"Only in Ireland!" - Myth Busted!!!

Irish and Proud

"Only in Ireland!" - a favourite phrase used by people who think so little of this country (of course, I mean the Irish people in general and not the government) and that the grass is so much greener on the other side! :rolleyes:

Well the following will shed light on exactly how much greener the grass is in other countries - mind you, the lamas on the Red Cow did feature, but it was by no means the worst of things that seem to happen internationally as the following link will show:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1262289

I was looking at pages 1 to 5 myself - the ones that stood out the most were 1) Sheep on Euro Routes (one was the E75 I think) and 2) a cross in Moscow where the two roads seem to have priority with inevitiable results :eek: - if anyone could unearth any more interesting things from the thread in SkyscraperCity, it would be great!

So I can safely say that the "Only in Ireland!" myth is well and truely...

BUSTED!!!

KevR

Not sure if this is the type of thing you're looking for but an exit slip road from an elevated road in Manchester that ends in mid-air and leads to nowhere. Builders had already started constructing the slip road when they realised it send would traffic the wrong way down a one-way street .

Google Maps Satellite View Link
CBRD Link (with photo)

Always amuses me when I pass by this slip road when visiting Manchester.

flazio

KevR wrote: »

Not sure if this is the type of thing you're looking for but an exit slip road from an elevated road in Manchester that ends in mid-air and leads to nowhere. Builders had already started constructing the slip road when they realised it send would traffic the wrong way down a one-way street .

Google Maps Satellite View Link
CBRD Link (with photo)

Always amuses me when I pass by this slip road when visiting Manchester.

I love the caption on the billboard as the street view car is passing.

Alun

KevR wrote: »

Builders had already started constructing the slip road when they realised it send would traffic the wrong way down a one-way street .

Maybe not entirely true (but then it doesn't make such a good story).

There is also the theory that there were plans at the time the road was being built to make the road into the city centre (Brooke Street) a dual carriageway at some time in the future, but that these were later abandoned.

betistuc

Interesting new thread I&P . as a small contribution to it, can i refer you all to a videolink I posted on Bizarre/Illegal things on Motorways ( post no 207)

stoneill

Is this your post?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=68955117&postcount=207

Irish and Proud

betistuc wrote: »

Interesting new thread I&P . as a small contribution to it, can i refer you all to a videolink I posted on Bizarre/Illegal things on Motorways ( post no 207)

I think it was in Serbia, but OMG!!! :eek::eek::eek:

The number of trucks going the wrong way up the motorway, and the one that parked in the merging lane FFS! The police must have been on strike that day, or maybe there is no driving test there! :rolleyes: To cap it all, the truck then reverses into a blind corner - WTF! :eek:

Good contribution mate - all for this "Only in Ireland!" thing! :rolleyes:

Keep it coming guys!

betistuc

stoneill wrote: »

Is this your post?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=68955117&postcount=207

Yes. Thanks stoneill. Its an awesome piece of film. Apparantly the lorry drivers realised there's a tunnel or bridge ahead that they can't get under.

Irish and Proud

KevR wrote: »

Not sure if this is the type of thing you're looking for but an exit slip road from an elevated road in Manchester that ends in mid-air and leads to nowhere. Builders had already started constructing the slip road when they realised it send would traffic the wrong way down a one-way street .

Google Maps Satellite View Link
CBRD Link (with photo)

Always amuses me when I pass by this slip road when visiting Manchester.

Indeed, there's plenty of these kind of features in Britain - mind you, the flyover stump in Manchester was probably for a road scheme that never was, rather than a belatedly discovered potential traffic bum steer. Of the features in question, one would see stumps (like Manchester), flares (carriageways widening for no reason), ski-jumps (inclined roads ending mid-air), and bridges over nothing etc all across Britain. Examples of this can be seen in Glasgow, one where the M74 for London was originally intended to meet the M8 (ski-jump South of the Kingston Bridge) - this motorway is now under constuction on a different alignment, or where the M82 for Dunbarton was to meet the M8 at Port Dundas (flares on the flyovers just north of Glasgow City Centre) - this motorway is now unlikely to ever happen.

Thankfully, there's very little of this in Ireland - let's hope the M18 at Gort doesn't join the said ranks in Britain and that the motorway will be completed to at least as far as the M6 (near Athenry) should the M17/M18 PPP fall through. Then there's also the glaring gap in the M11 (Arklow to Rathnew) which includes about 2km of extremely narrow single carriageway - let hope the contracts for that will be signed too!

Regards!

Irish and Proud

Like to bump this thread with yet another example of how infrastructure is so better managed in other countries than in Ireland...

...bring it on Canada!!! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::

> skyscrapercitycity.com - partial collapse in tunnel - not the first time that it has happend - a bridge collapsed in 2006 AFAIK killing 5 people - a miracle that no one was either killed or injured on this occasion;

> link from news site in Canada - it doesn't work, so I can't get the web address - not the first time I've had problems with that site!!! :rolleyes: - only in Ireland!!! :rolleyes:

Indeed, only in Ireland!!! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

-Corkie-

Dont know where it happened but it was not here...:D

etchyed

It's funny how I completely agree with the sentiment of this thread, but the OP's username and posting style make me actually want to disagree.

mike65

Annoying isn't it :rolleyes:

Irish and Proud

etchyed wrote: »

It's funny how I completely agree with the sentiment of this thread, but the OP's username and posting style make me actually want to disagree.

Oi! I like my username - not changing that! :D

However, the posting style I was using in this thread is not my usual - it is meant to have a derisive theme directed at this "Only in Ireland" nonsense. It annoys me because deriding Ireland to the exclusion of other countries does nothing to improve things here - all it does is lower the morale of the people which in turns lends well to apathy which in turns creates a power vacumn that suits the powers that be. Ireland does not belong to the government, senior officials or the wealthy few, it belongs to us, the people - we have to collectively start taking responsibility in other to start improving things - "Only in Ireland" will certainly not do that!

That said, I could change to my normal posting style for this thread if it's what people here want. I am even prepared to amend my last post here - maybe with a little less of :rolleyes: for same and for future posts.

I'll leave it to you guys!

Irish and Proud

It's me again, but with a more normal (non sarcastic) posting style!

The link below is directed to a video (on skyscrapercity.com) showing the Southern part of the Brussels Ring Road in Belgium. Large parts of the road IMO are truly shocking - if a motorway or major DC looked like that in Ireland, I'd say there would be public revolt - at least on the airwaves:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=78043596&postcount=68

When I was on the roads in Belgium in the 1990's, many were shocking indeed! Is it true that there's now a major road resurfacing programme there? If there is, it's decades overdue - even the R132 to Dublin Airport (was on it yesterday) which is about to undergo major rehabilitation is not that bad though it leaves something to be desired.

Regards!

L1011

Belgian roads of all standards are brutal from my relatively limited experience (few hundred km) of driving there. Motorways have outer lanes that end at very short notice with sharp-ended armco blocking them off, local roads are vaguely linked potholes, etc...

Must be all the money spent on lighting the entire road network!

Sponge Bob

I alway thought the continous lighting in Belgium was plain weird. Mate just back from China giving out about their motorways. The surfaces are pure rotten ...even on new ones.