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Motorway from Dublin to Sligo Needed Badly

Andy From Sligo

Sorry if there is already a thread running on this but I couldnt find one. I think we badly need a proper (motorway standard not N-Road dual carriageway) Motorway running all the way from Sligo to Dublin (or rather Sligo to join up with the M4 in Mullingar) or Dublin to Sligo (Mullingar to Sligo ) - (whichever way you want to look at it)

I dont seem to be alone in thinking this there is a campaign group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/revivenorthwest/ and there is a peaceful protest outside the Dail tomorrow (wednesday 8th Feb) to highlight the need for one along with getting more money for the northwest.

I think the Government will be quite happy to complete the N-Road improvements and upgrade of the existing N4 and then I am imagining after that is completed that they will not even enter into consultation of a motorway for the Northwest if anything of the past is to go by and the little amount of money the northwest recieves for projects in the past - but I shouldnt be negative.

I really think it will bring more tourism to the area, will cut journey times immensely - will help trade as well as numerous other benefits personally.

This is how I think the map would look like if they did build a proper motorway from Sligo to Dublin / (Sligo to M4 Mullingar )

16684203_10211308150353366_1149163804127256869_n.jpg?oh=d1ce9796eac5298d93d4c93b3929957c&oe=58FDF8CC

16684203_10211308150353366_1149163804127256869_n.jpg?oh=d1ce9796eac5298d93d4c93b3929957c&oe=58FDF8CC

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Andy From Sligo

londonred wrote: »

...the N17 is very dangerous between Ballincarrow to Curry again few chances to overtake.

ah yeah that is awful bad too

Andy From Sligo

cnocbui wrote: »

Don't really need a motorway, just get rid of the hard shoulder and use the space for frequent and numerous overtaking lanes - all for the cost of a few truckloads of paint and a few signs.

remove hard shoulder and end up driving/skidding down a ditch .. theres no kerbing at the edges! - theres another problem in itself ... a lot of it would need barriers at the edge of the roadside

cnocbui

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

remove hard shoulder and end up driving/skidding down a ditch .. theres no kerbing at the edges! - theres another problem in itself ... a lot of it would need barriers at the edge of the roadside

Speak for yourself. I have driven a fair few Km on roads without a shoulder and have never come close to going bush.

Andy From Sligo

cnocbui wrote: »

Don't really need a motorway, just get rid of the hard shoulder and use the space for frequent and numerous overtaking lanes - all for the cost of a few truckloads of paint and a few signs.

you are forgetting about all the red tape that would have to be involved in such a thing and of course someone / some people will have to make a killing out of a project like this

marno21

The opening of the M17 will speed up journey times on the N17, especially between Sligo and south of Galway (Limerick, Cork) meaning that vehicles will be under less pressure to make up time. There is a bad need for another scheme to be progressed on the N17 though in the coming years. These are how it was split up before:

N17 Tuam-Claremorris (from the end of the Tuam BP to the southern end of the Claremorris BP) Type 2 DC
N17 Knock-Tobercurry - Type 2 DC
N17 Tobercurry BP - Type 2 DC
N17 Tobercurry-Collooney - Type 2 DC

Basically the whole N17 bar the Knock/Claremorris BP which is a very high standard single carraigeway. The parts in Sligo need attention badly.

cnocbui

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

you are forgetting about all the red tape that would have to be involved in such a thing and of course someone / some people will have to make a killing out of a project like this

Nothing a hand full of lads and some work in the dead of night couldn't bypass.

Jayop

marno21 wrote: »

The opening of the M17 will speed up journey times on the N17, especially between Sligo and south of Galway (Limerick, Cork) meaning that vehicles will be under less pressure to make up time. There is a bad need for another scheme to be progressed on the N17 though in the coming years. These are how it was split up before:

N17 Tuam-Claremorris (from the end of the Tuam BP to the southern end of the Claremorris BP) Type 2 DC
N17 Knock-Tobercurry - Type 2 DC
N17 Tobercurry BP - Type 2 DC
N17 Tobercurry-Collooney - Type 2 DC

Basically the whole N17 bar the Knock/Claremorris BP which is a very high standard single carraigeway. The parts in Sligo need attention badly.

Being selfish I'd prefer this to be the priority.

What's the 3rd one? Tubber to BP?

BlinkingLights

Melanoma wrote: »

As a richer country we give to the EU but for a poor or less developed part of Ireland we can apply for funding back. Its just we are net contributors.

The EU gifted us lots of cash for telecoms, roads and still is giving agriculture lots of money.

I'd say with brexit money will be tighter in say 5 years time. They did contribute too. Whales got some back and Scotland and less Developed parts of England. reckon we will be giving about 5% more to the EU then.

Assuming that the whole things still exists then.

They contributed but they also took a lot back out of the budget. There were a lot of UK areas that were higher priority for EU recent years than Ireland's West/Northwest

Also the UK has the Thatcher negotiated rebate which knocks a huge % off.
France for example is very comparable to the UK population and GDP but has a real bet contribution nearly twice as high!

The UK rebate is becoming very hard to justify particularly when you're asking much less economically developed members to cough up more etc etc

Mint Sauce

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

if it were a motorway and you were doing 120kmh most of the way and not slowing down and speeding up and stop starting in top gear most of the time it would actually be more economical for your car/petrol tank

yes, I couldnt place the year (lol) I last travelled up there by car ..... because I hate the roads and it takes to long to get up there .. ah but sure if there was a motorway sure , be a different kettle of fish , id be flying up and down all the time (or is it down and across?)

Thats good they tarmacked over the railway crossings now sure

You would definately need a couple or few 24hr Service stations along the route to break up the journey and have a rest and stretch your legs

Not sure about the economics. Once I go over 110, the revs go into the 4K, and you can nearly see the fuel gauge moving.

Sure I could just go at 110, but where would the fun be in that.

And it would definitely require a services or two, around Carrick or Longford, in addition to the one at Enfeild.

marno21

Jayop wrote: »

Being selfish I'd prefer this to be the priority.

What's the 3rd one? Tubber to BP?

Sorry, BP = Bypass. The scheme is "N17 Tobercurry Bypass". It's to divide the N17 up into usable schemes. The N17 Knock-Tobercurry one is mostly in Mayo, then the N17 Tobercurry Bypass skirts around Tobercurry and joins the future N17 Tobercurry-Collooney scheme which will meet the N4 at the roundabout near Collooney. The reason for this is to divide up the Sligo section into two seperate schemes as all together it would be too big.

By the way, the rest of the N17 planned as DC north of Tuam will have NO hard shoulders, bar the single carraigeway section around Knock and Claremorris which will likely be left as is.

BlinkingLights

To be honest and this is no slight on Sligo, but it's hard to see the economic justification for full motorway when you consider the low population.

Just improving any tight bits and putting in town bypasses would make a lot more sense.

I think though the NW will need seriously better connectivity beyond Sligo as Brexit has a potentially serious implication for Donegal.

Road infrastructure linking Sligo and Letterkenny is something that could possibly be EU funded as a mitigation of the impact of Brexit once we know what's happening with the border.

I don't think the Republic should be considering any joint funding of NI roads projects to link in the NW as they could be rendered useless to Donegal and parts of Sligo etc.

Jayop

marno21 wrote: »

Sorry, BP = Bypass. The scheme is "N17 Tobercurry Bypass". It's to divide the N17 up into usable schemes. The N17 Knock-Tobercurry one is mostly in Mayo, then the N17 Tobercurry Bypass skirts around Tobercurry and joins the future N17 Tobercurry-Collooney scheme which will meet the N4 at the roundabout near Collooney. The reason for this is to divide up the Sligo section into two seperate schemes as all together it would be too big.

By the way, the rest of the N17 planned as DC north of Tuam will have NO hard shoulders, bar the single carraigeway section around Knock and Claremorris which will likely be left as is.

Thanks Marno.

Would there be any links to info about that? Maybe plans, timescale, funding info etc.

Would be really great to see if any of that is actually likely to go ahead at any time soon and if so which routes will they be choosing. I was looking at the NRA site and all work in Sligo apart from the Castlebaldwin work is suspended.

http://www.nra.ie/projects/road-schemes/

marno21

Jayop wrote: »

Thanks Marno.

Would there be any links to info about that? Maybe plans, timescale, funding info etc.

Would be really great to see if any of that is actually likely to go ahead at any time soon and if so which routes will they be choosing. I was looking at the NRA site and all work in Sligo apart from the Castlebaldwin work is suspended.

http://www.nra.ie/projects/road-schemes/

Thread here on the entire N17 from the Roads forum: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055932635

As of now, all 4 N17 schemes are suspended. No funding is available for the four schemes, no timescale other than construction definately won't begin on any of them this side of 2025.

N4 Collooney-Castlebaldwin at this stage looks like late 2018 start. 2 years should have it open.

Irish_rat

What we badly need is a motorway from Cork to Limerick.

marno21

Irish_rat wrote: »

What we badly need is a motorway from Cork to Limerick.

The motorway network is already Dublin centric enough. The Cork-Limerick motorway and an upgraded N17 would benefit Sligo more than a motorway around Boyle.

Andy From Sligo

Irish_rat wrote: »

What we badly need is a motorway from Cork to Limerick.

I dont, I'm in Sligo

Mint Sauce

Irish_rat wrote: »

What we badly need is a motorway from Cork to Limerick.

I thought there was one. Well at least to Charlville from the Limerick Tunnel. Although from memory it wasn't the smoothest motorway I have been on.

marno21

Mint Sauce wrote: »

I thought there was one. Well at least to Charlville from the Limerick Tunnel. Although from memory it wasn't the smoothest motorway I have been on.

There's 8.5km of motorway from Patrickswell to the Limerick Southern Ring Road where you can go for the N18: Galway/Shannon or the M7: Dublin.

The 26km from Patrickswell to Charleville is narrow S2 like the N17 through Sligo. Nowhere near motorway.

Mint Sauce

marno21 wrote: »

There's 8.5km of motorway from Patrickswell to the Limerick Southern Ring Road where you can go for the N18: Galway/Shannon or the M7: Dublin.

The 26km from Patrickswell to Charleville is narrow S2 like the N17 through Sligo. Nowhere near motorway.

Maybe that was it. Very few straight lines on it as well.

firemansam4

I don't think traffic volumes necessitate a motorway all the way to Sligo, but maybe there is a case for extending the DC from Mullingar to Longford, that stretch always seems very busy.

Andy From Sligo

I dunno why present traffic is taken into account when deciding and why the plan can not be based on what traffic volume there could be estimated in 5-10 years time ahead . the existing low traffic volume could be because of low population currently living in the northwest ... but it can also be that people do not do that journey because the roads along that route are shockinly bad and are not up to motorway standard - you cant at the moment advertise much tourism from people in Dublin to Sligo and the northwest because people not from ireland and from other countries would look at the map and think, surely there is a motorway to Sligo and the northwest from Dublin - some people might just expect there is (or at least good quality roads all the way on the whole route) they might even be put off by saying "how long does it take to get to sligo in the northwest of Ireland?" and when someone says to them , "its about a 3 hour journey, there are a few bypasses but on the whole before you get carrick its decent roads but as you move further to sligo the roads get even worse" , it might put people off

Lets put it this way, if I didnt know any better and I wasnt clued up about Ireland I would be automatically thinking there was motorways serving the west (which there is to Galway) .. the North-West and all important parts of the country these days, North/south/east west - in other words motorway network spanning to all important parts of Ireland such as there are motorways linking all important towns and cities across the world in other countries.

Jayop

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

I dunno why present traffic is taken into account when deciding and why the plan can not be based on what traffic volume there could be estimated in 5-10 years time ahead . the existing low traffic volume could be because of low population currently living in the northwest ... but it can also be that people do not do that journey because the roads along that route are shockinly bad and are not up to motorway standard - you cant at the moment advertise much tourism from people in Dublin to Sligo and the northwest because people not from ireland and from other countries would look at the map and think, surely there is a motorway to Sligo and the northwest from Dublin - some people might just expect there is (or at least good quality roads all the way on the whole route) they might even be put off by saying "how long does it take to get to sligo in the northwest of Ireland?" and when someone says to them , "its about a 3 hour journey, there are a few bypasses but on the whole before you get carrick its decent roads but as you move further to sligo the roads get even worse" , it might put people off

Lets put it this way, if I didnt know any better and I wasnt clued up about Ireland I would be automatically thinking there was motorways serving the west (which there is to Galway) .. the North-West and all important parts of the country these days, North/south/east west - in other words motorway network spanning to all important parts of Ireland such as there are motorways linking all important towns and cities across the world in other countries.

It's a 200km journey Andy and currently 70kms of it are covered by proper Motorway.

Should the entire route be built to decent DC and leave the existing really good SC parts like that either side of Carrick then you would be looking at a realistic journey time of just over an hour and a half from Sligo to Dublin if you drive an average of about 10kmph over the limit which you would realistically be doing on a DC or motorway.

That would be as much of an improvement as you could ever hope to get on the current journey time.

Andy From Sligo

Jayop wrote: »

It's a 200km journey Andy and currently 70kms of it are covered by proper Motorway.

Should the entire route be built to decent DC and leave the existing really good SC parts like that either side of Carrick then you would be looking at a realistic journey time of just over an hour and a half from Sligo to Dublin if you drive an average of about 10kmph over the limit which you would realistically be doing on a DC or motorway.

That would be as much of an improvement as you could ever hope to get on the current journey time.

Well that would be pretty good, an hour and a half if it were in reality - dont like being negative but i couldnt see it personally, but if your more knowledgeable on roads and travelling i concede to your superior knowlege

Andy From Sligo

Trouble is with me I want my cake and eat it - purely being still an N-Road and the fact that what can still travel on an N-Road (tractors, slow vehicles, bikes, mopeds, L drivers) would not excite me very much when I have a long trip to Dublin, even if its HQDC - no, i want the full Monty. A Full Classified Motorway, 12okmh maximim speed, flat (or flattish) with no bends, no passing through villages and towns, no roundabouts or traffic signalling with at least 3 proper 24hr motorway service stations (with even hotel facilities as well why not, just in case you wanted to sleep over) - i know i'm shooting for the stars ... but ah sure why not?

Jayop

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

Well that would be pretty good, an hour and a half if it were in reality - dont like being negative but i couldnt see it personally, but if your more knowledgeable on roads and travelling i concede to your superior knowlege

Nah I'm pretty clueless about all this stuff and have learned a lot more in the last few days in this thread thanks to the likes of marno.

Andy From Sligo

Jayop wrote: »

Nah I'm pretty clueless about all this stuff and have learned a lot more in the last few days in this thread thanks to the likes of marno.

ah yes he / she / transgender (gotta cover all aspects these days

) - is very knowledgeable about it all .... - knows his shít as the young wan's would say these days

firemansam4

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

I dunno why present traffic is taken into account when deciding and why the plan can not be based on what traffic volume there could be estimated in 5-10 years time ahead . the existing low traffic volume could be because of low population currently living in the northwest ... but it can also be that people do not do that journey because the roads along that route are shockinly bad and are not up to motorway standard - you cant at the moment advertise much tourism from people in Dublin to Sligo and the northwest because people not from ireland and from other countries would look at the map and think, surely there is a motorway to Sligo and the northwest from Dublin - some people might just expect there is (or at least good quality roads all the way on the whole route) they might even be put off by saying "how long does it take to get to sligo in the northwest of Ireland?" and when someone says to them , "its about a 3 hour journey, there are a few bypasses but on the whole before you get carrick its decent roads but as you move further to sligo the roads get even worse" , it might put people off

Lets put it this way, if I didnt know any better and I wasnt clued up about Ireland I would be automatically thinking there was motorways serving the west (which there is to Galway) .. the North-West and all important parts of the country these days, North/south/east west - in other words motorway network spanning to all important parts of Ireland such as there are motorways linking all important towns and cities across the world in other countries.

In regards to planning for the future, I can't see traffic volumes getting near to necessitating a motorway, unless there is a massive increase in population in Sligo or the north west of proportions unheard of.
I actually think the road to Sligo is pretty good at the moment apart from the stretch from Castlebaldwin to the DC. A bypass of Carrick on Shannon is also needed badly.

Andy From Sligo

firemansam4 wrote: »

In regards to planning for the future, I can't see traffic volumes getting near to necessitating a motorway, unless there is a massive increase in population in Sligo or the north west of proportions unheard of.
I actually think the road to Sligo is pretty good at the moment apart from the stretch from Castlebaldwin to the DC. A bypass of Carrick on Shannon is also needed badly.

Could you see Traffic volumes getting near to necessitating a motorway and a massive increase in population in Sligo & the north west if a Motorway was built to Sligo and the Northwest?

marno21

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

Could you see Traffic volumes getting near to necessitating a motorway and a massive increase in population in Sligo & the north west if a Motorway was built to Sligo and the Northwest?

Would you agree that:

N4 Collooney-Castlebaldwin Type 2
N4 Carrick-on-Shannon to Dromod Type 2
N4 Rooskey-Longford Type 2
N4/M4 Longford-Mullingar Type 1/motorway standard
N17 Tobercurry-Collooney Type 2
N17 Tobercurry Bypass Type 2
N15 Sligo to County Boundary Type 1/motorway for 6km + rest as Type 2
N16 Sligo to County Boundary Type 1 Single Carriageway

would be more beneficial than the motorway to Dublin?

The above would cost the same or less.

Jayop

marno21 wrote: »

Would you agree that:

N4 Collooney-Castlebaldwin Type 2
N4 Carrick-on-Shannon to Dromod Type 2
N4 Rooskey-Longford Type 2
N4/M4 Longford-Mullingar Type 1/motorway standard
N17 Tobercurry-Collooney
N17 Tobercurry Bypass
N15 Sligo to County Boundary
N16 Sligo to County Boundary

would be more beneficial than the motorway to Dublin?

The above would cost the same or less.

That'd be dreamy.