Poorly chosen national road designations

veryangryman

Did galway coco get a special dispensation for the N83 and N67 extentions where clearly they should be regional roads as there are safer alternatives.

I jist dont get why the old roads were not downgraded. They must have some very loud councillors that they got away with that. Now the TIIs budget has to take account of those.

The commuter roads should not be national unless they lead to a primary destination like a city or port.

This annoys me more than it should i know. Id like to hear peoples views on why galway got special treatment.

marno21

veryangryman wrote: »

Did galway coco get a special dispensation for the N83 and N67 extentions where clearly they should be regional roads as there are safer alternatives.

I jist dont get why the old roads were not downgraded. They must have some very loud councillors that they got away with that. Now the TIIs budget has to take account of those.

The commuter roads should not be national unless they lead to a primary destination like a city or port.

This annoys me more than it should i know. Id like to hear peoples views on why galway got special treatment.

It's likely when Galway County Council realised they would have more roads to maintain they started shouting and got their way. They would have had to take on parts of the N17, N18, N63, and N66.

I agree with the N67 designation as it's a continuation of the coast road, from Kilcolgan to Oranmore and doesn't directly connect with the M18 anyway.

The N83 designation is a joke. Most of the entire N83 is a joke. The only section of any merit at all is Ballyhaunis-Tuam. North of Ballyhaunis carries less than 1,000 vehicles a day yet needs to be maintained to national road standards. There are far more deserving roads nationwide.

With the massive change in our road network over the last 15-20 years, we need to take a long look at what the function of the national secondary network is and how that has changed, and an update is required to reflect this.

Roads such as the N78, N83, N84, N87 have to be called into question given their reduced purpose

marno21

By the way, I think another reason the N17 became the N83 is because Galway County Council have a desire for a Claregalway relief road and don't want to fund it themselves

marno21

marno21 wrote: »

By the way, I think another reason the N17 became the N83 is because Galway County Council have a desire for a Claregalway relief road and don't want to fund it themselves

I'd be inclined to agree.

Previous attempts to get Claregalway bypassed were stopped as to do so would have ground the route to a halt. They were told to wait for the M17 which would take a large amount of the traffic and allow for the works to have a reduced impact

Middle Man

Here's a question for you guys...

Is the M17 motorway really the M18 (as in a section of motorway that in reality replaces the old N18 from Oranmore to Claregalway as well as the R347)?

Looking at the latest traffic figures, the old N17 remains the most popular choice - even north of Claregalway.

road_high

marno21 wrote: »

Roads such as the N78, N83, N84, N87 have to be called into question given their reduced purpose

I'd leave the N78 as it is. It passes through a very rural and sometimes economically under pressure part of North Kilkenny and onto Kildare. This area has suffered a lot from high unemployment, reduced bus services and any socio economic problem you care to list. Removing it's (albeit lightly trafficked in parts) National secondary route would be a further blow and serve no purpose whatsoever other than annoy people that depend on it.

L1011

I suspect the Galway extensions will be removed (by deletion of the entire N route) in the next comprehensive review like the one a few years ago that nuked various secondaries and cut the city centre reaches in Dublin

discodaveirl

marno21 wrote: »

.

The N83 designation is a joke. Most of the entire N83 is a joke. The only section of any merit at all is Ballyhaunis-Tuam. North of Ballyhaunis carries less than 1,000 vehicles a day yet needs to be maintained to national road standards. There are far more deserving roads nationwide.

Its a fairly important road to and from Knock Airport from Roscommon and East Galway

marno21

road_high wrote: »

I'd leave the N78 as it is. It passes through a very rural and sometimes economically under pressure part of North Kilkenny and onto Kildare. This area has suffered a lot from high unemployment, reduced bus services and any socio economic problem you care to list. Removing it's (albeit lightly trafficked in parts) National secondary route would be a further blow and serve no purpose whatsoever other than annoy people that depend on it.

I don't think detrunking the route would make any difference bar tidying up the network. It's not contributing anything to the area at present and the only place along the route is Castlecomer which doesn't justify having a national road.

The N78 had some benefit but since the M9 was built, especially the fact that it's further west than the N9/N10, but since then it's basically shadowing the M9 and traffic should be moved to the M9 where possible. The 2,500 AADT south of N78/N80 further justifies this.

discodaveirl wrote: »

Its a fairly important road to and from Knock Airport from Roscommon and East Galway

766 vehicles used that section of N83 between Knock Airport and Ballyhaunis yesterday. Maintaining a road as national secondary for that traffic volume is ludicrous.

The only slightly meritous section of N83 is Tuam-Ballyhaunis. The other two sections are there for political reasons and nothing else.

Middle Man wrote: »

Here's a question for you guys...

Is the M17 motorway really the M18 (as in a section of motorway that in reality replaces the old N18 from Oranmore to Claregalway as well as the R347)?

Looking at the latest traffic figures, the old N17 remains the most popular choice - even north of Claregalway.

You could say so. It seems it was built to primarily serve north-south traffic avoiding Galway altogether. Whether that justified a 550m motorway is a big question.

The M17/M18 make zero attempt to serve the sprawl of east Galway, hence the heavy volumes on the old N17. If they wanted to take some traffic onto the motorway junctions should have been provided at the crossings of the R339, R446 and R347 near Kinvara.

D Trent

When is the next comprehensive review of road designations ??