Placement of motorway exits and potential new ones

veryangryman

I see that most motorway exits are where same intersects an N road and occasional R road rather than logical ones based on traffic that uses the roads just off the motorway. In some cases there are too many where its a waste of money. In others it makes the old roads even busier through diverting traffic onto them where the old road met dual carriageway but now is closed off.

Examples....

M6 should have an exit around ballydangan for the traffic that lives between athlone. Currently a LOT of extra needless traffic has to go through busy monksland roads.

Moate and cashel... Far too many exits.

Portlaoise .. why no exit at M7 bridge for N80

Opinions? Anyone with information as to how these examples came to be either

Jayuu

Cashel is atypical because the motorway incorporated the existing Cashel bypass and so you ended up with far more exits that you would have done if it had been a new build.

AugustusMinimus

You should be able to exit the M8 northbound at Fermoy onto the N72 and enter the M8 southbound from the N72.

All it would take would be two sliproads and it would take a lot of traffic out of the town. Crazy it wasn't done and this doesn't affect the toll either.


EDIT: After looking on google maps, it looks like there was a huge land purchase around the M8 where it crosses over the N72. Was there originally going to be an asymmetrical junction there or is there one planned there ?

https://maps.google.ie/maps?q=fermoy+google+maps&ll=52.13736,-8.258672&spn=0.009127,0.021179&safe=off&hnear=Fermoy,+County+Cork&gl=ie&t=h&z=16

Cleahaigh

veryangryman wrote: »

I see that most motorway exits are where same intersects an N road and occasional R road rather than logical ones based on traffic that uses the roads just off the motorway. In some cases there are too many where its a waste of money. In others it makes the old roads even busier through diverting traffic onto them where the old road met dual carriageway but now is closed off.

Examples....

M6 should have an exit around ballydangan for the traffic that lives between athlone. Currently a LOT of extra needless traffic has to go through busy monksland roads.

Moate and cashel... Far too many exits.

Portlaoise .. why no exit at M7 bridge for N80

Opinions? Anyone with information as to how these examples came to be either

Why the hell would a motorway have a junction for a two-bit sh*thole like Ballydangan? Do you live there, or something?

veryangryman

Cleahaigh wrote: »

Why the hell would a motorway have a junction for a two-bit sh*thole like Ballydangan? Do you live there, or something?

Rochfortbridge has an exit. Why would a motorway have that exit either? Answer is that it serves more than just Rochfortbridge. Same in my example.

My point is that the gap they made between Athlone West and Ballinasloe East has dragged alot of traffic onto the final Athlone exit that actually lives alot closer to Ballinasloe than Athlone; ergo Monksland is now packed more than it was before the M6 was opened

moyners

I'm just speculating here but maybe the one at Rochfortbridge is to provide an alternative to the main Mullingar exit at Tyrellspass in case that road is closed - as it was a few months back when they were upgrading the N52. I wonder if "redundant" exits aren't built into the system to provide detours when needed.

ardmacha

In many cases the old national road runs close to the motorways. These now relatively uncongested decent roads provide a good distrubution of traffic, removing the requirement for motorway exits to be close together in many cases.

Carawaystick

The lack of a connection with the N80 from Carlow with the M7 is daft.

I remember when the m7 was being built for a long time, there was only a hole with a new bridge over it for maybe a year or so.

Kinnegad is well served with Mway junctions too, no real need for em all.

antoobrien

veryangryman wrote: »

My point is that the gap they made between Athlone West and Ballinasloe East has dragged alot of traffic onto the final Athlone exit that actually lives alot closer to Ballinasloe than Athlone; ergo Monksland is now packed more than it was before the M6 was opened

That traffic would have had to go through Monksland anyways before the M6 opened, so I don't see how there's "extra" traffic appearing at the Tuam exit where they would have had to pass it anyways.

There's no exit there because there is nothing to serve, apart from maybe the shop at the bridge (duffys? I can't remember).

Victor

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

You should be able to exit the M8 northbound at Fermoy onto the N72 and enter the M8 southbound from the N72.

https://maps.google.ie/maps?q=fermoy+google+maps&ll=52.139112,-8.261933&spn=0.005334,0.015278&safe=off&hnear=Fermoy,+County+Cork&gl=ie&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=52.138571,-8.262301&panoid=OrG8y35Wd_rLuP627AYrlg&cbp=12,139.25,,0,1.82

1. It may be too steep
2. Would we have idiots trying to evade the toll?

antoobrien

antoobrien wrote: »

That traffic would have had to go through Monksland anyways before the M6 opened, so I don't see how there's "extra" traffic appearing at the Tuam exit where they would have had to pass it anyways.

There's no exit there because there is nothing to serve, apart from maybe the shop at the bridge (duffys? I can't remember).

Connaughtons pub is just about the only thing along there.

AugustusMinimus

Victor wrote: »

https://maps.google.ie/maps?q=fermoy+google+maps&ll=52.139112,-8.261933&spn=0.005334,0.015278&safe=off&hnear=Fermoy,+County+Cork&gl=ie&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=52.138571,-8.262301&panoid=OrG8y35Wd_rLuP627AYrlg&cbp=12,139.25,,0,1.82

1. It may be too steep
2. Would we have idiots trying to evade the toll?

1. Wouldn't think its excessively steep. Could easily do some excavation work and have very long slip roads.

2. Either slip road wouldn't alter the ability to skip the toll.

Redsoxfan

Seems to be a proposal (by the NRA) to make a new exit for Maynooth on the M4, west of the existing exit (which would be closed) - not sure if it would be at the R408 or elsewhere.

Access to the R406 would be via a new road adjacent to the M4.

Local councillor(s) not too impressed and have registered their opposition. Not sure what to make of it myself. Traffic into the town in the evening is tolerable at present. In the morning, it can be bad enough with the schools.

JupiterKid

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Seems to be a proposal (by the NRA) to make a new exit for Maynooth on the M4, west of the existing exit (which would be closed) - not sure if it would be at the R408 or elsewhere.

Access to the R406 would be via a new road adjacent to the M4.

Local councillor(s) not too impressed and have registered their opposition. Not sure what to make of it myself. Traffic into the town in the evening is tolerable at present. In the morning, it can be bad enough with the schools.

Why would they close the existing interchange? It serves its purpose very well. It could be upgraded to a full double bridge roundabout interchange like at Celbridge/Leixlip West but to close it would be madness.