New M50 Openings Today

Supercell

Drove home from work today from Cherrywood Industrial estate to Dundrum via the new M50 extension..all i can say is whoohoo!! , knocked a good 15 mins off my drive time

Road is nice and pretty deserted today unsuprisingly, what a nice change to crawling along the N11 stopping every few hundred yards at traffic lights!!
Overall thought it was well laid out and signposted, had no problems at all navigating my way on it (admittidly not too far..)

Anyone else tried it yet and got any opinions ?

fjon

This thread should probably be moved to Commuting/ Transport.
But anyway...
I was on it today, both South-bound, and most of the way Northbound. It certainly shaves a lot of journey-time off anyone doing the N11 commute. Surprisingly (for me anyway), the "scenery" is quite pleasant too, not like the Blanch-Tallaght section.
One thing I don't understand is why is the concrete/ tarmac of such poor quality? This is a new road, and it already looks like its a few years old. Also, anyone driving along motorways in Ireland will notice that no matter how smooth it looks, there are always very slight bumps. If you drive in Continental Europe or UK (even NI) motorways this is not the case. I heard somewhere its a case of us being stingier and putting more pebbles into our tarmac, although not sure this is true.

Supercell

Hmm, have to admit I was going rather fast as the road was very quiet having being just opened and did notice it was a noticably less smooth than for example driving on the autobahn in Germany but the progress made left me feeling rather pleased all the same.
If it has been laid cheaply i wonder how it will wair over the years.

spockety

It was awful this afternoon. I go from the Leopardstown exit to the Firhouse exit every day on my way home from work, and the traffic is normally completely free flowing all the way. Today at 5.30pm, it was like a car park for more than 2/3's of the distance between the two exits.

Christ, I hope that's not the shape of things to come

RuggieBear

Longfield wrote:

did notice it was a noticably less smooth than for example driving on the autobahn in Germany but the progress made left me feeling rather pleased all the same.
If it has been laid cheaply i wonder how it will wair over the years.

Must be all the archaeological remains causing bumps....

fjon

RuggieBear wrote:

Must be all the archaeological remains causing bumps....

I shouldn't laugh, but...

the_syco

fjon wrote:

This is a new road, and it already looks like its a few years old.

Maybe cos part of it is old. Only part of it is new.