. The N51 isn't far behind.

My personal least favourite though is the N24. Not only is the road bad, but it's just... depressing, having to drive through towns like Carrick On Suir and Tipp. From the perspective of infrastructure, it has the whole package of awfulness. A wildly inconsistent layout with hard shoulders vanishing, poor sightlines etc., two failed 2+1 sections, navigation of about 700 roundabouts on the clonmel "bypass", the dreadful termini, one of the clunkiest junctions in Ireland (I think Furet mentioned the M8 one in the OP).

I can't wait for the day (if ever) that road is upgraded.

medoc wrote: »

As above the N52 Birr to Borrisakane/Neenagh is a terrible example of a National (Secondry) road but there are many such examples all over the country. The N62 from Birr to Athlone is bad also especially the section from the N52/N62 junction to Ferbane.

Drove the stretch between Birr and Borrisokane twice over the weekend.It's being greatly improved,alot of it has been resurfacted and widened in places.
Has this only been done in the last month or two?

slinky2000

Mike 1972 wrote: »

For me it would have to be the N16 (Enniskillen/Sligo)
Used to travel the N52 (Dundalk/Mullingar) years ago and it was pretty terrible as well

Developed countries dont have roads like these.

No way! The n16 is a great road, I love driving it when there's no traffic. It's one of the n roads I actually like driving on.

Mike 1972

Ummm I think you might be lost.The S&M forum is that way >>>>>

slinky2000

I used to drive twice weekly from Enniskillen to Galway at 5am. Was a great drive! Stop in Tuam for a breakfast roll :P

highdef

The N32....it may only be 3km long but it's as straight as a die yet has a 60KM limit.....very few people do it. Also the unused bus lanes are a pain because the majority of of people insist on driving in the right lane even though there is no reason to do so. One slow driver holds the whole road up.....you can't overtake as there are cross hatchings in the centre of the road and you can't pass on the inside as this is also illegal so these slow right lane drivers hold the road to ransom.

antoobrien

N83 Tuam to Ballyhaunis - some bits where the road is ok but by and large it's bad.

The road into Dunmore from Tuam is in bits since last winter (temp 50 km limit for several km or it's like driving off road).
To stay on the N83 you've to take a 90 degree left turn around a corner where there isn't enough room for 2 cars (and can't see when theres traffic coming either). I turn off at Cloonfad and the R road linking Claremorris, Cloonfad and Williamstown is far better.

Cosmo Kramer

The N83 is one of those where I can't understand how it ever justified N Status, I mean it just runs alongside the N17 through some small towns and villages. I think that was the old T(?) route from Galway to Sligo but when it was changed to via Claremorris/Knock on the N17, there was no reason for the N83 to be designated.

The N84 (another awful road in places) can be justified as it is the direct connection between the two biggest population centres in the west (Galway and Castlebar/Westport) but the N83 was just madness.

marmurr1916

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

The N83 is one of those where I can't understand how it ever justified N Status, I mean it just runs alongside the N17 through some small towns and villages. I think that was the old T(?) route from Galway to Sligo but when it was changed to via Claremorris/Knock on the N17, there was no reason for the N83 to be designated.

The N84 (another awful road in places) can be justified as it is the direct connection between the two biggest population centres in the west (Galway and Castlebar/Westport) but the N83 was just madness.

Don't see the point in either of them TBH. What's wrong with Galway - Castlebar via the N17/N60? It'll probably be a lot, lot quicker too once the M17 to north of Tuam is completed.

Cosmo Kramer

marmurr1916 wrote: »

Don't see the point in either of them TBH. What's wrong with Galway - Castlebar via the N17/N60? It'll probably be a lot, lot quicker too once the M17 to north of Tuam is completed.

At the moment the N17 takes longer (even to Castlebar with no traffic), is much more congested and is way out of the way for going anywhere south or west of Castlebar or to Westport. The N17 is bad enough at the moment around Claregalway without dumping all the west Mayo traffic on it as well, therefore the N84 serves a significant purpose. Now if and when the motorway to Tuam is done and if the N60 back to Castlebar from Claremorris was improved (there were once major plans for this, probably long since consigned to the dustbin), you could maybe make a case for reducing the designation of the N84, but not as things stand.

Irish and Proud

Maybe the N72 and N73 -

I last saw the N72 in 1991 and it was pretty dire all the way if I remember correctly - I guess not much has changed since then.

I last saw the N73 in 1996 - was it even a road then? :rolleyes:
...or is it still a series of bumps and potholes?

However, given the level of traffic and it's supposed importance, I think the worst road in the history of the state would have to be:

The original N7 Newbridge / Kildare Town / Monastrevin section - all of it now bypassed by the spacious M7 thank God! Was on this old section earlier this year and was shocked at how narrow (and very twisty in some places) it was for such a major road - about 6m across I guess.

It was a deathtrap IMO! :eek:

...and that's not to mention the towns! :rolleyes:

GeneHunt

marmurr1916 wrote: »

That said, I don't see a problem with having the Belgard Road section of the R113 from Newland's Cross (N7) to the Tallaght Bypass (N81) re-numbered as the N82, with the existing N82 assigned a completely new regional road number. Maybe this will happen when the Newland's Cross upgrade is finished

I can't agree with the idea of designating the Belgard Road as N82, the pedestrian crossing from Tallaght village to the Square would need to be greatly improved with maybe an underpass / tunnel for the road and thats not going to happen any time soon. so I think the R136 would be a better bet...

jumpymunky

The N51.

For a short piece of road connecting two relatively big towns (Drogheda and Navan) its awful. The road changes from being relatively straight and wide (just past Slane on the way to Navan) and having an 80 km/h limit to becoming a narrow winding track with a 100 km/h limit on the Louth end.

Also the quality of the surface is dreadful - it dips and rises with every undulation in the countryside it passes through. :mad:

ardmacha

I can't agree with the idea of designating the Belgard Road as N82, the pedestrian crossing from Tallaght village to the Square would need to be greatly improved with maybe an underpass / tunnel for the road

This bizarre pedestrian crossing illustrates the limitations of Irish planning. With shops on both sides of the road a plaza should have been built over the road, allowing people easily wander around and traffic to pass unobstructed. The shops would even have paid for most of it.

redcube

Every N road i hate. I hate driving in Ireland I have lived here all my life and i love Ireland but i hate the roads everything else I love