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M28 - Cork to Ringaskiddy [advance works ongoing; 2025 start; 2028 completion]

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,033 ✭✭✭blindsider


    Today, there were 3 excavators on site. They seemed to be making good progress just off the N28 at the Maryborough slip heading southbound. As I drove past, I could see that a 'route' has been marked out and they were working away.

    It's great to see the prep works continuing apace.



  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 14,497 Mod ✭✭✭✭marno21


    Great to see.

    Prospects for this project are absolutely fantastic at the minute. The other two projects chugging along with this one are going for a jaunt around the courts system and the rest of the roads project is facing some sort of bureaucratic stonewalling (I wonder why?!).

    This leaves plenty of spare money in the roads budget and hopefully a 2024/2025 start.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 620 ✭✭✭DylanQuestion


    I wonder if they'll open some of it in pieces, such as the Maryborough Hill Link Road



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,984 ✭✭✭cantalach


    Great video. That music though…it doesn’t “resolve”…my ears.



  • Registered Users Posts: 130 ✭✭betistuc


    I'd be interested to know which drone this guy is using . I have a DJI Mavik Air and would only get a fraction of the range he's getting before return to home mode would kick in due to lost signal to the hand held controller.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 574 ✭✭✭Aontachtoir


    It’s wonderful that after so many years the stars finally seem aligned for the M28. Galway and Limerick’s loss is Cork’s gain.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,564 ✭✭✭AugustusMinimus


    Isn’t Limerick also getting the motorway to Foynes?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,012 ✭✭✭Chris_5339762


    It is, but two judicial reviews have appeared. I saw that in the thread on here, but there was no more detail. So that one is delayed by a year or two now.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,152 ✭✭✭Pete_Cavan


    That isn't guaranteed. They could be thrown out or withdrawn with no real delay to the project.



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  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 14,497 Mod ✭✭✭✭marno21


    Yes that is very true, but the M21 is delayed now by at least a few months and the Galway Ring Road is completely up in the air. The only projects which have 100% confirmed planning permission and can proceed with any certainty are this, the remaining 2.7km of the N56 Dungloe-Glenties, and the N59/N86 tourist route projects (I've omitted the N5 in Roscommon here as that's been tendered and is effectively committed to). In 2021 it was clear there would be some jockeying around to get the trio of M6/M21/M28 started in the next few years but that's subsided somewhat for now.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,033 ✭✭✭blindsider


    Note the option to sign up for the newsletter at the bottom of the article.

    https://www.corkcoco.ie/en/news/preparatory-work-0n-m28-project-moves-to-next-phase

    Preparatory Work 0n M28 Project Moves to Next Phase

    The new M28 motorway linking Rochestown with Ringaskiddy will move another step closer with the start of the second phase of preparatory works. As well as providing a strategically important road corridor to the Port of Cork, the project will involve extensive tree-planting and landscaping to ensure the physical and visual integration of the road and its associated features into the surrounding landscape.

    Preparatory work on the M28 Project, part of the Core Trans‐European Transport Network, has been underway since last year with the route corridor cleared and fenced from Carrs Hill to the Port in Ringaskiddy at a cost of €1.2 million. Work is due to begin shortly on clearing trees and invasive gorse from Carrs Hill to the Rochestown Slip Road at the Bloomfield interchange. This clearance and fencing work is needed to finalise the detailed design of the motorway, its interchanges and associated works.

    As part of the scheme over 20 hectares of new trees and shrubs will later be planted. All landscaping measures will be in keeping with the existing character of the landscape, with only native species of tree such as Hybrid Oak, Scots Pine, Hawthorn, Hazel, Holly, Blackthorn, Birch and Grey Willow being used. 

    Sean Callery, Senior Engineer with the Cork National Roads Office said,

    “The M28 Cork Ringaskiddy motorway will bring strong economic benefits with access to the Port of Cork’s new container terminal, as well as the IDA lands in this area. But importantly, the route will be developed with its surrounding environment to the fore. What must be removed during the preparatory phase will be replaced and, more importantly, added to. It is our stated intention to increase and improve the quality of native trees and foliage along the entire route.”

    When the motorway project is completed, in addition to the extra planting, all road verges and embankments not planted with trees will be seeded with wild grasses and wildflower mixes from Irish native sources to provide quality areas that will establish quickly and for visual appearance. All works are being carried out in accordance with the Scheme’s Environmental Impact Assessment and will be supervised by ecology experts. 

    Works have also been undertaken to address the direct and indirect impacts the project will have on nature habitats and other measures to support wildlife along the M28 corridor. These works have included: 

    • The construction of artificial badger setts to compensate for the direct loss and disturbance of existing (albeit dormant) setts near the works.
    • The installation of bat boxes as part of the fencing and clearance project along the designated route, to compensate for trees with roost potential that had to be removed.

    The initial work to fence off and enable the designated route for construction has involved diversions of major utilities, archaeology investigations and environmental mitigation works in line with commitments outlined in the Scheme’s Environmental Impact Statement. 

    The M28 motorway is scheduled to be completed by 2030. The motorway will be a key part of the road infrastructure in Cork, improving connectivity with key urban areas such as Carrigaline, while providing vital access to the Port of Cork facilities in Ringaskiddy. 

    Active Travel forms a strong feature of the new M28 scheme. Chief Executive of Cork County Council Tim Lucey added, 




    Already included in the design are a new interface with the Lee to Sea greenway, together with an extension to the existing Ballybrack Valley Pedestrian and Cycle Scheme in Douglas. New active travel routes along the final route from Douglas to Carrigaline are also being explored.


    Members of the public looking for the latest information on the project are invited to sign up to the M28 Newsletter by emailing M28@corkrdo.ie . A video animation showing the new route is available on the Council’s YouTube channel.



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,188 Mod ✭✭✭✭spacetweek


    Starting 2024 but complete by 2030? That must mean complete well before 2030.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,387 ✭✭✭yannakis




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 620 ✭✭✭DylanQuestion


    Serious tree felling north of the Maryborough Hill overbridge, between the road and Lissadell/Rochestown Rise



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,033 ✭✭✭blindsider


    It looks to me like they've made serious progress in marking out the route, and clearing a lot of trees and vegetation. I'll be very intereted in DroneHawk's next video.

    From the Bloomfield interchange to the top of Carr's Hill is cleared nad marked, and I think alot has been done already down to the Shannonpark Roundabout. From the r'about to Ringaskiddy is well back from the road, so it's harder to judge, but some work has definitely been done already.

    It looks to me like they will continue to work away on everything they can until they can announce a formal Start Date. Good news!



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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,188 Mod ✭✭✭✭spacetweek


    Surprised it's not due to start until 2024. Seems like it must be ready now!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,698 ✭✭✭Hibernicis


    There is still quite a bit remaining to be done before construction can start:

    * Completion of detailed design

    * Invitation to tender

    * Awarding of Construction Contract

    That will certainly take until 2024



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,854 ✭✭✭KrisW1001


    Still more work on the ground too: re-routing of services could take a while too.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,033 ✭✭✭blindsider


    Notwithstanding the above, they have now closed the inside lane at the very start of Carr's Hill, southbound, and the local tree surgeon has quite a bit of plant there. They had started work before 07h30 today, and were still going at 16h30.

    It does sound like there's a lot of planning/drawing/organising to be done, but it looks like a huge amount of the groundwork will be done when the contractor does get on site.

    One negative is the recent, extra-long queue at the top of Carr's Hill, northbound in the evening - is this arelated to Dunkettle? It's a pain anyway....



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,033 ✭✭✭blindsider


    UPDATE: Work continues apace. The southbound carriageway is down to one lane for the foreseeable future, from the Bloomfield interchange to the top of Carr's Hill. This is to facilitate ground clearance and tree/bush cutting.

    All the trees etc on the left, as far as you can see in the image, have been cleared

    The contractor has created a new heavy plant parking area just off the road close to the top of the hill. There were several excavators etc parked there yesterday evening. It looks to me like they're there for the long-haul.

    There are a couple of other areas on the route being cleared and prepared, but they're offline so I couldn't see what work is progressing.

    At risk of repeating myself, it's very encouraging to see so much 'pre-work' happening.



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  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 14,497 Mod ✭✭✭✭marno21


    At risk of repeating myself, it's very encouraging to see so much 'pre-work' happening.

    Massively. Looks like they plan to have the entire site cleared by the time the project starts going by whats going on at Carrs Hill. That'll be a massive help as hedgerow clearance can be an issue due to habitat protection and can delay schemes by upto 5-6 months.

    Procurement was to commence on this in 2022 but this seems to have not come to fruition. Hopefully it'll commence in early 2023.

    This (and the retendered N5 scheme which has been fully committed to so is already green lit) is the only major roads scheme with full planning permission that is not subject to a judicial review. There is no roads scheme in planning that's even within 2 years of getting to full planning stage. It has no realistic competition for funding so should be a guarantee to start within the next 2 years.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,486 ✭✭✭chalkitdown1


    Pretty detailed video of the entire route, here.


    (edit) Didn't load in Firefox for some reason but worked in Chrome. Odd.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,033 ✭✭✭blindsider


    Work has started on the Nortthbound carriageway. As a result, the southbound climbing lane has been closed and traffic is a bit slower during peak times.

    Also, you can email: M28@corkrdo.ie to sign up for thr newsletter.

    Viva la Construccion! :-)



  • Registered Users Posts: 214 ✭✭Pos087


    Sometimes the lad in the pub knows what he is talking about.



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 12,347 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cookiemunster


    Wow. Replying to an almost two year old post and still wrong.



  • Registered Users Posts: 214 ✭✭Pos087




  • Registered Users Posts: 423 ✭✭legend99


    Does anyone know if the works going on just by the entrance to Mount Oval are linked to the new slip?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 620 ✭✭✭DylanQuestion


    Construction of new boundary walls have started on the west side of the road (lining the golf course) and the east side (lining Broadale). It looks like it will match the walls constructed on Maryborough Hill and Garryduff Road. The loss of trees is huge, hopefully they do major planting afterwards (and at least most of the Scots Pine were saved)



  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 14,497 Mod ✭✭✭✭marno21


    19 million euro allocation for this in 2023. It seems to be absolutely motoring along. Hopefully at this rate we'll see (more!) diggers on the ground next year.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,033 ✭✭✭blindsider


    It seems to me that TII are doing everything except building the actual motorway - great to see! As Marno21 says, here's hoping for lots of progress next year.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,012 ✭✭✭Chris_5339762


    I think thats their best options. Do all they can under small seperate contracts while they get the tender written and approved for the main construction contract.

    I know it'll be several years before its officially "under construction" as we'd define it on this forum, but to the general public, work has started.



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,188 Mod ✭✭✭✭spacetweek




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,033 ✭✭✭blindsider


    Thanks spacetweek - they're making great progress!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,698 ✭✭✭Hibernicis


    Great to see the video and the progress. One point about the video, the first 20 seconds have nothing to do with the M28 - this is the access to the Cairn PLC Castletreasure housing development from Carr's Hill. The video picks up the M28 route approx 20 seconds in.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,984 ✭✭✭cantalach


    I thought at first glance that your third photo had unwittingly captured a squadron of four alien vehicles landing on the N28…



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,561 ✭✭✭kub


    It is a shame that this project had been delayed by so long, they can take their portion of blame with the ongoing housing crisis here if there is any credibility to what has been stated here ;

    I don't mean to take this thread off topic, but I feel addressing to those objecting to projects like this has to be prioritised and hurried up.


    https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2023/0301/1359667-cork-ringaskiddy/



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,488 ✭✭✭TheChizler


    There are plans for thousands of apartments with full permission, empty sites and zero physical activity around the south docklands, I doubt the M28 is holding anything up but the next stage of speculation.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,561 ✭✭✭kub


    Hence I mentioned if there is any credibility in what is in that article



  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 14,497 Mod ✭✭✭✭marno21


    An example of some of the work in the 3 year advance works programme ongoing for this project.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 620 ✭✭✭DylanQuestion


    A view of the wall from within Broadale. It looks high quality and matches the walls on Maryborough Hill and Garryduff Road. Also, a (poor quality) picture of the cutout through the valley that will allow direct access from the M28 at Mount Oval to the N40 Westbound




  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 14,497 Mod ✭✭✭✭marno21


    Tender out for technical advisory services for TII Phases 5-7 of this project

    Est value 10m.



  • Registered Users Posts: 114 ✭✭Baldilocks


    Can please provide descriptions for the phase numbers? (ie; what is phase 5, phase 6, etc).

    Secondly, the duration is 108months - 9 years!!??



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,698 ✭✭✭Hibernicis


    The phases are as follows:
    • Phase 1 Concept and Feasibility
    • Phase 2 Options Selection
    • Phase 3 Design and Environmental Evaluation
    • Phase 4 Statutory Processes, which includes An Bord Pleanála Oral Hearing
    • Phase 5 Enabling and Procurement
    • Phase 6 Construction and Implementation
    • Phase 7 Close out and Review

    I'm unclear where your figures (108months - 9years) originate or what your question is.



  • Registered Users Posts: 114 ✭✭Baldilocks


    Thanks for the description

    In the link, the contract duration is listed as 108months.

    Does that mean this project is 9 years from completion? (If so, that's appalling!)



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,854 ✭✭✭KrisW1001


    Not necessarily. It only means that if the job gets put out by a year or two for whatever reason, they don’t want to get a situation where the contract ends up expiring in the middle of works.

    Also, if there’s an operation or maintenance clause in the contract, the 9 years would include that period - the road could be open much earlier, but it wouldn’t be the government’s job to maintain it until nine years had passed from award of contract.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 114 ✭✭Baldilocks


    Parts of the Bloomfield Interchange are badly in need of being Re-surfaced, who is the responsible party? (TII?)



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,267 ✭✭✭hans aus dtschl


    TII road yep they'd work with Co Co on things like resurfacing. Worthwhile to contact your councillor.



  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 14,497 Mod ✭✭✭✭marno21


    There’s an allocation for €810k for resurfacing of the N28 at “Carrs Hill” this year. Not sure if that’s been started yet someone in the area may confirm. It’s also not clear how far north that will go

    I strongly suspect that given funding constraints there may be an attempt to avoid resurfacing parts of this route given the M28 works will be commencing soon



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,033 ✭✭✭blindsider


    I agree with Marno in #1450. WE can probably expect a fair bit of heavy construction traffic on that route from now on, so re-surfacing it probably doesn't make sense - but it def. does need it!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 620 ✭✭✭DylanQuestion


    The eastbound lane when you just enter Bloomfield is full of deep potholes. Surely it can't be too expensive to resurface 20-30m


    I haven't seen workers in Broadale or on Maryborough Hill in a while, other than the small work on the bridge. Anyone know why it has stopped all of a sudden, or is it all go in Mount Oval?



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