M17/M18 - Gort to Tuam [open to traffic]

Robert Lally has posted another video on the beam lift at the Ballygaddy Road Flyover...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzM7oV4Xq1U

Great aerial footage towards the end...

m17 wrote: »

The two slip roads coming off the galway side of the m6 at rathmorissy the nearst one is for m18 to Limerick and the far one is the m17 to tuam

This junction has to be a serious contender for the national record regarding the interchange with the longest combined ramp length - the Blanchardstown M50 Interchange would be a very tough competitor I guess.

One record it will have for definite will be the only interchange on the island through which two full motorways will pass through - I think England's first such interchange was at Almondsbury (near Bristol) where the M4 and M5 intersect through a 4 level stack - it apparently opened in 1966 - fifty years ago! :eek:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/51.5509/-2.5561

Very interestingly, it could have been argued that Scotland had, until very recently, the only interchange on these islands where 3 freeflow mainlines passed through - known as the Baillieston Interchange on the eastern outskirts of Glasgow, the Junction is effectively a twin stack spaghetti junction with 4 levels where the M8 (Glasgow to Edinburgh) and M73 (Western Bypass) intersect and 3 levels where the M8 and A89 (Glasgow to Coatbridge) cross each other. Here's an aerial of this mighty junction (completed in the early 1980's):

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4598852
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/55.8536/-4.0894

The current reconfiguration works will place two roundabouts on the Coatbridge Road to allow for non motorway traffic movements in connection with the M8 completion project East of Baillieston. The Rathmorrissy Interchange will nevertheless look very respectable anywhere on these islands.