N5 Ballaghaderreen Bypass

The Westerner

Probably need to start a thread on this as its one of the few projects to go ahead next year I believe.

The contract for it is now up on the eTenders Public Procurement website, dated 29 November. Closing date for bids is 9 January 2012.

Link: http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=NOV292195

Further information on tender here at build.ie

EDIT: Whoops! Tender already listed in the "Tender Watch for Roads" sticky. Sorry!

dubhthach

The Westerner wrote: »

Probably need to start a thread on this as its one of the few projects to go ahead next year I believe.

The contract for it is now up on the eTenders Public Procurement website, dated 29 November. Closing date for bids is 9 January 2012.

Link: http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=NOV292195

Further information on tender here at build.ie

EDIT: Whoops! Tender already listed in the "Tender Watch for Roads" sticky. Sorry!

Well if the scheme goes ahead and construction starts then this thread can be used for construction updates etc.

lotusm

Any start date announced yet ?

The Westerner

Don't think the contract has been awarded yet. Closing date for bids was meant to have been 9th January.

spacetweek

Map.

macker16

HEDGE CLEARING STARTED LAST WEEK

dubhthach

Map of the general route on Roscommon county council site. In general not much in way of detail out there on this road. Other then it's single carriageway etc.

http://www.roscommoncoco.ie/en/Services/Planning/County_Development_Plan_2008-2014_and_Variations/County_Development_Plan/County_Development_Plan_Maps/Map_10_Ballaghaderreen_Bypass.pdf

macker16

MAP

spacetweek

Anyone know who this was awarded to?

Ascii

Still at tender stage. Six names in the hat for the construction of it. Won't be awarded till early summer

Carlosivan01

Does anyone know who are those 6 listed?

Thanks

yop

So we are looking 1-2 years until its ready?

lotusm

any update on who got the nod

macker16

NODS NOT ALLOWED:D

lotusm

Maybe not.. but will it be starting soon .. I thought I heard 2nd Quarter this Year...:)

macker16

they are doing another dig around a fairy fort at the moment for the 3RD time

irishgeo

a hellhole of a town and an even worse corner http://g.co/maps/bwr4m , the only place a surely a national road has to stop for a local road.

well actually i know of another such occurence in mayo.

L1011

irishgeo wrote: »

a hellhole of a town and an even worse corner http://g.co/maps/bwr4m , the only place a surely a national road has to stop for a local road.

well actually i know of another such occurence in mayo.

There's a thread listing nearly all of them in the country on here somewhere.

Its not even the only one on the N5 - Longford main street since the N4 was bypassed!

donkey balls

irishgeo wrote: »

a hellhole of a town and an even worse corner http://g.co/maps/bwr4m , the only place a surely a national road has to stop for a local road.

well actually i know of another such occurence in mayo.

Ah one of my favorite junctions while pulling a 45ft trailer behind me:p if anything the roads around Mayo/Roscommon need to be up graded,They have to be some of the worst roads that I travel on.

spacetweek

donkey balls wrote: »

Ah one of my favorite junctions while pulling a 45ft trailer behind me:p if anything the roads around Mayo/Roscommon need to be up graded,They have to be some of the worst roads that I travel on.

The big problem with that whole region is that there is no city driving improvements. Instead it's a hodgepodge of small and medium towns. As a result, all roads get equal amounts of traffic - and so upgrades have to be piecemeal.
Routes like the N9 had a city at either end and so it got the big upgrade it needed in one go. You couldn't justify building something like that in Mayo.

Neworder79

spacetweek wrote: »

The big problem with that whole region is that there is no city driving improvements. Instead it's a hodgepodge of small and medium towns. As a result, all roads get equal amounts of traffic - and so upgrades have to be piecemeal.
Routes like the N9 had a city at either end and so it got the big upgrade it needed in one go. You couldn't justify building something like that in Mayo.

Who's talking about motorways? Most people in the West just want a basic level of safety and comfort on their national roads, occasional passing lanes, bad bend realignment or bypass of bottleneck junctions/towns. And the key N/S and E/W routes N17 and N4/5 have Galway or Dublin at one end.

macker16

any word who was awarded the contract yet ?

Ascii

macker16 wrote: »

any word who was awarded the contract yet ?

there will be not word for another three months at the earliest . Clearing the hedges prior to the awarding of the contract means that the NRA will not have to have a main contractor appointed to begin work in the Nov-Feb window. Start date will be spring 2013 IMO

macker16

Waiting for wills to finish the longford bypass;)

lotusm

Response from the Department of Transport....

"In relation to the Ballaghadereen Bypass contractors submitted applications on 9 January, 2012 for the Design and Build Contract for this project. There is currently an assessment of suitability of the applicants is underway and following completion of this, a number of the applicants will be invited to tender for the Design and Build contract. It is currently anticipated that the contract will be awarded in quarter 3 of 2012. Allowing some time for the development of the detailed design, work will commence shortly after award.

As you are aware, this is the largest roads project being funded directly by the Exchequer in the course of the Government’s capital investment to 2016."

macker16

funny the fence is going up in the next couple weeks. i thought the contractor does this and yet the contract is not awarded yet:D.;)

L1011

Council usually fences the land.

monument

macker16 wrote: »

funny the fence is going up in the next couple weeks. i thought the contractor does this and yet the contract is not awarded yet:D.;)

MYOB wrote: »

Council usually fences the land.

Or there can be two sets of contracts -- one for clearing etc, and another for the main works.

L1011

monument wrote: »

Or there can be two sets of contracts -- one for clearing etc, and another for the main works.

True; but it is still a case of the 'council' (as tenderer) doing the clearing/fencing before the main contract.

macker16

I was told that the contracter was doing the fence

Ascii

MYOB wrote: »

Council usually fences the land.

Not always the case. On some schemes the fencing is completed prior to the appointment of a contractor to complete the works. The majority of schemes, the fencing is part of the contarctors works.

In a lot of cases I know of, the fencing was completed to some parcels of land by the council as part of the negotiations phase between landowners and the council. Even with his land fenced, a landowner can have grazing rights up until the Lands are made available to the contractor. This is evident at Kiltiernan national school outside Ardrahan

spacetweek

Are we any closer to getting a start date for this scheme?

Ascii

spacetweek wrote: »

Are we any closer to getting a start date for this scheme?

Tenders to be submitted end of next week, huge step forward.

macker16

who got the contract i wonder

irishgeo

macker16 wrote: »

who got the contract i wonder

if tenders have to be in by the end of this week, no one yet i guess.

spacetweek

Dear Mr. xxx

Thank you for your email of 13 June 2012 in relation to the above

The Ballaghaderreen Bypass Scheme is currently out to tender and it is anticipated that the Tender could be awarded in September / October 2012 with start of construction on site in October / Nov 2012.

Kind regards
Olivia Morgan
Programme & Regulatory Unit

irishgeo

spacetweek wrote: »

Dear Mr. xxx

Thank you for your email of 13 June 2012 in relation to the above

The Ballaghaderreen Bypass Scheme is currently out to tender and it is anticipated that the Tender could be awarded in September / October 2012 with start of construction on site in October / Nov 2012.

Kind regards
Olivia Morgan
Programme & Regulatory Unit

lovely time to start digging up fields, it will be a mudfest around then.

Ascii

Tenders were submitted on Friday last. In the next couple of weeks they should be ready to appoint a contractor

macker16

any clue who got it ?

L1011

macker16 wrote: »

any clue who got it ?

If the tenders were submitted on Friday, nobody will know who got it, as nobody *has* got it yet.

macker16

down to 2 contractors at the moment wills and siac

lotusm

My money is on Wills Bros... longford done 2 months ahead of schudule... also they done the Charlestown bypass... I be very surprised if its not them Only up the road from there Home Base

macker16

id say you are right wills men around the last month

mhaise

macker16 wrote: »

Waiting for wills to finish the longford bypass;)

Good news, Wills have finished it two months before due date. Should speed things up now, was on it at weekend at peak time so it saved me 15 minutes at least. Good on the Wills Bros

roadmaster

Any word off this project kicking off?

spacetweek

roadmaster wrote: »

Any word off this project kicking off?

Contract award in September. Should start shortly after.

macker16

Wills have got the contract.heard from a very good source

Sponge Bob

The rest of the N5 is comprised of 2 large schemes.

Ballaghaderreen to Strokestown
Bohola to Westport (described)

Neither will go to construction for many years.

macker16

Dont forget enda will help these along;)

unit 1

With castlebar dublin via m6 only 11 minutes more than using the n5 according to aa routeplanner, and the tuam gort even improving the situation with better acess to the m6 then the most important road in mayo is surely the castlebar claremorris road.
This would allow one to drive cbar dublin going through only 2 towns, ballindine and milltown and the associated bad stretch between them.

Just think about that for a minute, castlebar, ballindine, milltown, dublin.
This may be an affordable option while the n5 via carrick on shannon should probably win out eventually for more northerly traffic, and might even save on costs as westport castlebar bohola might not need to be a dc.

If ek is sensible he will know this but I'd only put it 50/50 that this route will win out on the day.

unit 1

unit 1 wrote: »

With castlebar dublin via m6 only 11 minutes more than using the n5 according to aa routeplanner, and the tuam gort even improving the situation with better acess to the m6 then the most important road in mayo is surely the castlebar claremorris road.
This would allow one to drive cbar dublin going through only 2 towns, ballindine and milltown and the associated bad stretch between them.

Just think about that for a minute, castlebar, ballindine, milltown, dublin.
This may be an affordable option while the n5 via carrick on shannon should probably win out eventually for more northerly traffic, and might even save on costs as westport castlebar bohola might not need to be a dc.

If ek is sensible he will know this but I'd only put it 50/50 that this route will win out on the day.

From a previous post:
Regarding future planning of the N5 into the west of Ireland
Why was there never an feasibility study done to use the westerly route shown in the attached image in RED as the main single road into this region, instead of proceeding with all the bypasses of Swinford, Charlestown, Ballaghdereen, and now into Roscommon.

The section in Blue is already done or in the planning stage. The Proposed M17 marked in Green.

The proposed route shown starts on the M4 and finishing near Bohola or Ballyvary would serve all these places listed above but also provide quicker links for Westport, Castlebar, Ballina, Claremorris, Knock Airport, Ballyhaunis, Castlerea, Roscommon etc etc .

You would have a single road for this western region which using the population centres marked in green would give sufficient traffic volumes for a motorway. These population centres are dispersing onto M6, N5 and N4 through various routes, this could all be channelled to one road and allow the NRA to concentrate their resources.

I'd expect the cost differential would not be much more expensive that what the completing of the existing N5 would come to, especially once maintenance of a single road over many is added. The smaller towns would not need bypasses but smaller spur roads, to this main route.

It also removes the need for a new costly N60 from Castlebar - Claremorris.