M7 - Naas/Newbridge Bypass Upgrade [Junction 9a now open]

Deedsie

Deleted User wrote: »

Yes I agree, but the Vested interests who paid to get inappropriate development approved; for example all the ghost estates and flats in remote rural towns. made our infrastructure issues far worse than they should be.

I totally agree with you and those people who took advantage are reprehensible but we are far from the only country in the world with a corrupt connected class? Referring to Ireland as backward in the midst of infrastructure developments on a revolutionary scale is not the appropriate response. We have many many problems but we have improved things incredibly in a very short period of time.

Deedsie

Deleted User wrote: »

We're still playing catchup , Dublin needs an underground badly, the Luas is too slow for me, it stops for traffic lights and for traffic, where in other countries it would run underground. Granted it's handy for those who live along the luas.

Dublin has no possible way in or out apart from road.

Cycle lanes ? are you serious ? you really need to go to Germany to see what a cycle lane is.

What greenways ? we still haven't replanted a fraction of our natural forests, Ireland remains the "most" deforested land in the whole of the European continent with less than 1% of forest remain, we over farm we feed many times our population. Most of the land you can't cross without some psycho farmer coming out on his quad ! Fences and keep out all over the place.

Our cycle lanes are shared with bus lanes with taxi's and buses with lamp posts and bus stops. Carlow Co Council made a cycle lane on the old N9 from the I.T out the Kilkenny road, wonderful cycle lane it is too , it's a white line in the hard shoulder with a bicycle painted on it . We have plenty of land to make cycle lanes away from the roads. A proper cycle lane doesn't have traffic next nor near it. We have plenty of crap narrow one way side streets in towns and cities that could become proper cycle paths.

I love cycling in the German countryside, cycling on forest trails linking towns and villages.

We have too many one off housing scattered unsustainable all over the Island throughout what should be the countryside and still allowed, big boom houses all over the countryside.

Too many housing estates with tiny matchbox size houses that all look the same on top of each other in order to maximise the profit for each square meter. The planning regulations in Ireland are ridiculous.

We still burn solid fuel for heating, the most unregulated and toxic form of fuel. Doesn't get much more backward than this, all the villages in Ireland that choke under clouds of coal smoke.

I could go on but I haven't the time really, A lot I love about Ireland but a lot I don't.

Peat burning is actually of cultural significance to Ireland. Sneer at it all you want but people have burned peat for cooking and domestic heating for thousands of years in Ireland.

Personally I would prefer to live in an Ireland "backward" and conscious and protective of our culture and where we came from than an extension of a German Länder with smokeless villages and soulless homes.

I think it would take from our poetry...

When night stirred at sea
And the fire radiator brought a crowd in,
They say that her beauty
Was music in mouth
And few in the candlelight
Thought her too proud,
For the house of the planter
Is known by the trees.

Men that had seen her
Drank deep and were silent,
The women were speaking
Wherever she went –
As a bell that is rung
Or a wonder told shyly,
And O she was the Sunday
In every week.

Deedsie

Deedsie wrote: »

Peat burning is actually of cultural significance to Ireland. Sneer at it all you want but people have burned peat for cooking and domestic heating for thousands of years in Ireland.

Personally I would prefer to live in an Ireland "backward" and conscious and protective of our culture and where we came from than an extension of a German Länder with smokeless villages and soulless homes.

You'd think after thousands of years we'd move on and find better ways of heating our homes, but don't get me wrong, I'd rather we burn our own source of energy than import foreign energy but solid fuel destroys my sinus , it really kills me especially coal smoke and I would like to have clean air rather than have to breath in Coal, smoke surely I have the right to want to breath clean air ?

There's nothing wrong with the Germans, they're nice decent people just like the majority of Irish.

Carawaystick

Deleted User wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with the Germans, they're nice decent people just like the majority of Irish.

These are the same germans building loads of new coal power plants and closing down nukes, because there was an earthquake near Japan...

lots of banging on about improving public transport instead of new roads, but good roads provide good coach services, which are flexible and can respond to changes in demand patterns, and are often faster than rail links in Ireland for city centre to city centre journeys.

Middle Man

Carawaystick wrote: »

These are the same germans building loads of new coal power plants and closing down nukes, because there was an earthquake near Japan...

lots of banging on about improving public transport instead of new roads, but good roads provide good coach services, which are flexible and can respond to changes in demand patterns, and are often faster than rail links in Ireland for city centre to city centre journeys.

Coal plants should be banned as should fracking. I'd have nuclear anytime over those.

AugustusMinimus

Per unit of electricity generated, coal fired plants have released many, many times more radiation into the atmosphere than nuclear plants have.

Carawaystick

Carawaystick wrote: »

These are the same germans building loads of new coal power plants and closing down nukes, because there was an earthquake near Japan...

They're not building loads of coal plants, they did bring a new one on line this year or last ? can't remember, they have exported a huge amount of renewable energy which if it were to be added up probably offsets the coal plants and probably much more but I don't have the figures.

The Nuclear plants they closed were old and near end of life anyway and Nuclear didn't account for much of the total electricity generated.

Coal accounts for about 20% of electricity production in Ireland, gas up to 60% and other, i.e import, micro generation, hydro the rest. There are many days in Ireland where wind accounts for 35% of our electricity generation , today however it's pretty calm and only 4% is coming from wind and 62% from Gas , 24% however Germany's solar creates a significant amount of energy, the problem lies in storage. This is where electric cars with their batteries become the answer, most people want a 300+ mile range EV when the majority drive less than 50 miles a day, so if you got for instance a 200 mile range EV with about 60 Kwh of storage and you drive 40 miles a day then you'll consume about 11 or 12 Kwh depending on your right foot so that would leave 50 Kwh daily out of a 60 Kwh battery ready and waiting to dump all that renewable energy into the grid. Then the Electric companies don't have to spend huge amounts on buying storage batteries. All that energy in a Tesla model S 90 Kwh battery going to waste sitting idle most of the year in the car ???

This is really a discussion for another topic which I'll happily contribute to.

Carawaystick wrote: »

lots of banging on about improving public transport instead of new roads, but good roads provide good coach services, which are flexible and can respond to changes in demand patterns, and are often faster than rail links in Ireland for city centre to city centre journeys.

Public transport needs serious investment particularly in Dublin, an underground is the only long term solution.

The N7 from Naas needs upgrading not denying this but this will be years before completion.

AugustusMinimus

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Per unit of electricity generated, coal fired plants have released many, many times more radiation into the atmosphere than nuclear plants have.

There are no numbers, but in theory , yes, Coal emits more radioactive elements in to the atmosphere than a normally functioning Nuclear power station.

If you look at Chernobyl , I'm not so sure, there was insane levels of the worst kind of radiation emitted from Chernobyl. And there is a large amount of radiation escaping from the broken concrete casing they built around it and this is being ignored completely by Governments and the worlds media, it's just not cool to talk about it any more it won't generate the sensational headlines that melt down generates. In Japan they're removing all the nuclear fuel where in Chernobyl all that nasty stuff is still there becoming more and more of a threat.

I'm a Nuclear fan, it's probably not going to work in Ireland in it's current form because our grid is too small and out dated.

I would love to see far more R&D into Thorium in L.F.T.R . The benefits are tremendous compared to current Nuclear technology and the greatest of all is the waste is less than 99% of current Nuclear reactors, it;s far more efficient.

Ren2k7

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Per unit of electricity generated, coal fired plants have released many, many times more radiation into the atmosphere than nuclear plants have.

Tell that to the veggies and watch them reject these claims, insist "big nuclear" paid off the report authors and engage in downright lies. If they want lower CO2 emissions then nuclear is vital. Wind simply cannot provide 100% of our energy needs, something the Greenies seem to forget.

Energy wants or energy needs, the vast majority of energy is expended on wants! Energy needs are only a fraction of the total energy consumed.
Just think about that the next time you and the missus drives to the next town and visits several different shopping centres and then drives home with the same one she could have got in a local shop. Then there is that special trip to the drive through for a burger meal. The list is endless!!!

JupiterKid

Hate to back seat mod, but hasn't this thread gone way off topic with discussion of power generation?:pac:

Anyway, does it look likely that the M7 will be widened to D3M from Maudlins to the M9 junction in the next couple of years? IMO it is a backlog need and should be a priority.

Golden Horde

What does today's new government infrastructure announcement ACTUALLY mean for the M7 widening scheme/Sallins by-pass.

It already has ABP approval and was just waiting on funding. Does this mean funding is now approved and it can proceed, or is it a wishlist that if they get elected again it will go ahead...?

Pablod

well its a 6 year plan and most likely the Dublin Airport link will be top of the list so we'll be lucky to see anything start on the M7 widening before end 2016/ start 2017 (but hope I'm wrong)

I was just driving up the last 2 mornings and I just realised that even 3 lanes isn't enough, it will barely take the volume today so I can hardly see adding just 1 lane will make a huge difference. And what about the future ? Another road beside/around the M7/N7 ?

cargo

Deleted User wrote: »

I was just driving up the last 2 mornings and I just realised that even 3 lanes isn't enough, it will barely take the volume today so I can hardly see adding just 1 lane will make a huge difference. And what about the future ? Another road beside/around the M7/N7 ?

You would be surprised the difference the extra lane will make. It's all about flows and merges. The extra lane out around the airport on the M1 made a huge difference as it helped pick up extra traffic from junctions without them needing to merge straight away and then it ended by dropping the extra lane at a junction also.

AugustusMinimus

Long term the original solution of a new motorway from the M50 out may have to be looked at. Newlands flyover has effectively locked in the Naas road to being 3 lanes in each direction for a long time.

The only possible future upgrade would be a completely new road altogether or proper public transport with links to industrial areas, linked by tram etc, Maybe someday.

gilly0512

Deleted User wrote: »

I was just driving up the last 2 mornings and I just realised that even 3 lanes isn't enough, it will barely take the volume today so I can hardly see adding just 1 lane will make a huge difference. And what about the future ? Another road beside/around the M7/N7 ?

Yeah it's been pretty bad the last two mornings, pretty much start/stop from where the M9 joins the M7. Hopefully this project will finally get the green light today, with a start date of early next year, although if traffic keeps progressing as it is on the M7, we will have to build another orbital route around Dublin, as the M50 is a shambles, always was, and always will be. The M50 is an exercise in how not to build motorways, it took 30 years to build, cost an absolute fortune and is still a car park at the best of times, it's time now to build a proper purpose built orbital route, as we finally seem to be grasping road building in this country.

gilly2308

gilly2308 wrote: »

Yeah it's been pretty bad the last two mornings, pretty much start/stop from where the M9 joins the M7. Hopefully this project will finally get the green light today, with a start date of early next year, although if traffic keeps progressing as it is on the M7, we will have to build another orbital route around Dublin, as the M50 is a shambles, always was, and always will be. The M50 is an exercise in how not to build motorways, it took 30 years to build, cost an absolute fortune and is still a car park at the best of times, it's time now to build a proper purpose built orbital route, as we finally seem to be grasping road building in this country.

Proper Public transport I would say would be better than another road, the M50 should have been 6 lanes each side.

If you build better roads you encourage more people to take the car, if you build a good public transport network people will take that instead and it's much more efficient than hundreds of thousands of Diesels driving around doing small trips.

AugustusMinimus

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Proper Public transport I would say would be better than another road, the M50 should have been 6 lanes each side.

The problem is that once in Dublin, there's no proper network to get commuters to their work places in the suburbs. Irish Rail seem to think dumping people at Heuston is sufficient.

loyatemu

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

The problem is that once in Dublin, there's no proper network to get commuters to their work places in the suburbs. Irish Rail seem to think dumping people at Heuston is sufficient.

Irish Rail know that isn't enough, that's why they wanted to build Dart Underground which would have connected Heuston to all the other rail and luas lines.

AugustusMinimus

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

The problem is that once in Dublin, there's no proper network to get commuters to their work places in the suburbs. Irish Rail seem to think dumping people at Heuston is sufficient.

That's why you need a "proper" public infrastructure, Underground, etc. We will have to some day , road only transport is unsustainable.

Deedsie

Well for all the predictable doom and gloom... I'd just like to say woohoo, delighted the works are finally going to get started. Hopefully Kildare CoCo will be on the ball and ready to go with construction asap.

Great news anyway. Shame about the M20.

Pablod

Estimated 26 months to complete but no mention of a start date - so I wont hold my breath just yet

url]http://www.kildarenow.com/news/new-m7-projects-will-will-take-26-months-to-finish-and-save-11-lives-as-its-co-kildares-biggest-accident-blackspot/46408[/url

rameire

I saw somewhere Land acquisition is to commence Next year.

gilly0512

Deleted User wrote: »

Proper Public transport I would say would be better than another road, the M50 should have been 6 lanes each side.

I wouldn't actually disagree with you Mad_Lad, the problem is that Dublin is so far behind most other modern capital cities when it comes to public transport, that it will take decades if not more before it even reaches an acceptable standard. They are talking about 2026 before the Metro North is completed, and knowing this country it will probably be more like 2030. Metro North is not going to make much of a difference to those commuting from Kildare/Laois etc, so the sad fact of the matter is that unless the government do something with the M50 or build another orbital route, it will become a regular occurrence that traffic is backed up every morning and evening from the M50 onto all of the major motorways leading into and out of Dublin.

gilly0512

rameire wrote: »

I saw somewhere Land acquisition is to commence Next year.

Does the majority of the land not already exist in the central median, or is the land acquisition that you speak of not for the Sallins bypass?

BoatMad

........, it will become a regular occurrence that traffic is backed up every morning and evening from the M50 onto all of the major motorways leading into and out of Dublin.

As it is in almost any large city you care to mention

rameire

gilly2308 wrote: »

Does the majority of the land not already exist in the central median, or is the land acquisition that you speak of not for the Sallins bypass?

it would seem that most of the land is within the current confines of the road way and hard shoulders,
but there is still land that is required for yes the sallins bypass, also the new Osberstown junction and there are some drain ponds I think that will be off the main road that need space aswell.

and from what I believe, Kildare county coundil already years ago put up notices to land owners that they will be buying their land for the sallins bypass and osberstown junction.
so hopefully it is alot quicker than it could be.