Kinsale Road Overpass in Cork -> Finally. BUT......

Chris_533976

Yes thats right, they've put new signs up and put some wire-protecting things up near the Kinsale road. They're also brigining in a few diggers, so they've actually started building it, at long last.

But


The sign says that it'll be complete MARCH 2007!. In other words, we have to put up with 2 years of hell at that roundabout. IT DOESNT TAKE TWO ****ING YEARS TO BUILD A BRIDGE!!!! Give me the ****ing concrete and I'll build it in half the time.

For Christs sake if this was done in America it'd be finished in 6 months, not 24. Lame as ****, someone needs to be shot for this.

In other words, if it takes 2 years to build each flyover (there will eventually be 3, one for each roundabout), that means it'll take 6 YEARS to sort out the South Link, not to mention that the Dunkettle Interchange will be the biggest bottleneck in western europe after it all.

For ****s sake.

Tiriel

Are you really surprised? I mean isn't that after becoming the norm really in Cork.. look at the Main Drainage!! Come on like.. I think it's all the private contractors taking the pi$$ and just stringing out all the projects. Pure joke tbh

beer enigma

Don't forget the snails......

If its anything like Kildare, they'll find a rare snail (which turns out to be very common) & hold the whole thing up for another 3 years.

Chris_533976 wrote:

The sign says that it'll be complete MARCH 2007!. In other words, we have to put up with 2 years of hell at that roundabout. IT DOESNT TAKE TWO ****ING YEARS TO BUILD A BRIDGE!!!! Give me the ****ing concrete and I'll build it in half the time.

- lol

Tiriel

no they're too money hungry for delays like those.. they prefer to have to place all dug up and causing chaos for months on end for no reason.. then realise on its completion they forgot to lay a certain pipe so open it all up again. Like in Muskerry Western Road. Disaster

enterprise

Short term pain for long term gain

Lennoxschips

They could just put in some decent public transportation in Cork too.

But no... more roads and more out of town drive in mega malls.

More like short term gain for long term pain.

spacetweek

Chris_533976 wrote:

IT DOESNT TAKE TWO ****ING YEARS TO BUILD A BRIDGE!!!! ... In other words, if it takes 2 years to build each flyover (there will eventually be 3, one for each roundabout), that means it'll take 6 YEARS to sort out the South Link...

They're building a full interchange on live roads. Of course it would take 2 years, in any country. If it was a new road not yet opened to traffic it would take a lot less time.

The other 2 roundabouts are being done in one go, so that will take another 2 years - not 4 - it's around 2 years per project, not per interchange.

MT

Good to see this is finally going ahead. Has anyone any figures for how much these three upgrades will cost in total? I wonder how this compares to the original estimate?

Has a date - even a vague one - been penciled in for the northern ring road?

De Rebel

MT wrote:

Good to see this is finally going ahead. Has anyone any figures for how much these three upgrades will cost in total? I wonder how this compares to the original estimate?

Interesting Question.


Kinsale Road Interchange

Live, from the Cork City Council website: "It is hoped to commence work on the Kinsale Road Interchange in 2003, and we have requested a grant of €10m from the National Roads Authority for this work." If the second sentence is anything like as accurate as the first on, then we can safely disregard both. From the Department of Transport Website "Kinsale Road Interchange. This project which will greatly relieve one of the most notorious traffic bottlenecks is estimated to cost €46 million. Construction is due to commence this year (2004)" A bit more up to date, however we can reasonably assume that there will be a cost overrun given that the project is a year late even before it starts.

So somewhere in the region of €50,000,000+


Sarsfield Road To Bandon Road Improvement Scheme

Only cost estimate I can find for this one is the 2002 Cork County Development Board Strategic Plan which says "N25 South Sarsfield Road/Bandon Road Flyover (£50m) 2003-5" Datewise, a Cork City Council document dated 17/12/2004 says “Sarsfield Road Interchange (commencement) – 2008” so we can reasonably expect that project to be completed early in the next decade. Assuming of course that it starts on time and and not 2 or 3 years late likne the Kinsale Road interchange.

The cost estimate is in Irish Pounds at 2002 prices, so I’ll leave you to do the maths to convert it to Euro at 2010 prices. Certainly no change from €100,000,000+

MT wrote:

Has a date - even a vague one - been penciled in for the northern ring road?

Another interesting question.

The answer is a resounding No. Given that it is at the first stage of the process - “Preliminary Planning and Design” - and comparing it to other projects of a similar magnitude, all that we can surmise is that there is no chance that it will be completed by the end of this decade. And it could be anything up the middle of the next decade, or even later. See the route choices here

MT

De Rebel wrote:

The cost estimate is in Irish Pounds at 2002 prices, so I’ll leave you to do the maths to convert it to Euro at 2010 prices. Certainly no change from €100,000,000+

Thanks for all the info. What I find staggering from these figures is not the actual cost – infrastructure projects are seriously expensive these days – but the gap between the estimate and the final figures. Certainly, due to the delay of 2/3 years inflation will cause an increase. This is further exacerbated by the increased rate of inflation running in the construction sector due to soaring demand. However, none of this comes anywhere near to accounting for the enormous disparity. So, we can only conclude that the original prediction was yet another ‘back of a beer mat’ job.

How unearth can long term transport plans be drawn up if the estimations of project costs are so ludicrously wide of the mark. This is yet another example in a long litany of infrastructure developments where it seems the government has been totally in the dark with regard to the final cost. Throw in delays and complications and how much will the taxpayer really have forked out by the end of these three junction upgrades? I mean how much longer is this daft game of hit and miss concerning future so-called projected costs going to go on for? If the government has any intention of maintaining investment in infrastructure into the foreseeable future then they must carry public confidence along the way. Carry on like this and it won’t be long before opinion polls show increasing opposition on the part of the electorate to being taken for idiots.

People need to know in advance just how much of their tax is going to be spent on any given project. Give the impression that costing is the equivalent of a game of darts in the dark with run away expenditure at the end of it all and the DoT can kiss public support goodbye. Voters will pay for much needed infrastructure improvements but not at any cost or if the system appears out of control.

A commission must be established to look into the clearly inadequate procedures responsible for this recurring problem.

MG

Intuitively (ie I haven't read any technical stuff on the expected traffic flows after the work) I would think it will ease congestion in the West of the city but it may clog up the tunnel still more. Any info on this?

De Rebel

MG wrote:

Intuitively (ie I haven't read any technical stuff on the expected traffic flows after the work) I would think it will ease congestion in the West of the city but it may clog up the tunnel still more. Any info on this?

Don't worry, there is a plan to sort that out is well. Apparantly we are going to have traffic lights added to the roundabout that is stupidly located at the mouth of the tunnel.

MG

De Rebel wrote:

Don't worry, there is a plan to sort that out is well. Apparantly we are going to have traffic lights added to the roundabout that is stupidly located at the mouth of the tunnel.

As Homer S Says "Traffic Lights, the cause and solution to all of life's problems". Or was it beer? Having beer at the roundabout would be a better solution.

dmeehan

MG wrote:

As Homer S Says "Traffic Lights, the cause and solution to all of life's problems". Or was it beer? Having beer at the roundabout would be a better solution.

it was Alcohol that was the cause and solution to all of lifes problems

Stark

Cork_girl wrote:

no they're too money hungry for delays like those.. they prefer to have to place all dug up and causing chaos for months on end for no reason.. then realise on its completion they forgot to lay a certain pipe so open it all up again. Like in Muskerry Western Road. Disaster

Apparently that's after happening with Patrick Street which is soon to be dug up AGAIN :mad: (grrr, snarl, foam at the mouth, thank God I'm out of this city, so I don't have to put up with yet MORE bus delays, rant over, that was purifying ).

invincibleirish

Patrick Street which is soon to be dug up AGAIN

again? what on earth for this time?

Lennoxschips

The ****ing ridiculous thing is that all the paving slabs being put down on Pana, Plunkett and Winthrop are all cemented into place. So when you want to take them up you have you have to break it open again and more often than not they put asphalt patches in its place. Why has nobody thought yet just to put down the paving slabs without cement? i.e. on a sand bed?? Then they can be lifted out and put back agan when you need to get at a pipe (which can happen). It's cheaper, faster and it looks better (no strips of asphalt because you put the same slabs back again)

I've worked in the Dutch paving industry and they nearly always but in the slabs with sand in the gaps instead of cement.

Sorry for going off on a tangent there.

As for the rest of Cork City, it's turning into Houston, Texas. They won't be satisfied untill every single field I played on in the summer as a child has been filled in with a bloody fly over. All the city needs is some proper dedicated bus corridors...

greglo23

i stayed in Amsterdam in 1979 and they used the method Lennoxschips talks about. i`d go to work a 6 am and they would be setting up to work on the footpath. when i came home in the evening everything would be back to normal. after seeing the corpo work i thought i was in a different dimension. well the coffee shops did`nt help there either. ahem!

Chris_533976

De Rebel wrote:

Don't worry, there is a plan to sort that out is well. Apparantly we are going to have traffic lights added to the roundabout that is stupidly located at the mouth of the tunnel.

Yeah I've to pass there twice a day. You can expect a 20 minute delay in the morning & evening to get into or out of the tunnel when going/travelling East. Its a disgrace, but traffic lights are the only option I think. There simply isnt room for anything else unless they move the whole roundabout a few hundred feet north. Which wont happen.

Once the flyovers are done, thats going to be the worst bottleneck in Ireland