N17 Pipelaying in Claregalway - Traffic Woes

TomGalway

Ok first thread up here and like most it's a rant... Apologies in advance
Firstly I understand Pipe Laying and road works are all perfectly necessary in Ireland as our infrastructure needs to be upgraded to cope with demand but the situation with the pipe laying in Claregalway has got to be the biggest joke in the country.
Firstly to take the N17 on during the day is no easy feat but to continue at rush hour times - no other country in the world does this - and neither do we!! So if you think that the pipelaying in Claregalwya is stopping you from getting to work on time - think again.
According to the CC themselves via the Tuam Herald
"... some of the pipe laying is set to commence this Monday from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm each day and this will cause some traffic delays over the next three months..."
Hear that - it finishes at 3.30pm. Why then am I hearing quotes of up to two hours from town to Claregalway?
Why on Monday did I myself experience a 1 hour drive from Whiriskey's to the Traffic Lights?
Finally it dawned on me what was causing the issue....
It's NOT the pipe laying that is causing the problem. It's those lovely thousand of euros worth of traffic lights and their ingenious automatic cycles that have been tweaked and fine tuned.
Having lived in Claregalway for a number of years I know this cycle off by heart. The amount of time I spent at these lights observing, knowing to slow down, when to speed up... I understand how it works, how it changes from day time to night time to ease traffic flows but I'd wonder if they consulted the council on their Pipe Laying plans and how it affects the light cycle.
On a normal day people drive from Tuam to Galway and the lights remain green for 3-4 minutes sometimes less if there is a gap in the traffic they will change quicker, they change then for the Oranmore side and allow a few cars through at a time, the time gets longer as the queue of cars builds on any side leading to general happiness in Claregalway.
So it's Green Tuam- Galway, Green Oranmore - Tuam depending on the flow of the cars.
However, if a car comes up beside Hughes Shop to the lights to turn left or right the cycle changes which, on a normal day is a non- issue as it is rare cars come up that country laneway.
The cycle changes as such for the laneway:
Green Tuam - Galway, Green Oranmore - Claregalway, Green - Hughes Out, Green Oranmore - Claregalway, Green Tuam - Galway.
So seeing as people are using the old ratruns again because they think the pipelaying is affecting the traffic the sequence is messed up causing huge delays on N17.
The pipelaying seems to be over early enough not to affect traffic in the village itself. This evening any traffic that passed the lights to Tuam direction from 4pm onwards was never stopped and moved along the road towards the roadworks like any other day.
The thing that is stopping the traffic on the Galway - Claregalway Road is the hoards of cars that may be saving a few minutes by speeding dangerously down a back road and messing up the sequence of the lights for everyone else.
Maybe I am alone in my rant or has this behaviour/setup annoyed anyone else??

morcheen k

sounds like your specialist subject

Mr Keek

TomGalway wrote: »

"... some of the pipe laying is set to commence this Monday from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm each day and this will cause some traffic delays over the next three months...

3 Months?!! I didn't know that. That just put a bummer on things.

I heard on the Galway Advertiser tht night works will be starting in the next couple days, hope this eases things.

kayos

As someone that lives on that country road up beside Hughes I can honestly say I'm not seeing much if any extra traffic on the road. I can also say that if there is no pedestrians hitting the button there is a very very long weight to get out of that road. Perhaps a bigger issue is the pedestrian light cycle as it means no cars are moving as all pedestrian lights go green at the same time.

Also coming out of that road is a death trap. I've had far to many close calls coming out when I have a green light due to asshats running reds coming from Galway and Tuam!!!! Never mind the amount of times people block the yellow box. Its not just me who has had close calls, my wife and many of the guys in the office have also had close calls coming out of that road (remember if you go to Hughes and need to exit towards town/oranmore you have to come out that road).

antoobrien

TomGalway wrote: »

The thing that is stopping the traffic on the Galway - Claregalway Road is the hoards of cars that may be saving a few minutes by speeding dangerously down a back road and messing up the sequence of the lights for everyone else.
Maybe I am alone in my rant or has this behaviour/setup annoyed anyone else??

I avoid claregalway like the plague due to the traffic light setup, but it's not rat runners that's causing hassle, it's the 3 phase setup of the lights. It takes 3 separate sequences to get a full cycle of the lights in N17 - N18 - Hughes.

If they want to sort Claregalway out (regardless of what happens with a motorway or bypass) out they need to find some way of combining the N18 traffic with the traffic coming from Hughes.

goochtrooper69

2 bus lanes and feck all buses. Country's a joke. Damn government.

Henrib

Hi, bringing this up again as it was mentioned the roadworks would last 3 months. Any chance they finished ahead of schedule?! Heading to knock airport for noon tomorrow and don't have time to get stuck in Claregalway for an hour.

Mars Bar

Where you heading from? At that time, traffic shouldn't be a huge problem I'd say. The traffic would be going towards Galway and not out from it.

antoobrien

Mars Bar wrote: »

Where you heading from? At that time, traffic shouldn't be a huge problem I'd say. The traffic would be going towards Galway and not out from it.

That would be true in the morning, but not in the evening.

Henrib

Thanks, I will be coming from Limerick, so would normally have to pass through (turn right in ) Claregalway. Need to be in Knock at noonish so I would be hitting Claregalway somewhere between 10.30 and 11 I guess.

antoobrien

Henrib wrote: »

Thanks, I will be coming from Limerick, so would normally have to pass through (turn right in ) Claregalway. Need to be in Knock at noonish so I would be hitting Claregalway somewhere between 10.30 and 11 I guess.

I asked on of the lads that lives out Tuam direction - they're working in the evenings (7pm on), so you should be ok.

Mars Bar

You'll be grand so. No road works in Tuam at the moment either.

Henrib

Thanks anto and mars bar