N84 Luimnagh realignment (Headford Rd)

MBSnr

See works have started on this (fencing etc).

Bit of detail here.
https://irl.eu-supply.com/ctm/Supplier/PublicTenders/ViewNotice/164169

Construction of approx. 4.5Km of Standard Type 1 Single Carriage and associated works, at Luimnagh, Headford, Co. Galway, Ireland

Estimated cost excluding VAT: 7500000 EUR

The proposed works will involve construction of approximately 4.5 km of Standard Single Carriageway, typically with 2 x 3.65m carriageway, 2 x 2.5m hard shoulder, and verges of approximately 3.0m. Approximately 3km will comprise predominantly online realignment and widening, 1.5km approximately is new alignment construction.

Works will also entail modification and re-alignment of 3 no. existing local side-road junctions and 2 no. new junctions including numerous access points, domestic and agricultural, with construction of associated roads.

Mr Velo

And not before time.
From that it looks like the contract will not be awarded until 16th April - with completion 18 months from that date.

KSnee

Does anyone know where the detailed drawing of the realignment and can be viewed? I've had a look online and cant seam to find them.

Thanks.

MBSnr

KSnee wrote: »

Does anyone know where the detailed drawing of the realignment and can be viewed? I've had a look online and cant seam to find them.

Thanks.

Doesn't appear to be any at present. However from seeing the fencing it's fairly obvious what they are doing for part of it. Starting at Cloghanower Community Centre the road is going to be widened - mostly on the North side until the turning for Mausrevagh where the 'new road section' will cross the field there. Based on the fencing it should reappear at Kilroe (after the 90 degree turn).

The bit that isn't clear is that some fencing finishes here, perpendicular to the road and there seems to be no fencing work as yet done beyond this point towards Kilroe crossroads....

Mr Velo

MBSnr wrote: »

Doesn't appear to be any at present. However from seeing the fencing it's fairly obvious what they are doing for part of it. Starting at Cloghanower Community Centre the road is going to be widened - mostly on the North side until the turning for Mausrevagh where the 'new road section' will cross the field there. Based on the fencing it should reappear at Kilroe (after the 90 degree turn).

The bit that isn't clear is that some fencing finishes here, perpendicular to the road and there seems to be no fencing work as yet done beyond this point towards Kilroe crossroads....

That location is where the residents of Luimnagh etc will be driving onto the new section of road - so come out of Luimnagh road, turn right.... turn left where you have pointed out the fencing.

lyda

I saw bits of this the other day. It looks fantastic. Would be nice to see what it looks like on a map though.

They straightened a bit of it between Cloonboo and Headford a number of years ago and got rid of one of the worst turns - I'd seen a few post-accident scenes along it - but it looks like the next worst bit is on the way out.

Now if they could just work out how to run roads over bogs that don't become roller coaster rides after a decade or so the rest of my commute would be great!

lyda

It seems like the realignment will start just before the bends that start before the turn-off for Kilcoona and then it ends just after that awful bend a few kms down the road. It also looks like it will shave a bit off the distance, but I'm not clear how much. Really would be nice if there were maps for all this.

yop

Great to have this done, one of the worst parts of my daily drive from Mayo to Galway. Wonder would they put a few passing out lanes!

MBSnr

^^^
Eircom lads there this morning putting in poles on the East side of the new fencing so that the existing poles can be removed before work starts.

I notice that the ESB will also have to put in a new pole or two as a few are inside the new road fencing.

Breyno

Does anyone know which contractor has been awarded the main works for this project?

Mr Velo

Anyone know when this is actually going to kick off??

MBSnr

Mr Velo wrote: »

Anyone know when this is actually going to kick off??

No idea - I was hoping it would start in the summer when it's less busy on the roads and light until late. It seems that Eircom have put in some new poles but haven't started the work to move the cables over to them. Also there are two or three ESB poles that need to be moved in the section planned to be widened and also a few that need repositioning in the planned new road section.

Guess that may need to happen before works start fully?

MBSnr

^^^
Orange info signs in place. Works start 10/8.

I saw some disturbed earth on the Headford side.

Flyingsolo

Breyno wrote: »

Does anyone know which contractor has been awarded the main works for this project?

Think it's Carey , drove by the last day and seen a compound just after the top garage pretty sure it said Carey on the cabin

MBSnr

Flyingsolo wrote: »

Think it's Carey , drove by the last day and seen a compound just after the top garage pretty sure it said Carey on the cabin

I did hear it's Wills Bros Ltd from Foxford.

ESB have one new pole in place.... At least in the Northern section (where widening is needed). By the looks of it they have about 3 poles to reposition there. There appears to be a load of poles to move in the 'new' Southern section.

Also surprised Eircom haven't started moving the cables on to the new poles they put in months back.

Mr Velo

Power Outages planned this week by ESB for pole moving etc.

There were lots of ESB vans on site yesterday afternoon.

MBSnr

Few diggers in selected locations digging trenches. Could be drainage but I think they will be doing something with the water supply to some of the houses. A lot of blue pipe in the compound, so at 'a guess' the existing water supply pipes run close to or under the proposed new widened part of the road in places and they'll have to move/lay new piping. ESB are busy - 3 new poles in place, one with interconnects.

Flyingsolo

MBSnr wrote: »

I did hear it's Wills Bros Ltd from Foxford.

could be right, think careys is the hire company for vans and equipment

Flyingsolo

Stop and go system on the road today for tree clearing and stone wall removal. Tail backs

lilly mae

Tree cutting along the route this wk. The project is now up and running.I wonder will they incorporate the slow lane for walking/ cycling. Its in place from Headford to Cloughanover but overgrown on the Kilroe to Corrandulla section which is disgraceful.

Dats_rite

Careys building it and Not Wills.

A friend was working there and said there is no cycle lane just a hard shoulder both sides.

MBSnr

Eircom finally moving the telephone wires from the existing poles in the close walled section to the new ones at the fencing edge. Guess now they'd be able to knock the stone walls and open it out.

Dats_rite

They seem to be going well along the Headford side of the job with a lot of the walls down and I seen them placing crushed rock today.

The lane closure is a bit annoying in the morning heading to Galway but I suppose it is required to do the works.

Dats_rite

Seen the paver on site today placing the sub base on the Headford side of the job today. Starting to take shape and the new alignment of the new road is getting easier to see now

Dats_rite

Seen the tar going down in a section today.

Looks great

Cosmo Kramer

What's the expected completion date for this stretch?

MBSnr

Dats_rite wrote: »

Seen the tar going down in a section today.

Looks great

Yeah - I'm surprised at the speed! I thought there'd be a gap while the ground settled. Maybe not as perhaps it's on solid rock...

There are some places they seem to have dug deep down. Perhaps to get to a solid base then back fill with stone and rock?

MBSnr

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

What's the expected completion date for this stretch?

The tender/contract completion date was for 18 months from Apr '15. They started in late Aug and seem to be flying now, so at this rate there can't be many months left!

Cosmo Kramer

Sounds promising, would be great if it was finished before the summer.

nuac

Great, after many years driving thru Headford to Galway, to see this starting.

The difficulty still is that the Curragh Line into Galway is very narrow,

In recent years found it safer to go by Tuam

Cosmo Kramer

At least the Curragh Line is straight though. This stretch has always been a nightmare, especially that ridiculous bend that seems to do a 270 degree loop around a field for no reason. Drove from Castlebar to Galway today, very impressed with the recent progress they've made on this job. Another six months could finish it.

red bull

Castlebar to Galway Through Headford much faster than through nightmare Tuam and horribly slow Claregalway.
Tuam bypass and M17 may change that

Dats_rite

Seen a few white lines going down on the sections on the Headford side today. They must be putting the traffic on it soon, wonder will it be this side of Christmas?

irishgeo

will it likely to shave any travelling time off the journey of just make it safer.

Cosmo Kramer

I reckon it will knock maybe three or four minutes off it at most, mainly because the traffic always seems to slow down to about 60 kph on that stretch and that won't happen anymore. But the main thing is that it will remove one of the most ridiculously awful stretches of national road in the country. Even in its current state with roadworks all over the place it's actually an improvement on how it was before they started.

Dats_rite

Driving on those 2 new sections of road now are a hell of a lot better than the old road.

Really starting to take shape now. I see the road base is going down now on another section. I expect a whack of the black stuff coming soon too!

AA roadwatch saying the road will be reduced to 1 lane from Feb 3rd. No sign of it yet?

Dats_rite

Driving on those 2 new sections of road now are a hell of a lot better than the old road.

Really starting to take shape now. I see the road base is going down now on another section. I expect a whack of the black stuff coming soon too!

AA roadwatch saying the road will be reduced to 1 lane from Feb 3rd. No sign of it yet?

Dats_rite

Another big area of tar placed since I was last on the road.

Looking good. And they seem to have done a lot of work where the new road goes away from the old road. Hopefully that bit opens soon too as those bends are ridiculous in a National Road.

Dats_rite

Traffic lights out tonight a lot later than usual. Looks like it will be there for a while as they were digging out the current road. Hopefully it doesn't cause too much chaos on my trip home!

MBSnr

Dats_rite wrote: »

Traffic lights out tonight a lot later than usual. Looks like it will be there for a while as they were digging out the current road. Hopefully it doesn't cause too much chaos on my trip home!

My guess is there will be traffic lights after hours for a good while now. The traffic lights last night caused a fairly big delay going North about 6pm - probably due to timings being out for the flow of traffic.

They had Stop/Go boards out this morning with the guys using walkie/talkies and the traffic was much better going South at 845am.

Dats_rite

I suppose it was first day teething problems but this morning I was stuck for about 20 minutes around 8am.

I think I may try and give this area a wide berth over the next few months and see if that helps. There is a few rat runs I know on the back roads.....hopefully I am the only one who thinks like that and I can keep it my secret shortcut!

Mr Velo

Dats_rite wrote: »

I suppose it was first day teething problems but this morning I was stuck for about 20 minutes around 8am.

I think I may try and give this area a wide berth over the next few months and see if that helps. There is a few rat runs I know on the back roads.....hopefully I am the only one who thinks like that and I can keep it my secret shortcut!

Yeah - like that i got caught this morning. Came out Luimnagh road and was let join the traffic jam. I don't have too far to go before turning off the N84 again - but tomorrow morning i'll be turning left to avoid lights.

Going to last 4 months

http://connachttribune.ie/n84-commuters-to-face-delays-as-roadworks-to-last-4-months/

Dats_rite

If these closures only last 4 months that'd be fantastic.

In fairness to them this morning the traffic was grand. No major tailbacks as they had guys out on stop/go boards giving Galway bound traffic priority.

And last night was grand too.

MBSnr

Two separate sets of lights in action now. Delays last night on the 2nd set heading North but ok this morning.

Dats_rite

https://youtu.be/c71t13Mnazw

Found thus on YouTube. The route looks great!

oneofakind32

A friend shared that video on FB. I didn't realize work was being done. It's well over due. Growing up in Headford, I have too many memories of fatal incidents on that stretch of road.

Dats_rite

Another traffic move today. New route drives a lot better than the old cattle track that used to be the N84 in that section!

Hopefully a few more traffic moves over the next few weeks and they get rid of those traffic lights.

Dats_rite

Another section opened over the weekend. Glad to see the traffic lights gone in this location and 2 way traffic back flowing again