County Council's idealistic (unrealistic) plans for roads within county.

veryangryman

I was reading through Roscommon Coco's plans for the roads around the county and came across 2 whoppers..

1) Upgrade of the N61 Athlone-Roscommon road to Primary and (i guess) dual it up.
2) Building of a link road between Monksland and the N61 where there is already the DC that anyone can use

Naturally, living in this area, id love for it to happen. But reality kicks in that its not economically viable (doubt it would have beeb 5 years back either)

The first one above is quite a busy section and yes there have been accidents. But realistically, its only Roscommon Town. Anyone coming from Dublin to anywhere in Mayo would have used N4-N5 to get to any of the towns there. Doubt it was ever a runner.

Any other such ideas spouted from your own coco pops across the country

L1011

Fingal and Wicklow CC's have had some megalomanical plans in the past, however they got most of them done - "Wicklow Port Access Route" (given the rather finalistic R999 number) for a port that doesn't do any trade; wanting to dual the R132 and suceeding in bits and pieces; etc.

PseudoFamous

MYOB wrote: »

Wicklow CC have had some megalomanical plans in the past, however they got most of them done.

Well, despite the cost, some of their plans for roads in and about Arklow (No timeframe set) include:

• A Western junction for the town on the N11 (Around Lamberton)
• A distributor road from the above mentioned junction thru the Vale Road (R747) to Kilbride Ind. Estate, with a bridge over the Avoca River (Granted, there is only one bridge in the town, so it should theoretically relieve traffic in town centre)
• A connecting road between the Coast road (R750) and the Dublin road
• A port road from the Wexford Road to around Roadstone (Where they plan on developing a regional RORO port, <sarcasm>which we saw was clearly successful in Wicklow town</sarcasm> ¬_¬)

There are some others, too, but I feel those are the most "major" ones
(Source)

Sponge Bob

Galway is planning.

30 km of new offline R336 Bearna-Casla
5 km of Claregalway Bypass
3km of Athenry North Ring Road ( nearly done that)
3km of Barna Bypass with maybe 500m completed.
M17 inc N17 Tuam Bypass
N17 Tuam - Claremorris
M18 Athenry Tuam
N6 Galway City Bypass
30km of upgrade Oughterard-Clifden
6km of N59 Moycullen Bypass

all of which will keep the consultants busy for quite some time

Oh! And the N67 Kinvara Relief road

Wild Bill

Ah! You guys are sad. Cute, but sad

Like describing projects to bring our roads up to normal European standards as "maniacal" - when we tossed enough dosh into a few dead banks to pay for all of the projects listed above and then some!

And that's just this years contribution to the indigent bankers scheme.

Regarding two roads I know: the R132 should have been a full DC between the N4 and Tallaght.

The reason Wicklow Port was struggling was because it had no road access; problem solved - that whole sea-front area is opened up for development and the port is booming despite the Depression.

OK - the WRC is a maniacal white elephant - but the vast majority of projects delivered or planned were either urgently needed or very worthwhile.

Y'know kiddies; if we had "saved" the billions we spent on road infrastructure in the past 15 years it would make no noticeable difference except that instead of leaving us infrastructure, we'd have given a few extra billion to the financial black hole called "saving the euro" - with zilch to show for it.

PseudoFamous

Wild Bill wrote: »

The reason Wicklow Port was struggling was because it had no road access; problem solved - that whole sea-front area is opened up for development and the port is booming despite the Depression.

That port gets at best one ship a week.

Wild Bill wrote: »

Ah! You guys are sad. Cute, but sad

Like describing projects to bring our roads up to normal European standards as "maniacal" - when we tossed enough dosh into a few dead banks to pay for all of the projects listed above and then some!

I think it's fair to say that the county council are insane. If I was in charge of their budget for Arklow, I'd almost certainly be putting another road along the river parallel to the Main St. to alleviate traffic, and probably introduce some form of one way system between them, increasing a few lanes to decent enough width to transfer traffic between them, as shown in my incredible diagram. It'd certainly make more sense than building a port access road to a completely disused port.

Wild Bill

PseudoFamous wrote: »

That port gets at best one ship a week.

Ship?

What about all the fishing boats, yachts, pleasure craft, tourists? :rolleyes:

Jeez you folk are negative!

Ah! So you wanted the money spent in Arklow! Now I understand.......

PseudoFamous

Wild Bill wrote: »

Ah! So you wanted the money spent in Arklow! Now I understand.......

You may want to reread my first post. I was talking specifically about the plans for Arklow. For further clarification, they're building a port access road in Arklow, too.

Wild Bill

PseudoFamous wrote: »

If I was in charge of their budget for Arklow, I'd almost certainly be putting another road along the river parallel to the Main St. to alleviate traffic, and probably introduce some form of one way system between them, increasing a few lanes to decent enough width to transfer traffic between them, as shown in my incredible diagram.

It is an incredible diagram!

There isn't room along the river for that road.

PseudoFamous

Wild Bill wrote: »

It is an incredible diagram!

There isn't room along the river for that road.

Alright, I'll take that as a challenge. How much wider than the standard 7m for two lanes would it need to be for there to be enough room?

Wild Bill

Allowing for footpaths and bike lanes we're looking at an extra 4m?

That's 11m - and is the connection across the railway at the west-end in place? Can it be done?

ps - it looks like a footpath on the Open Street Map...

PseudoFamous

Wild Bill wrote: »

Allowing for footpaths and bike lanes we're looking at an extra 4m?

That's 11m - and is the connection across the railway at the west-end in place?

Alrighty, I'll be out on the riverwalk tomorrow, right into the Arklow badlands, with me measuring tape and keen eye.
I'm certain there's a bridge over the railway. Whether or not it's 11m wide is another story altogether. Near certain it can take a car, although building a tiny bridge like that wouldn't be very costly, and would be relatively easy with how few trains pass every day.

As far as I can see from my google maps research and knowledge of the area, the only issues that might arise are between the existing bridge and a recent building jutting into the road (beige, seen here)

Of course, I'll be back (if I'm not murdered by the lovely folk who spend their days there) tomorrow evening, with some tangible results.

antoobrien

veryangryman wrote: »

The first one above is quite a busy section and yes there have been accidents. But realistically, its only Roscommon Town. Anyone coming from Dublin to anywhere in Mayo would have used N4-N5 to get to any of the towns there. Doubt it was ever a runner.

Not necessarily true (definitely not for south east mayo), I regularly go to my brother's family near Ballyhaunis. The N5 isn't the best way to get to that part of Mayo. The N61 is a bigger pain trying to pass anybody than the N6 in Galway used to be.

Edit:Just looked at the dates on the original posts, raises a question.

Bill just how bored are you?

dubhthach

Arklow Port access road here, it's also to improve access to Roadstone Jetty / Quarry at Arklow Rock.

http://www.wicklow.ie/apps/wicklowbeta/Publications/Planning/CountyDevPlan/Maps/Map%2019.pdf

For some reason they used a very old map above. Given that it mentions the "Dublin and South Eastern Railway" which hasn't existed for nearly 90 years ye have to wonder. From looking at modern map of course such a service road would help them rezone a big chunk of land close to town center :rolleyes:

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,724665,672619,5,0 (check out 2005 aerial photos)

Wild Bill

antoobrien wrote: »

Bill just how bored are you?

The weather has turned meh meh mucky. And this is called Bored.ie, innit? :cool:

L1011

Wild Bill wrote: »

Regarding two roads I know: the R132 should have been a full DC between the N4 and Tallaght.

That's the R136 Bill (and in SDCC not Fingal). The '32 is the former N1.

Work done recently extended the dual from north of the old Swords BP towards Lusk and work planned for soon extends the bit at the airport down to Collinstown Cross; with work planned for a bit further out to link this to the Swords BP.

I'm also convinced I saw a plan for Lusk to the Meath border somewhere once but I can't find it now. This isn't even toll-dodger territory so there shouldn't be that much traffic still using that bit of the road.

Wild Bill

MYOB wrote: »

That's the R136 Bill (and in SDCC not Fingal). The '32 is the former N1.

I stand corrected. :cool:

Sponge Bob

And stay out of Arklow too Bill....I'm warning ya!

PseudoFamous

Arighty, went for the stroll today, was a bit of a prat and forgot my measuring tape. Got to the railway bridge before I realised, and then I was too far to go home.

Nonetheless, pitchers between the Vale Road/Promenade "junction" (if you could even call it that..), going North-East and later East from start to finish.

First on the list, the railway bridge. Narrow. Narrower than I remembered.

Next, the approach to the river. There was a pretty steep gradient for a fair bit after the railway bridge, but there was definitely 11m going the whole way between the bridge and the river. Definitely possible to build a road along here.

First photo along the riverbank. Taken from the point where the track in the last picture meets the paving. Plenty of room.

First problem, just after the Coomie. Nowhere near enough space, fair enough. River wide enough to be built into, piers, etc.

Strangely undemolished wall. Possibly some pointlessly listed building, stealing valuable roadspace. Same as last.

Widened out again, just after previous picture. Wall can be easily shifted back, water is relatively shallow, point bar right middleground. I would estimate the paving at 6m.

Slight bottlenecking before junction, widens to easily 11m after.

Aaand my initial thought: beige building would ruin everything. Yup.

All still relatively manageable, though. Not a whole lot harder to construct than the Port Access Road (Since most of the roadway around roadstone is below sealevel, and would have to be raised and drained), and would be far more beneficial.

Wild Bill

PseudoFamous wrote: »

All still relatively manageable, though. Not a whole lot harder to construct than the Port Access Road (Since most of the roadway around roadstone is below sealevel, and would have to be raised and drained), and would be far more beneficial.

A single carriageway road as part of a one-way system with Main St might be the way to go.

Not having walked the area of the railway bridge (and Sponge warns me not to :eek:) - it seems to be the hardest part to solve - is there enough space for a proper road bridge over the railway at that point?
And how to handle the incline to the river?

Carawaystick

The road to Arklow Rock was talked a lot about the time the bypass was being built. Also the Rock was exporting stone to Germany and aroundabout the time the marina was being built, there was talk of the harbour becoming a fishing/recreational port and the shipping moving down to the Rock.

I dunno who paid for the road at Servier to cross the rail line, but it's another 900m to the boundary of the Rock.

I doubt any of the Rock is below sea level, it's about 8-10 feet from the cove beach level up to the level of the rock, plus the fall on the beach.

Regarding building a road down the Coomie lane: the steepness of this lane ( and I doubt there's an 11m wide pathway down there) would prevent a road being built here.

There would be issues with the Castle, the fact that the riverbank floods and would need to be raised up; the lack of access at the eastern end, as there was vehicular access here and no paths about 25 years ago, but the road was closed off and a rampway for pedestrian access made.


A possibly better plan might be to build a bridge across the Avoca near the Coomie lane, and connect to the Avenue that runs from the Fert to Ferrybank.

There was talk after the Bohringer Mannheim road was built that it'd lead to rezoning beside Churchview and Abbey Heights.