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

SoupyNorman

Stan27 wrote: »

how successful will this project actually be ?

I always though the issue was too much traffic going the limerick way, where the motorways split.

Single largest issue with the N7 has always been Naas north westbound. 3 lanes into 2 on Irelands 2nd busiest road exacerbated by drivers hooshing it down the overtaking lane then moving over 3 lanes to come off at Naas North and/or drivers whizzing up the left lane only to join back into the N7 traffic. I’ve spent a good portion of my commuting life stuck on that stretch.

Once fully open that all goes away. I take your point that the majority (maybe 2/3’s?) goes on down the M7 but 1/3’d of cars leaving the flow is a sizable chunk.

Adding 3 or 6 lanes will never fully fix the issues, driver behavior makes up for a lot and it just takes one idiot to spoil the 3 lane party for everyone.

I will say this, my commute to work has become a lot more consistent since the 3 lanes east bound opened.

Stan27

SoupyNorman wrote: »

Single largest issue with the N7 has always been Naas north westbound. 3 lanes into 2 on Irelands 2nd busiest road exacerbated by drivers hooshing it down the overtaking lane then moving over 3 lanes to come off at Naas North and/or drivers whizzing up the left lane only to join back into the N7 traffic. I’ve spent a good portion of my commuting life stuck on that stretch.

Once fully open that all goes away. I take your point that the majority (maybe 2/3’s?) goes on down the M7 but 1/3’d of cars leaving the flow is a sizable chunk.

Adding 3 or 6 lanes will never fully fix the issues, driver behavior makes up for a lot and it just takes one idiot to spoil the 3 lane party for everyone.

I will say this, my commute to work has become a lot more consistent since the 3 lanes east bound opened.

long-term, would adding a 3rd lane between the motorway split to, say Portlaois help?
thanks again.

Sam Russell

Stan27 wrote: »

long-term, would adding a 3rd lane between the motorway split to, say Portlaois help?
thanks again.

Variable speed limits with average speed enforcement would be the most cost effective way of improving the situation. It works on the M25 in London which is much busier.

Once the average speed is in force, most vehicles remain in lane and do the posted speed limit, and all travel as if in convoy and traffic flows without incident or lane switching. [Or at least that is how it works on the M25].

The ANPR cameras would also pick up NCT, Motor Tax, and Insurance offences - not a bad side benefit.

_Kaiser_

Stan27 wrote: »

long-term, would adding a 3rd lane between the motorway split to, say Portlaois help?
thanks again.

I wouldn't say it needs to go as far as Portlaoise.. if we were extending it again then maybe to the Kildare/Laois border

The traffic beyond that is significantly lighter. It's only as far as Exit 14 that the real volumes are evident.

_Kaiser_

Sam Russell wrote: »

Variable speed limits with average speed enforcement would be the most cost effective way of improving the situation. It works on the M25 in London which is much busier.

Once the average speed is in force, most vehicles remain in lane and do the posted speed limit, and all travel as if in convoy and traffic flows without incident or lane switching. [Or at least that is how it works on the M25].

The ANPR cameras would also pick up NCT, Motor Tax, and Insurance offences - not a bad side benefit.

Tax, tax, tax.

Punish rather than educate and actually have AGS enforce the traffic laws (although they are as bad themselves at times - I've made several calls to HQ over muppetry in unmarked squad cars, the latest being just this week involving an old model Mondeo).

I'll say it again... for 90% of the day, even the existing road is probably sufficient for the usage. The problem arises in the 10% peak, and there is primarily down to sheer volume and impatience. While your solution will certainly address the latter, it's does nothing for the larger issues.

NedNew2

New J10 slip roads open on Monday 8th of July

Darc19

NedNew2 wrote: »

New J10 slip roads open on Monday 8th of July

Is that just northbound?

Or possibly north and south with a down to bundle of stick rdbout and back access to Newbridge.

Possibly also new northbound on ramp but south bound on ramp has a lot of work to get done.

NedNew2

From http://www.m7upgrade.com/ - Note the advance signage on the roadway stated Monday, below mentions Tuesday.

Traffic Notification Updates - 5th July 2019

Subject to completion of all necessary activities the new M7 eastbound off slip at Junction 10 (Naas South) will be open from 06.00am on Tuesday 9th July.

Please note that this new exit is in advance of the existing exit so motorists should use caution on approach so as not to miss it.

At the same time the new M7 westbound off slip at Junction 10 will open also. This exit is past the existing exit so motorists can follow signage to exit.

Both new slips lead up onto new upgraded sections of the Newhall Interchange which ties into the R445 dual carriageway. Motorists are advised to exercise care when using the slips and follow signage for their own destination.

The opening of these slips will allow for mainline works to continue across old exits which will become part of the works areas.

Darc19

NedNew2 wrote: »

New J10 slip roads open on Monday 8th of July

Says Tuesday 9th now.

pad199207

The Southbound off ramp at Naas South looks like it’s going to be really short.

Darc19

pad199207 wrote: »

The Southbound off ramp at Naas South looks like it’s going to be really short.

Looks a lot longer than the current one. It starts immediately after the current one, it's a free flow lane towards Naas and a decent sized roundabout for Newbridge bound traffic and with far less traffic coming from Newbridge as any motorway bound traffic won't be going through that roundabout, there'll be little or no delay even at peak times.

pad199207

Darc19 wrote: »

Looks a lot longer than the current one. It starts immediately after the current one, it's a free flow lane towards Naas and a decent sized roundabout for Newbridge bound traffic and with far less traffic coming from Newbridge as any motorway bound traffic won't be going through that roundabout, there'll be little or no delay even at peak times.

Oh I’m sorry mate I didn’t know it actually starts immediately after the current one. Not bad so!

Darc19

That was smooth

New junction 10 meant a smooth free flow drive into work in Newbridge today.

I suspect a few last minute lane jumpers got caught out by the new junction being 500m earlier than previous and had to travel to jct 9.

soundman45

Travelling up later, is the new exit for both Newbridge and Naas south traffic?

beertons

It was a dream coming from the Rathangan road this morning, no delays.

spacetweek

How is progress on 6-laning from the M9 split to Naas south?

Pablod

spacetweek wrote: »

How is progress on 6-laning from the M9 split to Naas south?

I don't travel it everyday but from what I've seen over last few days and weekend still a good bit to be done, moreso towards M9 exit.
My terminology might not be right but they still need to scrape the hard shoulder and lane 1 before laying anything yet... and haven't seen much on merge work at M9 exit either.
(I stand to be corrected)

Darc19

The work on the m9 merge takes place this weekend - there's a post above.

A lot of scraping done northbound and new surface laid on some of the northbound hard shoulder (I think this was done last night)

I suspect it will look a lot closer to the finish line next Sunday

SoupyNorman

Pablod wrote: »

I don't travel it everyday but from what I've seen over last few days and weekend still a good bit to be done, moreso towards M9 exit.
My terminology might not be right but they still need to scrape the hard shoulder and lane 1 before laying anything yet... and haven't seen much on merge work at M9 exit either.
(I stand to be corrected)

They were scraping the road this morning at the eastbound merge.

I’d rather all efforts were put into the westbound side of the road as the evening rush is still getting caught at Naas South.

That’s just nit picking really, All 3 lanes east and west look like they’ll be open within 2 weeks.

Darc19

SoupyNorman wrote: »

I’d rather all efforts were put into the westbound side of the road as the evening rush is still getting caught at Naas South.

They must have read your post

Just drove past and huge change from last night to now. About 40% of westbound from jct 10 has had top layer added and finished and plenty of machines working both sides at 9.30pm

SoupyNorman

Darc19 wrote: »

They must have read your post

Just drove past and huge change from last night to now. About 40% of westbound from jct 10 has had top layer added and finished and plenty of machines working both sides at 9.30pm

I’m not sure what’s gotten into them, M9 to new J10 is cleared and they were laying tarmac this morning, I can only describe the pace of work as feverish.

Maybe there are bonus clauses in the contract for finishing on time or early?

I will say the excitement is palpable, my journey time to work is already well improved. I’m leaving 10 mins later and arriving the same lateness I always did!

Cazale

Bit of a mess when you come off the new junction ten having to go back towards naas to go to newbridge. Would have been nice to have that finished when they were opening it.

WishUWereHere

Cazale wrote: »

Bit of a mess when you come off the new junction ten having to go back towards naas to go to newbridge. Would have been nice to have that finished when they were opening it.

Came home from holidays this afternoon. Had to come off at. kill to collect our dog from canine country. Ended up going through Sallies. Then across via Osberstown, and then the delays started. Had to divert back to the Naas outer ring road, queues upon queues. Eventually crossing over a section of the 3 lane M7: noticed it was at a standstill.

What’s happening, anyone?

Brasso

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Came home from holidays this afternoon. Had to come off at. kill to collect our dog from canine country. Ended up going through Sallies. Then across via Osberstown, and then the delays started. Had to divert back to the Naas outer ring road, queues upon queues. Eventually crossing over a section of the 3 lane M7: noticed it was at a standstill.

What’s happening, anyone?

Just the usual outbound evening traffic I think, it backs up when it goes down to 2 lanes at junction 10. I came through it before 7 this evening, crawling from the bridge at junction 9a. But that's better than being completely stopped at junction 8.

red_diesel

Anyone any idea when the 3 lanes open from Naas South? For some reason my outbound journey times are worse since the 3 lanes opened from Johnstown to Naas South. The new J10 has definitely made things worse for those of us travelling the full length of the road works.
Inbound times have improved significantly with the 3 lanes from Naas South.

SoupyNorman

red_diesel wrote: »

Anyone any idea when the 3 lanes open from Naas South? For some reason my outbound journey times are worse since the 3 lanes opened from Johnstown to Naas South. The new J10 has definitely made things worse for those of us travelling the full length of the road works.
Inbound times have improved significantly with the 3 lanes from Naas South.

Its to be expected, J10 has become a natural bottle neck, made worse by the numerous idiots using the lane for the new J10 slip then cutting in, this is what causes the tailbacks.

I’m not getting to bothered to be honest, they are working furiously on the remaining lanes east and west. I would predict all lanes will be open within 2-3 weeks.

_Kaiser_

SoupyNorman wrote: »

Its to be expected, J10 has become a natural bottle neck, made worse by the numerous idiots using the lane for the new J10 slip then cutting in, this is what causes the tailbacks.

This is why they should have those plastic bollards cutting off the option to merge back out at the last minute. Like they did in Whitehall at the Church to prevent the similar problem of people using the bus lane.

wheres me jumpa

Any changes since the M9 merge work at the weekend?

WishUWereHere

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

This is why they should have those plastic bollards cutting off the option to merge back out at the last minute. Like they did in Whitehall at the Church to prevent the similar problem of people using the bus lane.

Those bollards You mention need to be erected asap. Crazy now with vehicles going right up to the off-ramp and at the last moment trying to squeeze back out.

WishUWereHere

Cazale wrote: »

Bit of a mess when you come off the new junction ten having to go back towards naas to go to newbridge. Would have been nice to have that finished when they were opening it.

I was on holidays the past fortnight, so back to the grind stone today. You are so right Cazale, it's an utter mess, and more traffic also with the NB J10 also feeding into that crazy set-up, at least that's how it seems.

At some stage when we exit J10 SB, will we be able to turn right and head home? Someone told me today that that off ramp is permanently going to be fed up to the Bundle Of Sticks ( BOS ) - true?