TII Network Report 2017 published

marno21

http://www.tii.ie/tii-library/strategic-planning/nra-road-network-indicators/TII-National-Roads-Network-Indicators-2017.pdf

Lots of data here on the national road network for 2017.

1. A good year for safety with a 28% reduction of fatalities on the National Road Network to 46.
2. Still significant stretches of road that are over capacity, especially national secondaries with no upgrade plan.
3. Even after the M17/M18 opening, the roads it were supposed to replace are over capacity.

Aontachtoir

How much freedom does TII have to target improvements which are not part of Government plans? For example, every man and his dog knows that the N71 desperately needs an upgrade all the way out to Bandon and beyond, but there is nothing in the National Development Plan to support that. Does TII have leeway to commission their own studies and plans on it?

marno21

Aontachtoir wrote: »

How much freedom does TII have to target improvements which are not part of Government plans? For example, every man and his dog knows that the N71 desperately needs an upgrade all the way out to Bandon and beyond, but there is nothing in the National Development Plan to support that. Does TII have leeway to commission their own studies and plans on it?

Good question. I will try to answer this anecdotally as there isn't a clear publicised answer (for obvious reasons):

1. TII/NRA had the M20 as their #1 priority (confirmed in media) from when the MIUs finished. It only came back on the table 6 years later, and 5 Ministers for Transport later. It only got a real push when Varadkar became Taoiseach.

2. After the Kenny Capital Plan was published, TII started making noise about the lack of pipeline projects that could be done post 2021 due to the lengthy process involved in getting these through planning. They proposed 13 projects to be advanced through design & planning, all were included in the NDP

3. Donegal County Council commissioned a study into which routes within the county should be prioritized in the county for TEN-T development, which said that three sections should be prioritized, all three are now at route selection stage. It was a smart move by Donegal County Council.

By right Cork County Council should be pushing these developments as TII are to a point hamstrung by political persuasion. The N71 is a massive project which will have to be advanced at some stage.

Aontachtoir

Fair enough, thanks. I guess it is up to the county council then to push it along. In fairness they did a great job (along with Limerick Council) keeping the pressure on for the M20, and they have also got the M28, Macroom bypass, and Dunkettle upgrade cooking. We'll probably have to wait until there's diggers on the M20 before they move on to the N71 unfortunately.

marno21

Aontachtoir wrote: »

Fair enough, thanks. I guess it is up to the county council then to push it along. In fairness they did a great job (along with Limerick Council) keeping the pressure on for the M20, and they have also got the M28, Macroom bypass, and Dunkettle upgrade cooking. We'll probably have to wait until there's diggers on the M20 before they move on to the N71 unfortunately.

The amount of push behind the M20 between business lobby groups, politicians and the public helped also. The M28 is on the table solely due to the EU TEN-T requirement. Dunkettle is on the table as it's the scheme with the highest cost:benefit ratio nationwide and is part of the TEN-T core network, along with the political brownie points.

I'd like to see Cork Council push for more funding to be honest. There are 5 national road realignments active (3 on the N73, one on the N72 and one on the N71). There is an awful lot of crap national secondary in Cork.

EdgeCase

The North Ring M40 is pretty urgent too. That's impacting tens of thousands of journeys a day and hampering the development of the Northside.

Is it going ahead of not? I've heard both.

marno21

EdgeCase wrote: »

The North Ring M40 is pretty urgent too. That's impacting tens of thousands of journeys a day and hampering the development of the Northside.

Is it going ahead of not? I've heard both.

Seems that the eastern quadrant (Killeens-Glanmire) will go ahead as part of the M20 scheme. It's the cheaper option - which is why it is being pursued. It will of course create more problems around the tunnel and Douglas until the final piece of the jigsaw, the western quadrant, is complete.

AugustusMinimus

marno21 wrote: »

Seems that the eastern quadrant (Killeens-Glanmire) will go ahead as part of the M20 scheme. It's the cheaper option - which is why it is being pursued. It will of course create more problems around the tunnel and Douglas until the final piece of the jigsaw, the western quadrant, is complete.

It will put additional traffic through Blarney as it will be used more and more as a rat run.

EdgeCase

Is there a map of the North Ring route ?

pigtown

Thread here about it https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055557290&page=11