Cork Traffic Problems and Solutions

AugustusMinimus

Mahon Point Shopping Centre Junction

Outside of the South Ring road, this has to be the most congested junction in Cork City. The big problem obviously is Mahon Point Shopping Centre. The junction is an at level signalised juction, which is my mind wholly uncapable of having enough capacity for what it must deal with.

At peak hours, you'll have traffic tailabacks in various places caused by this junction. Tailbacks up to the CSO office, cars trying to exist the Shopping Centre and tailback on both entrance ramps up off of the South Ring Road.

In addition, traffic is then backlogged back to Supervalu in Blackrock, and due to the removal of the roundabout originally there, back to the Silver Quay junction. THe roundabout has been removed there recently and so we'll have traffic chaos on both the Boreenmanna Road and the Well Road.

In my mind, the whole reason for removing the roundabouts at both Supervalu and the Silver Quay pub was to reduce the traffic queueing outside of the CSO. THis is a half arsed way of going about this and is only causing traffic chaos elsewhere in Mahon and Blackrock.

My solutions.

1. An exit sliproad from Mahon Point Shopping Centre onto the South Ring Road heading towards the Jack Lynch tunnel. This will take a quarter of the Mahon Point traffic out from the Mahon exit.

2. Possibility of a entrance from South Rind Road Westward into Mahon Point shopping centre. A small single lane bridge or tunnel would suffice.

3. Replace the Shopping Centre Junction with a signalised roundabout which has much more capacity than what is there at present and always a lot more movements of traffic at once.

4. The junction at the CSO, Supervalu and Silver Quay pub should all be standard roundabouts. Take away the backlogs up the road and these will not have backlogs, even at peak times. Put in zebra crossings on each arm to facilitate for pedestrians.

5. On the Mahon Interchange itself, replace both signalised junctions with roundabouts. Zebra crossings too.




Douglas
Since Douglas Shopping Centre was rebuilt and reopened, there has been big traffic delays in 4 areas.

1. Well Road heading towards Douglas.
2. Douglas Road heading towards Douglas.
3. South Douglas Road at Roundabout under the South Ring Road.
4. Junction at the bottom of Douglas East, outside of shopping centre (when heading North).

Number 1 and 2 are difficult junctions to deal with and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what to do.

Number 3 is being caused by traffic lights controlling the follow on the junction where the slip road leads onto the South Ring Road, heading Westwards. Just remove the blood traffic lights and replace with a roundabout.

Number 4 is actually a very easy thing to deal with. Make Douglas East on way (Southward) between that junction at the junction with Barry's pub.

corktina

far too sensible.

AugustusMinimus

Another issue with Douglas.

If you want access to Douglas from South Ring Road West, or you want to enter the South Rind Road from Douglas to go East, you have to drive through Rochestown to get access via the Bloomfield Interchange.

THis causes a lot of congestion at various points in Douglas with traffic all trying to make their way through Douglas to get to Bloomfield.

In order to balance this out, how about altering Junction 7 of the N40. Instead of it just being a westwards exit and a eastwards entrance, elongate the sliproad and put in a bridge, half ways between junction 6 and junction 8. THere's plenty of space to build a bridge, two roundabouts and two extra sliproads.

There's also enough distance between junction to allow traffic movements to be done adequately without causing excessive weaving.

Ludo

Gotta disagree with that one. That whole junction between Kinsale roundabout and Douglas is crazy when busy...adding in 2 more on and off ramps would cause chaos.

Chris_5339762

Of course an enourmously complicated collector/distributor setup would do nicely

With the SRR grade seperated with weaving lanes at Sarsfield Rd, Bandon Rd and Kinsale Rd, and once Dunkettle is done the Douglas Viaduct may become a bit of a bottleneck itself and a major change along there needed.

AugustusMinimus

Ludo wrote: »

Gotta disagree with that one. That whole junction between Kinsale roundabout and Douglas is crazy when busy...adding in 2 more on and off ramps would cause chaos.

It's crazy because of the traffic lights outside of Douglas Shopping Centre.

Cars exiting the SRR on Junction 7 hitting massive traffic on that roundabout due to traffic queueing back onto that roundabout from the traffic lights. Replace with a roundabout and you get rid of this problem over night.

AugustusMinimus

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Of course an enourmously complicated collector/distributor setup would do nicely

With the SRR grade seperated with weaving lanes at Sarsfield Rd, Bandon Rd and Kinsale Rd, and once Dunkettle is done the Douglas Viaduct may become a bit of a bottleneck itself and a major change along there needed.

Would cost a nice bit to make Bloomfield to Kinsale Roundabout 3 lanes I'd imagine.

Chris_5339762

It would cost a pretty penny indeed. It is do-able though. Problem is you'd have to make the tunnel D3 which would be even more expensive.

AugustusMinimus

You think there's a need for 3 lanes between Mahon and the Dunkettle Interchange.

I would imagine that Bloomfield to Kinsale Roundabout will need doing eventually.

kub

Guys we will be dead and buried by the time they ever upgrade that road, lets face it, Its not Dublin.

Chris_5339762

No... with Sarsfield/Bandon in progress and a major upgrade for Dunkettle in planning thats quite a bit. Granted, Dunkettle will be a while but it is now more advanced than any scheme in Dublin. The next big thing for Dublin [after Newlands] is probably the M7 Naas bypass upgrade and we've heard nothing at all about that.

Padraig Mor

The major problem I find on my commute (Cobh to university area and back) is, unsurprisingly, the Dunkettle Interchange - although it is a damn sight better than it was! The new junction will be great - if of course it ever actually gets built and isn't packaged with a toll! However, in the evenings at least, I believe many of the problems there (esp queues coming from Mahon side into the tunnel) could be improved very simply and even cheaply. My daily experience suggests that much of the backlog is due to drivers from the Dublin side entering onto the roundabout when the junction is not clear. Once their lights go red and those to their right go green, they are now blocking traffic from the Cork City and tunnel entrances from advancing further - and much of this traffic is leaving the roundabout at the next junction, headed to Midleton. The result of this is drivers wanting to leave at the Midleton exit being unable to do so due to all the cars blocking their way. The blocking traffic eventually moves, but usually when there is only a few seconds left on the green cycle for those exiting towards Midleton. Net result: traffic which should be leaving the roundabout is sitting there causing congestion.

Now while drivers should of course not enter a junction if doing so will block it, the simple fact is that the vast majority of Irish drivers are grossly incompetent. I believe if the council painted a bloody great big yellow box over the area where traffic from the Dublin side blocks other traffic, you would see a considerable improvement. Of course you would still get idiots entering the junction, but not nearly as many I'd guess. Erect a phalanx of red light / yellow box enforcement cameras and you would get even better results.

Leonard Hofstadter

They should bring back the roundabouts outside SuperValu and at the Skehard Road/Well Road/Boreenmana Road junction. It was a thundering disgrace and a total waste of taxpayers' money to get rid of these :mad:! In particular, Skehard Road/Well Road is a disaster now where there was never traffic problems before when we had a roundabout.

Prowetod

You an add this to the list of problems if it goes ahead!

sheff_

Prowetod wrote: »

You an add this to the list of problems if it goes ahead!

Mahon, Douglas, Wilton. Seems the suburban shopping centres are the problem rather than the roads.

Zonda999

Prowetod wrote: »

You an add this to the list of problems if it goes ahead!

That really is an appaling proposal. There is zero issue with that roundabout IMHO..

sheff_

Zonda999 wrote: »

That really is an appaling proposal. There is zero issue with that roundabout IMHO..

It's great for getting around in the car. The surrounding area is mainly residential though (apart from the hospital/shopping centre) and the roundabout is a disaster if you're trying to walk/cycle anywhere.

AugustusMinimus

Was reading about a number of developments being done by UCC in the Curraheen area and it got me focusing on the road layout of the area.

It is quite poor IMO and a number of projects done in the past were not done correctly.

Anyways, UCC are planning 2 large developments. One a Science Centre of Excellence and the other, a new sports complex.

Science Centre of Excellence


New Sports Complex


What way will road access be done though ? I presume access to the Science development will be via the Dumbbell junction with the N40. However, if this goes ahead, is it time to for Cork Co Co to go ahead and maybe make a new road which will go from this roundabout to the Model Farm Road. I'd also include another new road off this one, to meet the the roundabout on the N22 where it meets the Ballincollig link road ?



There is a sizeable chunk of land between Cork City and the N22 which is completely undeveloped and which had very poor road access. If this isn't done, I'd have to question Cork Co Co judgement in having a HQDC junction provide nothing but private access to both the Greyhound Track and Science Development. There seems to a theory in Cork City and County that new roads do not need to be built on the outskirts, rather that gian estates be built off of existing ones. This is causing traffic chaos due to a lack of feeder roads.

The sports development doesn't seem to be a huge issue with large road frontage on the Curraheen Road. I'd imagine that section of the Curraheen Road will have to be significantly improved along with this development.

On other issue with the area. And that is Marymount Hospice. Why was a private spur off the N40 dumbbell interchange given to Marymount Hospice ? Its obvious to me anyways that a link road between this roundabout and the Waterfall Road should have been built to link both roads. Access to Marymount should have been given off of this. As it stands, this road is completely private when it should have been a nice help to traffic in the area.

Any thoughts ?