N5 - Westport to Turlough [open to traffic]
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I took advantage of the good weather today to check out progress on the Westport end of the scheme.
First the N59 realignment, these pics were taken near the northern end the N59 section, top pic is looking south towards Westport, and the bottom one is looking north to the tie-in with the Kilmeena realignment. This bit is quite advanced, but the Barleyhill section between here and Westport is way behind, with earthworks not yet complete.
Piling has restarted at the boggy section of the Westport relief road at Attireesh. The contractor had run into trouble here as mentioned upthread.
Work has started on the roundabout on the Westport relief road behind Allergan.
Just outside the town, this is the view east from the Sheeaun road overbridge. Surfacing work is underway here and one of the future emergency lay-bys is visible in the distance.
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Big changes in Islandeady but the new overbridge is not yet open. Traffic is being diverted via the new cemetery road to the old N5. This is the view from the new cemetery road to the new N5. The land between the two roads has been planted with sapling trees so the view won't be around for long!
The Islandeady bridge is still under construction:
View from the bridge towards Westport, with stormwater attenuation ponds on right:
The newly realigned Islandeady road going north from the bridge. Some nasty bends here have been consigned to history:
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Unlike Islandeady, two overbridges have recently opened to traffic - one beside Castlebar rugby club and one at Derradda, 5km from Westport.
First the Derradda bridge, from top the view towards Westport, toward Castlebar, and of the bridge itself.
The mainline is also progressing well as it passes Castlebar rugby club, as per these pics from the new horsepark road bridge.
There's still a lot of work to do around both bridges, including completion of parallel access roads and landscaping, but at least the bridges are open.
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With all this talk of Wills walking off site, I went for a look around the Westport end of the scheme today. There was a lot of activity and workers visible, as many as ever. There were Wills vans around too. The main things I noticed were:
Earthworks were in full swing on the N59 section and on the Westport relief road behind Allergan, with the giant Volvo trucks full of earth passing every 5 minutes along this section;
Pile driving was ongoing all morning on the boggy section of the Westport relief road;
There were loads (too many to count) of McGuire haulage trucks on the roads around Westport, I think they were hauling stone for the scheme;
Tie-in works were underway at the Sheeaun road overbridge with loads of stone being dropped and spread as I watched;
Surfacing of the mainline and installation of drainage is continuing east of Sheeaun, with concrete being poured today for the roadside drainage kerbs on the westbound lanes at Derradda, while the wearing course has just gone down on the eastbound lanes. There was so much construction traffic on the mainline passing under the Derradda bridge it looked like the road was already open 😀;
There was very visible progress in all the locations I visited compared to the last time I was there, only 2/3 weeks ago. Now some pics, not great quality so sorry about that. All from today.
Concrete being poured at Derradda:
Earthworks at Barleyhill:
Piling at Attireesh:
Volvo truck passing over the new greenway underpass on the N59:
And earthworks on the Westport relief road, at the new roundabout at the back of Allergan:
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