Mullingar - Athlone Greenway progress?

bovis

kildarecommuter wrote: »

As above, stopped for tea and scones at Coolnahay Harbour.
When the full route is completed it'll be fantastic

Fully agree. Last summer I scoped out a potential link between Ballymahon and Athlone on some rural roads beside lough ree, glasson, ballykerrnen, etc. It could make a great multiday cycle. Maynooth->Mullingar->Ballymahon->Lough Ree-> Athlone->Mullingar->Maynooth. All the pieces falling into places. Cant wait!

http://www.dublingalwaygreenway.com

nice_guy80

bovis wrote: »

Fully agree. Last summer I scoped out a potential link between Ballymahon and Athlone on some rural roads beside lough ree, glasson, ballykerrnen, etc. It could make a great multiday cycle. Maynooth->Mullingar->Ballymahon->Lough Ree-> Athlone->Mullingar->Maynooth. All the pieces falling into places. Cant wait!

http://www.dublingalwaygreenway.com

what route did you take from Ballymahon to Athlone?

Blahfool

nice_guy80 wrote: »

what route did you take from Ballymahon to Athlone?

I'm from around here and I find you have to stay in the n road as far as Tang, then turn right and spend an hour getting lost. Beautiful part of the country and you won't meet a car. Just watch out for the farm dogs. Re-appear next to the BMW garage outside Athlone.

I do it myself as a loop from Athlone-Moate-Ballymore-Ballymahon-Athlone.
On a good day it's unbeatable.

bovis

If you start at the royal canal bridge in ballymahon and go west along the canal bank to the next bridge then there is a nice route via shrule bridge to Tang. You come out on the N55 (note it is a very busy and dangerous road). But you can walk along the wide verge for about 300 meters just over the river inny bridge and there's a right turn. Its beautiful from there and very quite as mentioned by Blahfool. Its a lovely stretch. Obviously the odd car or tractor should be expected so its not suitable for kids. hopefully Westmeath coco can be persuaded to develop a safe route here.

Blahfool wrote: »

I'm from around here and I find you have to stay in the n road as far as Tang, then turn right and spend an hour getting lost. Beautiful part of the country and you won't meet a car. Just watch out for the farm dogs. Re-appear next to the BMW garage outside Athlone.

I do it myself as a loop from Athlone-Moate-Ballymore-Ballymahon-Athlone.
On a good day it's unbeatable.

nice_guy80

Blahfool wrote: »

I'm from around here and I find you have to stay in the n road as far as Tang, then turn right and spend an hour getting lost. Beautiful part of the country and you won't meet a car. Just watch out for the farm dogs. Re-appear next to the BMW garage outside Athlone.

I do it myself as a loop from Athlone-Moate-Ballymore-Ballymahon-Athlone.
On a good day it's unbeatable.

yeah, the Tang crossing. Very few bridges over rivers or streams in longford and westmeath

you come up by Glasson Country House Hotel & Golf ?

Blahfool

nice_guy80 wrote: »

yeah, the Tang crossing. Very few bridges over rivers or streams in longford and westmeath

you come up by Glasson Country House Hotel & Golf ?

Exactly. Although some days miss the turn and have to turn around at killinure point! All part of it really.

But sometimes I'll just stay on the greenway if I don't fancy the hills.

roosterman71

Was out on the bike this morning, and joined the greenway in Castletown Geoghan. Coming from Streamstown, some scallywag has the sign turned for the greenway and it directs ya towards Kilbeggan instead of to the greenway.

Between Moate and Athlone, there is a good bit of horse dung on it. So it's not only walkers and cyclists that are using it

Donie75

I recently passed the White Gates Railway Crossing in Athlone and I saw that there was machinery working on the old railway line.
Does anyone know when the next section from Garrycastle into Athlone will open?

Donie75

I recently passed the White Gates Railway Crossing in Athlone and I saw that there was machinery working on the old railway line.
Does anyone know when the next section from Garrycastle into Athlone will open?

veryangryman

IIRC less than a year to construct so maybe summer next year. That's not official though, just a guestimate.

Will need to figure out what to do with the cyclists hitting major traffic at that junction. Makes the one decent approach road to town that bit less convenient for motorists though. Very tight approach to the crescent, more so with the added cyclists.

Subcomandante Marcos

veryangryman wrote: »

IIRC less than a year to construct so maybe summer next year. That's not official though, just a guestimate.

Will need to figure out what to do with the cyclists hitting major traffic at that junction. Makes the one decent approach road to town that bit less convenient for motorists though. Very tight approach to the crescent, more so with the added cyclists.

They're putting a cyclist light at the junction, bike traffic will continue along the line towards Montree.

The road doesn't get any tighter with cyclists. It's a single lane with no over taking from the level crossing to the bridge anyway, cyclists are road users, if you can't overtake a car without leaving the lane you shouldn't be overtaking a cyclist without leaving the lane.

veryangryman

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

They're putting a cyclist light at the junction, bike traffic will continue along the line towards Montree.

The road doesn't get any tighter with cyclists. It's a single lane with no over taking from the level crossing to the bridge anyway, cyclists are road users, if you can't overtake a care without leaving the lane you shouldn't be overtaking a cyclist without leaving the lane.

Didnt see any work ongoing post-white-gates. Will it open prior?

Subcomandante Marcos

veryangryman wrote: »

Didnt see any work ongoing post-white-gates. Will it open prior?

It will be done after. The plans were linked here a while ago, shows how the junction will look after.

mr spuckler

i crossed the line at the back of the community college at the weekend, the hardcore foundation is nearly as far as that crossing from garrycastle bridge so work is progressing at a decent rate anyway. looks like they then have most of the stretch as far as the white gates cleared to from there too.

Zubeneschamali

veryangryman wrote: »

Didnt see any work ongoing post-white-gates. Will it open prior?

I think it will open as far the white gates.

For the next stage, they have to do something to get people and bikes down off the railway embankment to street level - not as simple as clearing and tarmaccing the track up to now.

Sunny Dayz

I think the council's priority is to get cyclists as far as the white gates and get them into the town to spend. I can't see the council being as speedy doing the works to bring cyclists over to the far side of the town.

whyulittle

Taken at the Garrycastle end yesterday.

whyulittle

mr spuckler wrote: »

i crossed the line at the back of the community college at the weekend, the hardcore foundation is nearly as far as that crossing from garrycastle bridge so work is progressing at a decent rate anyway. looks like they then have most of the stretch as far as the white gates cleared to from there too.

At the Community College crossing, did they clear the all trees on the side of the open ground behind Brawny?

mr spuckler

whyulittle wrote: »

At the Community College crossing, did they clear the all trees on the side of the open ground behind Brawny?

if i'm reading the question correctly then yes! so, crossing from community college towards the sports centre, the section on the right hand side bordering the railway line is a tree free zone.

nice_guy80

the canal towpath on the royal canal is ready as far as Colehill for new surface work

mr spuckler

slightly zoomed in, looking from that crossing back towards garrycastle. you can see the trees on the left are all gone as far as the houses.

demanufactured

mr spuckler wrote: »

slightly zoomed in, looking from that crossing back towards garrycastle. you can see the trees on the left are all gone as far as the houses.

Jesus I remember when Retreat House was still standing ...the owner used that crossing to get in and out.
There was an old gatekeepers house beside the line there..

Zubeneschamali

demanufactured wrote: »

Jesus I remember when Retreat House was still standing ...the owner used that crossing to get in and out.
There was an old gatekeepers house beside the line there..

Looks here as if Retreat House was knocked between 95 and 2000:

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,605423,741804,11,5

demanufactured

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

Looks here as if Retreat House was knocked between 95 and 2000:

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,605423,741804,11,5

Yep I'd say so

Blahfool

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

Looks here as if Retreat House was knocked between 95 and 2000:

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,605423,741804,11,5

Now THAT'S a link!

good work.

whyulittle

Garrycastle end yesterday. Had a quick looking while passing the White Gates today and it looked to be in a fairly similar state at that end.

Lt Dan

Will walkers , joggers and runners be allowed onto this track, or just cyclists? Sorry if that question has been asked a few times

whyulittle

It's open to all sorts - could do with blocking it off to horses riders though.

Lt Dan

whyulittle wrote: »

It's open to all sorts - could do with blocking it off to horses riders though.

No dodgy sorts at night? Drinking Linden Village/Devils Bit like they use to do down in Burgess Park all these years ago. Not trying to be smart assed, just see that long stretch of road being a handy enough spot for knacker drinking

flazio

Lt Dan wrote: »

No dodgy sorts at night? Drinking Linden Village/Devils Bit like they use to do down in Burgess Park all these years ago. Not trying to be smart assed, just see that long stretch of road being a handy enough spot for knacker drinking

Probably will be but with a long term plan to connect Dublin and Galway with a bicycle and below only road, they can't refuse to build it and give up now.