Blackrock Roadworks

cormie

Is it just me or are these roadworks taking absolutely forever? Yesterday I drove by another gridlocked queue leading all the way from the park to left turn for Monkstown. It must be abou 3 months now they've been working on the road and when all seemed almost done, I think they ripped up what they had just recently surfaced and did it again

cobham

:mad:

coylemj

I have no idea what they were doing on the stretch on Temple Hill over the past few weeks, the median was narrowed by a matter of no more than a few inches but it probably cost tens of thousands of euros, not to mention the disruption to traffic. It was getting pretty chronic after 3 p.m. outbound any time I was there recently. All for a slightly wider cycle lane

dublinman1990

Whenever I get the no.4 bus home from college the running time is delayed by 10 to 15 minutes for any bus to Monkstown Avenue between 1pm & 3pm.

Any time I got a 4 from the CC to Stradbrook Road in the last two or three occasions have let me stay on it for nearly 55 minutes whenever there is heavy traffic from Frascati road going up to Temple Hill for a maximum of 20 minutes. That was because part of the southbound side of the carriageway up as far as Newtown Avenue was blocked off with traffic cones.

Pedestrians have a much more difficult opportunity to cross the road at the very top of the carriageway beside St Vincent's park because builders are rebuilding pedestrian junctions up as far the entrance to Monkstown Road. Half of the pedestrian lights on the St Vincent's park side is now blocked by the builders for over a week and half now leaving pedestrians to safely cross the road either at the Junction of Netownpark Avenue or at the lights at Newtown Avenue.

ted1

coylemj wrote: »

I have no idea what they were doing on the stretch on Temple Hill over the past few weeks, the median was narrowed by a matter of no more than a few inches but it probably cost tens of thousands of euros, not to mention the disruption to traffic. It was getting pretty chronic after 3 p.m. outbound any time I was there recently. All for a slightly wider cycle lane

I guess that it's important to get the cycle lane correct.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/woman-cyclist-dies-in-hospital-after-blackrock-collision-1.1495045

Larbre34

Due to be finished in August according to the website. I imagine all the services under the road are being replaced too, not just a matter of tarmac and white lines.

coylemj

ted1 wrote: »

I guess that it's important to get the cycle lane correct.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/woman-cyclist-dies-in-hospital-after-blackrock-collision-1.1495045

That accident (in 2013) involved a truck making a turn so the width of the cycle lane (or whether there was any cycle lane) was not a contributory factor.

Chinasea

coylemj wrote: »

That accident (in 2013) involved a truck making a turn so the width of the cycle lane (or whether there was any cycle lane) was not a contributory factor.

The area was absolutely TREACHEROUS for cyclists. At least now there is some protection for cyclists just simply trying to get to work in a clean safe sustainable manner. I can't see any problem whatsoever with that.

xper

coylemj wrote: »

... All for a slightly wider cycle lane

All for a cycle lane, you mean. There was none at all along most of the Blackrock bypass and the traffic lanes were too narrow for fast moving cars to overtake cyclists with a safe margin and remain in their lane. I cycled along it northwards during morning rush hour just once and vowed never to do so again - it's the only time commuting on the bike that I actually felt truly in danger from "normal" traffic. Found an alternative route. The new cycle lane, at least the completed bit, is up to the latest standards and much appreciated by me for one.

It has taken an age to complete though and must have cost a pretty penny. Not sure if doing it in short phased sections was the least disruptive option.

There's plans for a very similar cycle lane upgrade on the N11 between Stillorgan and Galloping Green so expect more fun and games there soon.

the groutch

the real question is why they didn't do a proper cycle lane like that the first time on the N11, that orange concrete that started breaking up after 5 minutes was/is an embarrassment.

The cycle lane is so wide, that gobshytes think it's a third lane. I wish I was joking. I think it's almost more dangerous for cyclists now. I saw a person actually drive up the cycle lane to take a left on to Mount Merrion Avenue, thinking it was the old filter lane :eek:

machiavellianme

Blackrock bypass? With the amount of new traffic lights installed you'd probably be better off going through the village. I welcome the cycle lane but question the logic of more ramps and traffic lights,especially when sequences seem intent on stopping drivers at every one. Frustrated drivers tend to cause accidents.

cormie

What's up with the slip road past the BMW dealer too, it's marked as "Bus Lane" at the top, don't tell me they are going to turn that into a bus only slip?

the groutch

Deleted User wrote: »

The cycle lane is so wide, that gobshytes think it's a third lane. I wish I was joking. I think it's almost more dangerous for cyclists now. I saw a person actually drive up the cycle lane to take a left on to Mount Merrion Avenue, thinking it was the old filter lane :eek:

also seen some motorbikes riding up along it, nearly crashing into cyclists waiting at the traffic lights.

LXFlyer

cormie wrote: »

What's up with the slip road past the BMW dealer too, it's marked as "Bus Lane" at the top, don't tell me they are going to turn that into a bus only slip?

Well I would think it is pretty obvious that is exactly what they are doing.

cormie

Will have to wait and see how they do it and sign post it before the slip for the garage considering it's only a bus lane past the garage itself, meaning vehicles will have to turn around as opposed to going through a 10m bus lane.

Seaswimmer

Deleted User wrote: »

The cycle lane is so wide, that gobshytes think it's a third lane. I wish I was joking. I think it's almost more dangerous for cyclists now. I saw a person actually drive up the cycle lane to take a left on to Mount Merrion Avenue, thinking it was the old filter lane :eek:

Not sure how you could do that as there are plastic poles separating the cycle lane there from the road.

however I notice there are only 2 of them left this morning from about 6 starting off so only a matter of time before the cars are into the cycle lane again unless they keep replacing the poles..

Seaswimmer

Seaswimmer wrote: »

Not sure how you could do that as there are plastic poles separating the cycle lane there from the road.

however I notice there are only 2 of them left this morning from about 6 starting off so only a matter of time before the cars are into the cycle lane again unless they keep replacing the poles..

They put those poles there afterward!

And yep, within days of them being there, one was already gone.

uch

Deleted User wrote: »

They put those poles there afterward!

And yep, within days of them being there, one was already gone.

Most of those poles are spring loaded, you can drive straight over them

uch

uch wrote: »

Most of those poles are spring loaded, you can drive straight over them

Well two people tested that theory and they are no more :P

(the poles, that is, not the people )

ted1

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The cycle lane is so wide, that gobshytes think it's a third lane. I wish I was joking. I think it's almost more dangerous for cyclists now. I saw a person actually drive up the cycle lane to take a left on to Mount Merrion Avenue, thinking it was the old filter lane :eek:

Saw that too the other day except he was coming from frascatti towards monkstown

cormie

I don't know what's up with drivers heading towards Dublin before approaching the Garda station just opposite the BMW garage, hardly anyone can stay in their lane!

Seaswimmer

cormie wrote: »

I don't know what's up with drivers heading towards Dublin before approaching the Garda station just opposite the BMW garage, hardly anyone can stay in their lane!

Probably the new narrower lanes installed recently..

cormie

They are more narrow, but still easy to fit between the lines

Seaswimmer

cormie wrote: »

They are more narrow, but still easy to fit between the lines

Well maybe for some drivers..

I predict problems in September as the traffic goes back to normal levels. With the new narrower lanes there is now no room for scooters/motorbikes to filter between the 2 lanes like they used to. Expect to see large numbers of motorbikes using the new cycling infrastructure..

helimachoptor

Deleted User wrote: »

The cycle lane is so wide, that gobshytes think it's a third lane. I wish I was joking. I think it's almost more dangerous for cyclists now. I saw a person actually drive up the cycle lane to take a left on to Mount Merrion Avenue, thinking it was the old filter lane :eek:

this is why i mostly take the N11, the rock road seems to have the less intelligent drivers tbh

Larbre34

helimachoptor wrote: »

this is why i mostly take the N11, the rock road seems to have the less intelligent drivers tbh

Dyspraxic at the very least.

cormie

Seaswimmer wrote: »

Well maybe for some drivers..

I predict problems in September as the traffic goes back to normal levels. With the new narrower lanes there is now no room for scooters/motorbikes to filter between the 2 lanes like they used to. Expect to see large numbers of motorbikes using the new cycling infrastructure..

Still fine for an 8ft/2.5m wide van but if there's two side by side yeah filtering may be difficult. Whether it will even be finished by September is another question at the rate they are going

ted1

helimachoptor wrote: »

this is why i mostly take the N11, the rock road seems to have the less intelligent drivers tbh

It's also in bits, pot holes, dodgy man holes, road works. bike lane, no bike lane. no thanks. at least on the way back it slightly better.

Larbre34

Got this from the Council website

# Frascati Road / Temple Hill Improvement Scheme, Blackrock ***

Construction works for the Frascati Road / Temple Hill Improvement Scheme will continue until August 2015.

A new temporary road and junction layout will be in place to facilitate junction
improvement works at Temple Hill / Newtownpark Avenue, Blackrock. This will be in place on Temple Hill between Monkstown Road and Newtownpark Avenue junctions. As part of this traffic management plan there will be “No Right Turn” movement allowed from Temple Hill onto Newtownpark Avenue for the duration of these works. A diversion route will be in place via Stradbrook Road, Deansgrange Road, Brookville Park and Benamore Road.

The new layout and diversion routes will be fully signed for the duration of the
construction works on this section of road and junction.

It is expected that this new layout will be in place from Monday, 29th June to Friday, 31stJuly 2015.A Traffic Management Plan will be in place. Traffic disruption will be kept to a minimum with business as usual

LXFlyer

cormie wrote: »

Will have to wait and see how they do it and sign post it before the slip for the garage considering it's only a bus lane past the garage itself, meaning vehicles will have to turn around as opposed to going through a 10m bus lane.

Looking at this again today it is clear that the slip lane is to be open for general traffic in either direction as far as the BMW garage. Beyond that will be buses only onto the bypass.

General traffic from Temple Road heading south onto the bypass will have to use the signal controlled junction instead of the slip lane.

Cars coming out of the garage would have to turn right towards Temple Road and do a double back onto the bypass if they want to head south.

cormie

Guess it's a safety measure for cyclists, but really there should be no need if drivers pay attention. Maybe to dissuade people going through the village to skip queues on the bypass too, but queues have really only been prevalent since the roadworks.

They should at least sign post it properly.

LXFlyer

cormie wrote: »

Guess it's a safety measure for cyclists, but really there should be no need if drivers pay attention. Maybe to dissuade people going through the village to skip queues on the bypass too, but queues have really only been prevalent since the roadworks.

They should at least sign post it properly.

I assume they will signpost it whenever the roadworks are finally completed.

Today I counted 7 pedestrian crossings/sets of lights over the bypass between Blackrock park (at Mount Merrion Avenue) and Monkstown Road: about 1km. And nearly all of them were red so I had loads of time to count...

Of course cyclists will break them and of course pedestrians still cross between them through traffic, and never wait for the little green man. Crazy. Can't have been designed by anyone who has ever driven or cycled anywhere? New speed bumps there too.

Not much bypassing going on there anymore, needs a new name

Seaswimmer

Cali_girl wrote: »

Today I counted 7 pedestrian crossings/sets of lights over the bypass between Blackrock park (at Mount Merrion Avenue) and Monkstown Road: about 1km. And nearly all of them were red so I had loads of time to count...

Of course cyclists will break them and of course pedestrians still cross between them through traffic, and never wait for the little green man. Crazy. Can't have been designed by anyone who has ever driven or cycled anywhere? New speed bumps there too.

Not much bypassing going on there anymore, needs a new name

think there are 8 sets including the ones at Temple hill/Monkstown road!!!

I cycle it both ways every day. Sadly its now quicker when coming from town to go through Blackrock village. If you are waiting at the lights at Blackrock Park/Mount Merrion Avenue when they go green it is impossible to get to Carysfort Avenue before those lights turn red. Then there is a wait of almost 2 minutes for 2 cycles of lights and a pedestrian sequence. I dont know why the sequence is like that but maybe when the works are complete it will change.

Going into town is slightly better. I usually only have to stop once usually at Carysfort Avenue again.

marty_crane

If Norris McWhirter were still alive he'd be including this fiasco in the Guinness Book of Records it's taking so long to complete. I wouldn't mind if there were any obvious improvements other than the new surface.

Fratton Fred

One thing it does do, is highlight how atrocious Monkstown road is. Turning off a new road surface on to one that is in absolute rag order typifies DLR council. Not interested in simple maintenance, only headline projects.

coylemj

I recently walked up George's Ave. from Blackrock village to the Frascati Shopping Centre. I couldn't believe that on the Frascati side of the bypass (near McDonalds) the footpath is now more than 20 feet wide at a point where there is very little pedestrian traffic.

It would have been cheaper if they had left the footpath as it was and just embedded spikes in the road in the inbound left lane since the roadworks have done nothing for pedestrians and simply narrowed the road for motorists, exactly the same as they did several years ago at the bottom of Mt. Merrion Ave.

Larbre34

Fratton Fred wrote: »

One thing it does do, is highlight how atrocious Monkstown road is. Turning off a new road surface on to one that is in absolute rag order typifies DLR council. Not interested in simple maintenance, only headline projects.

I emailed the Council about the condition of that before, when I was transporting a relative to St Vincents regularly and it actually caused them discomfort.

They told me Irish Water blocked them from repairing the road because they wanted to come in there first and meter it and update the pipelines. That was 18 months ago.....

Local needs over incompetent quangos I say......

zagmund

I agree - Monkstown Road is absolutely terrible.

On the bypass side, I think you'll find that the previous pedestrian crossing situation along there was very much lacking. If I recall correctly there was no pedestrian crossing at Carysfort Avenue - walking from Temple Hill towards Frascatti you came to a junction where you couldn't cross towards Blackrock and you couldn't cross towards Frascati. You were supposed to go up towards UCD/the old college.

I think they have over done it with the number of crossings though and they have definitely messed up the timings of the lights at Carysfort Avenue.

I just missed getting a photo of a car 80% in the cycle lane and 20% in the road, turning left towards Blackrock last night. It was so blatant, that either the driver thought they were in a car lane or else it was being driven by some form of chimp. They really need to put up those floppy bollards at that junction as well as at the junction with Mount Merrion Avenue.

z

marty_crane

zagmund wrote: »

I just missed getting a photo of a car 80% in the cycle lane and 20% in the road, turning left towards Blackrock last night. It was so blatant, that either the driver thought they were in a car lane or else it was being driven by some form of chimp. They really need to put up those floppy bollards at that junction as well as at the junction with Mount Merrion Avenue.

z

Unfortunately, this happens all day every day

cormie

They were tearing the road up again last night at the junctions leading to Seapoint and Monkstown

I think that's the 3rd time they've resurfaced that section of road since the works started, something very strange about that to me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8b3963VRW4

coylemj

Will be great fun next week during evening rush hour when the effect of eliminating the separate lane for outbound traffic turning right onto Newtownpark Ave. will probably result in a significant tailback. There was speculation here that the right turn would be eliminated but I can see a box with a right turning arrow on the plans on the DLR co co website so it will still be possible to turn right but there will now be only one lane for all of the outbound traffic at that point.

LXFlyer

Dublin Bus have detours listed from yesterday till Wednesday:
http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/News-Centre/General-News/Diversion-on-Routes-4-7--84a/

dublinman1990

I watched one tree services truck with a yellow trailer attatched to it that stopped in between the traffic lights at the Yellow Box on Temple Hill which briefly blocked traffic leading into Monkstown Road & Stradbrook Road at around 5:20pm this evening.

And while it stopped at the lights it attempted to roll down slightly at that junction for about five times for reasons unknown to me. There were cars behind the trailer turning left into Monkstown Road as well but the manner in which the trailer went down it was nearly going to hit the top of the Bicycle lanes path at Temple Hill and the cars coming from behind it.

The question that should have been asked to him should have been why could you go slightly up the hill and apply the emergency brake to let cars go behind you safely without causing an accident? There were other cars in front of it and beside it but traffic eventually cleared off down the road including the truck itself.

The truck was barely brand new and it was a Mercedes badge on it. It only happened for up to thirty seconds but it had potential to cause an minor road accident.

Exclamation Marc

I think it's safe to say they've made an absolute haims of that entire road. Whilst I admit there was a need for a bit of improvement regarding cycle lanes, the entire thing has just become farcical and they've gone way overboard (reminds me of the roundabout works in Killiney)

As a previous poster said, that right turn up to Newtownpark Avenue is going to cause chaos.

xper

lxflyer wrote: »

cormie wrote: »

Will have to wait and see how they do it and sign post it before the slip for the garage considering it's only a bus lane past the garage itself, meaning vehicles will have to turn around as opposed to going through a 10m bus lane.

Looking at this again today it is clear that the slip lane is to be open for general traffic in either direction as far as the BMW garage. Beyond that will be buses only onto the bypass.

General traffic from Temple Road heading south onto the bypass will have to use the signal controlled junction instead of the slip lane.

Cars coming out of the garage would have to turn right towards Temple Road and do a double back onto the bypass if they want to head south.

Regarding the slip road, I see that instead of designating it as a bus lane, they've put up No Entry signs with a "Except Buses" plate below. Which is fine except doesn't that make it illegal to use the cycle lane?!

zagmund

I walked past that slip lane this evening and car after car flew right up it as they have done for years. The signage is terrible. There should be a big in-your-face sign at the start of the slip road saying something like "Local Access & Bus only". By the time you've got to the garage in your car and *then* see the sign telling you that you can't proceed . . . well, there's a choice doing a u-turn in a narrow lane (probably with a bus or other cars up your behind) and going back 15 metres to go to traffic lights to go forward 20 metres, or just keep driving 10 metres along a straight road.

I know which one I would choose.

The sign needs to be much further back and much more distinct.

z

cormie

It's a little silly not allowing normal traffic there in the first place, what exactly are they hoping to achieve with it the way it is now?

EagererBeaver

FireballPitcher wrote: »

I think it's safe to say they've made an absolute haims of that entire road. Whilst I admit there was a need for a bit of improvement regarding cycle lanes, the entire thing has just become farcical and they've gone way overboard (reminds me of the roundabout works in Killiney)

As a previous poster said, that right turn up to Newtownpark Avenue is going to cause chaos.

It's been causing chaos for weeks. Dreadful temporary markings, cones all over the junction and no work on it for weeks (I haven't been up in a week or so so they may have done something with it). The no right turn is flagrantly ignored, not just by chancers, but by people in reasonable levels of traffic. About ten days ago while waiting to turn left at the bottom of Newtownpark, I counted four cars in a row line up to turn right. While waiting, a woman looking to turn left up N'park drove past the turn because it's so difficult to see with all the cones and then turned up my lane and was sat there facing me almost bumper to bumper before she realised what was happening.

An utter disaster.

zagmund

cormie wrote: »

It's a little silly not allowing normal traffic there in the first place, what exactly are they hoping to achieve with it the way it is now?

Stopping cyclists from being flattened, mostly. By the same drivers who are currently driving right past the "no access" signs right in front of them (if a little too subtle). These drivers are crap at noticing the yield sign and also at noticing the cyclists coming along the bypass to their right.

z