Farronshoneen Roundabout

Jerry Atrick

What in the blazes are they doing there? Cutting it down to one lane in all directions...busiest roundabout in Waterford after the Cork road one. Can't see the benefit of it at all, please enlighten me.

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058322730/farronshoneen-roundabout

Improving pedestrian and cycling crossings

Dum_Dum_2

It's drawn out to give the impression something meaningful is being constructed. It's like "security theater" at airport security - all for show, but hollow.

Something similar occurred back when they worked on the Quay - very public 'performance roadworks' that took years, the net result was a simple median that would have taken a a few months to put together anywhere else.

You're meant to think "Look! Waterford's improving" - when in fact it is not.

SweetCaliber

All they're doing is extending the footpath outwards, but shur the "weather" has delayed them by a couple of month to pour a bit of concrete.

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121372743#Comment_121372743

On one of the busiest pieces of traffic infrastructure in the city and making it a single lane. Whoever is calling the shots is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Bards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121373448#Comment_121373448

It's being driven from WEF UN climate change net zero 2030.. Check it out... Google is your friend.. Bus connects, smart cities etc etc...

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121373547#Comment_121373547

Aware of this but what is smart or connective about what they are doing there. There is no joined up thinking on display here.

BBM77

https://www.waterfordcouncil.ie/media/projects/public-consultations/2022/s38-farronshoneen/21016-01-0001-OPTION%208%20FINAL%201-400.pdf

Plan for what it is worth. If the plan has not changed, think it will improve things there. But yes, ridiculous time of year to do it.

Junior

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121374291#Comment_121374291

Budgets need to be spent before the end of year.

Bards

Make it more difficult to drive.. Higher priorities for pedestrians, bicycles and public transport .. This route is on a proposed priority Bus connects route with busses every 10 minutes during peak hours..

highpath

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121374291#Comment_121374291

Looks to my eyes that this has changed. In line with the OP it would appear that the 2 lanes coming from the John Hill side are now only one exit on to the roundabout. It used to be 2 lanes. This causes increased congestion .....Wonder what they will do with the other exits?

Jerry Atrick

What exactly is being connected pedestrian and cyclist wise? There are no proper cycle lanes leading on from these wonderful additions to the infrastructure either way. I wonder how many of the council have actually taken or relied on the bus service in city. Yet again, poor planning and execution.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121375039#Comment_121375039

Yes. If you read up on NTA (main funding authority and policy maker) their view is to make it as difficult as possible for the motorist/car driver so that they are forced into using different modes of transport…..so projects are designed to annoy car drivers as much as possible and in this case they obviously want to extend this to annoying/pissing off duirng construction phase also….😡

Jerry Atrick

They are making an almighty pigs ear of this. Utter incompetence and no lessons will be learned.

Dunmoreroader

Why aren't they working on this at night, like the Dunmore road resurfacing? It's crazy the delays it's causing, traffic backed up to the hospital roundabout this morning. Are there not implications for Ambulances even if they don't give a fcuk about the rest of us?

deisemum

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121405135#Comment_121405135

Because it would cost 2 - 3 times more plus the noise would disrupt a lot of people.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121410051#Comment_121410051

Plus the ‘cranks’ on boards would have less to complain/rant about…!

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121419250#Comment_121419250

...try sleep next to such works!

...no traffic issues on the bypass friday morning 9.30....

Wanderer2010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121410051#Comment_121410051

Who cares? They have the money to pay the workers shift rate, every building project in the country goes over budget. Plus they would get the job done a hell of a lot faster.

Cabaal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121419497#Comment_121419497

Who cares?

TII and the council as they would be dealing with the very justified noise complaints, people are entitled to their sleep.

if people are unhappy about getting delayed going to work then they need plan better and leave earlier.

Wanderer2010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121423764#Comment_121423764

Much easier said than done. Most creches dont open until 8am so its not as simple as planning to leave earlier. The council dont care about complaints, sure when did they ever care? They have daily complaints about traffic route changes that add to traffic jams, anti social behavior from scumbags going on years, lights not working and foothpaths in a mess and they just sit back and let it happen.

A few days of night time working would mean nothing to them but would in the long term get the project over the line a lot quicker but that approach is far too much like common sense for them to accept.

Cabaal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121423960#Comment_121423960

Thats a lot of whataboutery you got there, end of the day they'll care and if they thought it was viable they'd have gone with it.

The easier and cheaper solution (for the tax payer) is for the motorists affected to put up with the short term road works for the longer term benefits to the city as a whole.

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121424695#Comment_121424695

And what are the long term benefits of this particular design as opposed to what is there at present?

Valhalla90

Roundabout seemed fine. Council works in strange ways. It’s mostly coming from this Green anti car agenda. The Quay is also another example of these projects.

JohnC.

I have to laugh at this "anti-car agenda" BS about the Quays, when the Quays are a massive car park with roundabouts added to make using them easier than they used to be.

azimuth17

Just too many cars. Roads cannot expand to meet exponential growth in car ownership unless we tarmac everywhere...and I'm a petrol head!

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121425952#Comment_121425952

Certainly isn't easier than it used to be. The roundabout at GPO causes huge traffic backlogs up to the park. Traffic management and planning is a challenge granted, but the council are not helping themselves. It's almost like none of the people making the decisions use the roads.

Wanderer78

more pedestrian and cycle friendly infrastructure is welcome, but without massive expansion our other modes of transport, such as rail and of course bus infrastructure, you may forget about it, you ll just end up pi$$ing everybody off and backing the place up.....

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427857#Comment_121427857

Exactly

Deiselurker

Do people want to use buses? Anytime I am in Waterford or Kilkenny the buses are nearly empty and the place is clogged up with car traffic. I think we should have full time park and ride facilities on outskirts of Waterford to help with traffic.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121444685#Comment_121444685

realistically, probably not, our lives are now designed around the private car, its gonna be extremely difficult to change this, if not impossible, but if we significantly expanded other modes of transport, i.e. rail and bus etc, it would probably make the transition out of the private car more realistic, but at the moment, thats not happening at any required rate, so.....

park and ride makes a lot of sense, but again, probably wont happen, so.....

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121444685#Comment_121444685

I am in Waterford city every day at various times. I think bus usage has increased dramatically. There is a valley period mid morning and early afternoon, but this may be normal. Overall bus usage is growing strongly in my view. The route Tramore to City has a lot of suburban traffic as well and now uses double deckers. In fairness Kilkenny is a relatively small town with only a recent history of a single bus route.Urban bus routes have existed in Waterford city since at least 1950

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121445054#Comment_121445054

...id love to see the numbers on this, but my gut says, if its growing, it aint growing very rapidly, i see a hell of a lot of near empty buses wondering around this town, and i walk a lot, but thats only my observations, so we d need the numbers to be sure....

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121445132#Comment_121445132

TFI announced early this year I think, that bus trips in Waterford city in 2022, were well over 1million ?

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121445256#Comment_121445256

any idea on the long term trends, is it increasing over time?

deisemum

The buses need to be reliable, clean and affordable. Since the W5 started from the hospital into town I tend to use it if it's just myself going into town as it's reliable unlike Kenneally's where I've been left waiting for ages most times I've gone to use it and even had to wait up to an hour on numerous occasions even in times when there hasn't been much traffic. Their timetable is a piece of fiction.

Anytime I've taken the W5 bus there's been plenty of passengers on it.

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121445265#Comment_121445265

I presume usage figures will be pubished by TFI in January.

johnnykilo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121444685#Comment_121444685

I thought the same when I lived 10/15 minutes walk to town and never needed the buses; any time I saw one it as either completely empty, or no more than 5 people on them. Now that I live further out of town and I've started to take the bus in terms of speed the W3 and W5 buses between 9 to 5 are always at least 50 - 75% full.

I got the W5 from John Street to Ardkeen a couple of Fridays ago in the afternoon and I barely made it on the bus. There were about 20 people standing, and I got the last standing space right up by the driver - it was like being back in Dublin again.

johnnykilo

Is there anyone responsible for this ongoing cluster**** out by Ardkeen? Like were these roadworks approved by the City Counsellors or is it just the Civil Engineering department in the Council who decided to do it, and who are not accountable to anyone?

deisemum

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121446404#Comment_121446404

It was the Engineer not the councillors who had the final say, the councillors weren't even told of the change in the plans.

corollake35

The layout is not what went out for public consultation. So, the public were not ever going to be aware of the loss of the filter lane coming out from town. Some untouchable somewhere made this decision. Now the public are pizzed off - any wonder?

Valhalla90

Problem is the public also don’t read and examine the plans for change when it’s announced.

Bards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121448749#Comment_121448749

That's why we have councillors

They are supposed to act on our behalf and advocate for public's interests to the council exec

corollake35

This is the link to the now expired notice on the council's website.

Scroll down to download the drawing that was published showing works to be carried out. Reading the notice also explains the works.

Now, remember, they are not finished yet!

https://www.waterfordcouncil.ie/projects/public-consultations/expired/2022/Farronshoneen.htm

shinzon

have it on good authority that the original plan for this was for the two lanes to remain and thats what the council voted on but and get this the active travel site engineer of the works can over rule the vote without consultation with the council if he sees fit under whats called a section 38 licence which is what happened here which is why its just one lane now.

Shin

corollake35

I heard this too, but didn't want to say if not correct.

That spoke of the roundabout is rediculous now. The width of the footpath on the knightswood housing estate side must now be wider than the single lane coming from town?

Also there is no dropped kerb off the splitter island on that same spoke. I wonder if they are going to raise the road levelto meet the kerb?

The very thought that anyone can make decisions on the fly like that with nobody to question or object makes me mad. Pro cyclist, anti car type. Some (very few, but they will be vocal about this) will say it's for the better. To the other 99.9% of the population, this is no real upgrade at all.

Valhalla90

A signaled junction with two lanes would be better than this mess now!

Wanderer2010

How on earth do council engineers have so much power and no accountability. This really should have been flagged by our represented councillers and the decision debated and reversed.

I would put hard cash on the fact that none of these engineers who have torn up and destroyed the city with one way roads, illogical changes to the traffic such as New Street and Ozanam Street ever have to use these streets themselves.

Valhalla90

Don’t fix something that isn’t broken. This junction was fine previously. If anything money could be spent on numerous other projects in the city. The main Tramore road is a disgrace. Not one cats eyes remaining, Road surface is all chippings and poor quality tarmac.

GandhiwasfromBallyfermot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121452324#Comment_121452324

Fine for cars maybe but not for pedestrians. Trying to cross the road is a nightmare, cars never let you cross even at the pedestrian crossing at Solas Centre.

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121452453#Comment_121452453

Guaranteed going to be more accidents on the new layout. The whole procurement and implementation of the project is a disgrace.

The people not letting pedestrians cross is just basic lack of manners which is an ever-growing issue in modern society and moreover common out Dunmore Road direction.