N26 - Cloongullane Bridge [completed end of 2022]

DumbBrunette

The new bridge is due to open to traffic in early August, with an official opening ceremony in early September, according to Mayo county council.

DumbBrunette

Bridge is open, still under traffic management for now.

https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2022/07/08/stunning-new-mayo-bridge-on-n26-nears-completion/

DumbBrunette

Great pics of the project from Jack Walsh drone photography. Shows that modern infrastructure doesn't take anything away from the beauty of the countryside. It's only a small scheme but it will make a big difference to the accessibility of north Mayo. Now on to the Ballina to Foxford road :)

user1842

I don't see any hard shoulder on the new section of road leading up to the new bridge (either side). Is this the case and if so what was the reason for excluding a hard shoulder?

marno21

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119358627#Comment_119358627

It’s built to Type 2 single carriageway standards, which doesn’t include a hard shoulder. One 3.5m lane in either direction and a 0.5m hard strip on either side.

user1842

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119358661#Comment_119358661

That is disappointing and hopefully will not be done, when they eventually do an inline upgrade of the rest of the N26.

DumbBrunette

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119359575#Comment_119359575

The traffic volumes between Foxford and Swinford are very low so it's hard to justify type 1. The upgrades to the N60 between Castlebar and Claremorris are type 2 also, even though that road is much busier than Foxford to Swinford.

Ballina to Foxford will definitely be type 1 when it's upgraded as it's a much busier stretch of road.

Bmomoran

So Swinford to Foxford is Type 2, and Ballina to Foxford will be Type 1.

What about Foxford to Ballyvarry ? - possibly the worst section of road in county.

Disappointing that they won’t just add the hard shoulder to Swinford - they have taken this approach on N5 ( Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge) even though traffic volumes don’t appear to justify it ( pretty similar to Ballina Foxford) in interests of having Type 1 whole way to Longford.

Different criteria for different routes it seems.

KrisW1001

The type of traffic matters, as well as the role of the road within the national network. Over 10% of traffic on N5 Ballaghdereen is classed as HGV. On the busier section of N26, north of Swinford, that figure is only around 5%. Any road that carries a lot of HGV traffic is more likely to be built at a wider cross-section.

N5 Ballaghderreen was also bumped up to Type 1 Single because it is a strategic corridor. Roads that are nationally important long-distance routes tend not to be built below Type 1 Single.

I think the problem people are having with Type 2 Single is that so little of it has been built that it’s hard to get an idea of what it really means. Few of the projects completed in Ireland are on Street View, so unless you’ve driven on the roads in question, it’s hard to get an idea of what sort of road it is. It is actually a pretty good standard of road, and is not far off what other countries on the Continent use as their main single-carriageway road type.

KrisW1001

... and that N55 project is one of the sections that Streetview has photographed: N55 - Google Maps

DumbBrunette

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119361564#Comment_119361564

Foxford to Bellavary remains to be seen. There is a plan for a fully offline upgrade which would probably be type 1, but I don't see that happening for years. A bypass of Foxford on the N58 will probably happen before that, so it will be interesting to see what cross section that will be.

Re the N5 in Roscommon, it was acknowledged in the design report that expected traffic figures didn't justify type 1. The rationale that was used to make it a type 1 was that the N5 should have a consistent cross section and the roads at either end of the planned scheme had already been upgraded to type 1.

Bmomoran

Thanks - realistically any further works on n26 will be years away

mayo.mick

Passed the bridge today, it was open. Been a few weeks since I last seen it. Some dashcam from today.

https://youtu.be/lJp3r3773w8

DumbBrunette

Some close ups of the bridge today. It looks very impressive in person!

The bridge is open to one way traffic and there are still some landscaping and finishing works underway in the area, but the road itself is basically done and looks well.

DumbBrunette

Official opening on October 13th.

My money is on Dara Calleary to do the honours.

DumbBrunette

Preferred route public consultation for N26 Ballina bypass on September 29th.

Maybe we can rename this thread to a general N26 thread to cover the new project too?

https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2022/09/15/information-event-for-new-ballina-bypass-project/

DumbBrunette

https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2022/10/10/official-opening-of-new-mayo-bridge/

https://westernpeople.ie/2022/10/10/new-bridge-is-the-largest-in-the-county/

..

DumbBrunette

https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2022/10/13/new-state-of-the-art-mayo-bridge-is-officially-opened/

A good day for north Mayo!

DumbBrunette

There were still some works ongoing on this project when I passed today - they appeared to be related to landscaping or tree planting. There is still a 60 km/h speed limit too but nobody is adhering to it. I took a walk through the pedestrian tunnel on the south bank of the river, it's a welcome facility considering the local road here was severed by the new bridge.

DumbBrunette

A feature length documentary about the new bridge has appeared on YouTube, full of nice visuals and stories about the new and the old Cloongullane bridges. Quite an enjoyable watch, see link below:

https://youtu.be/yqJBOkF8zy4

DumbBrunette

https://irishcycle.com/2023/01/07/barriers-on-rural-cycle-paths/

Incredibly detailed analysis here of the cycling facilties along this 1.8km scheme!

Bmomoran

See attached strategic assessment report for remainder of route to Foxford

Bmomoran

MO.22.27152 N26 Foxford to Mount Falcon SAR Rev 2.pdf

Attached

DumbBrunette

https://www.rod.ie/about/news/engineering-project-year-award-win-n26-cloongullane-realignment

The Cloongullane project won Engineering Project of the Year at the Building & Design Awards this week. A happy epilogue to the long saga of getting this 2km (!) road built.