Good shout. Bridge now open to one way traffic.
Pic from Jack Walsh drone photography.
Roundabout taking shape at the Turlough end of the scheme. (10th December 2021).
Breaffy road crossing same day.
Went for a drive today to see how the project is progressing. The contractor is off for Christmas so it was easier to stop and take pictures. My favourite spot on the route is at Drumneen, halfway between Westport and Castlebar:
Looking west you can see the Derradda road overbridge nearing completion, the Derradda road is closed at the moment with diversions in place until the bridge is opened.
Looking east is the Islandeady overbridge, also nearing completion. You can also see the repeated cuttings between here and the Islandeady bridge, as the new road cuts a straight path through the local drumlin landscape.
The local road through Drumneen is being replaced by an overbridge too. The pic above shows the excavation for the bridge foundations. This is the least advanced of any of the bridge structures on the N5 project - most of the other bridges are nearing completion. The lower pic shows the new diversion route for Drumneen traffic when the existing road is ripped up for the bridge works.
Detailed progress report on the new road below. The contractor appears to be confident of finishing on time.
Good to hear, but ugh, it isn't a motorway. Dreadful journalism!!
I'm not the biggest fan of new year's eve celebrations so I thought I'd share some more pics from the last few days. A happy new year to all here on Boards.ie! In a couple of hours we'll be able to say the road is opening 'this year' :)
Looking west under the Sheeaun road overbridge.
Looking west from the soon to be closed Islandeady cemetery road. On the left is one of the emergency lay-bys and on the right is the new access road to the cemetery (not yet open).
The underbridge at Claggernagh Road east - this replaces a narrow country lane that served one or two houses and nearby farmland. The N5 is on an embankment here which continues on towards Lough Lannagh.
Looking south from the Windsor Road overbridge in Castlebar as the sun sets on 2021.
Some fantastic pics of the Westport end of the scheme from Jack Walsh drone photography (from his Facebook/Instagram):
Lodge Road crossing Westport relief road
Westport relief road behind Allergan
Knockranny north roundabout where Westport relief road joins the dual carriageway
N5/N59 roundabout
Great Western Greenway underpass under the N59.
Latest newsletter is up now on the website
There was some talk of this before but seems to be official now unfortunately.
Q2 2023, possible 6 month delay on finishing the project.?? Not great at all from the contractor. Can't say I'm surprised, the level of progress I've seen on the Ballinrobe and breaffy overbridges has been non existent for months. The N84 in particular is farcical, traffic lights in place for >8 months now with no sign of that bridge opening anytime soon.
Would you not consider that the two lockdowns may have had an effect on this? The site was completely shut down during the first lockdown and was shut initially at the start of the second lockdown.
The scheduled build time was 24 months from Jan 2020, so the new finish date would fall well within 24 months of actual working time.
True, but it really seems that compare to N22 Macroom - Ballyvourney that this one is very slow.
Went for a drive along the project today - the Belcarra road overbridge looks like it could be opened within days, and the N60 Breaffy road bridge isn't too far behind.
FWIW, a lot of the scheme looks like it could be ready for October based on the rate of progress so far. The Westport relief road and N59 sections are the least advanced from what I can see, with earthworks not yet complete.
Some pics below of the bridge works at Drumneen between Westport and Castlebar today. This is the least advanced of all the bridges on the project, most are nearing completion.
Possibly, my frustration is borne out of the snails pace I see on the N84 Ballinrobe junction, which should I feel have been handled much more efficiently. I would also draw attention to the update on Dec 31st, that the contractor was confident of finishing on schedule. What changed in the last few weeks..??
Latest pic of the N84 junction from this week. The old road has been dug up but the bridge is still single lane traffic, presumably because the tie-ins are not finished.
Looking at how it's going you would hope they would open the Castlebar section (from the existing N5 at Ballynew around to the existing N5 at Westport Road) sooner when it's ready rather than wait for the Castlebar to Westport/Newport section to catch up if that's running way behind. Looking at the progress on the Castlebar side it looks like that part could be easily opened in 2022.
Traffic lights on the N84 Ballinrobe road in Castlebar are to be removed this week and traffic will run two-way over the new bridge.
Passed over that bridge (N84 Ballinrobe Road) this evening and the lights are still there but it looks really close to finishing though.
The road will probably be under restrictions and coned off for a while yet as another layer needed and tidying up to do, but the lights could be removed next couple of days.
The bridge at Milebush (L1704 Belcarra road) is open but with traffic lights as they are finishing the tie in. It was dark as I was passing but looked to be quite close to being fully operational in a couple of weeks.
Also on the Breaffy Road (N60) the bridge itself looks ready but there is still a bit of work to build up to level so that looks a few weeks off yet. But things really changed since I passed about 3 weeks ago.
L1704 overpass due for completion by latest mid March '22
N60 overpass inbound lane to open 2nd/3rd week of March '22. N60 outbound lane to open April/May '22.
It won't.
Detailed update here from the Connaught Telegraph with some nice pics.
Very unfortunate to see the completion date slipping further though, now Q2 2023 is being mentioned.
Latest progress at the N5 junction on the 1st of March.
Latest roadworks update from Mayo co co suggests the Keelogues road overbridge and Derradda road overbridge will open this week. Is there any sign of that on the ground?
Keelogues opened last week, single lane for time been with traffic light. Last part of old road now been dug out.
The contractor has run into problems on the N5/N59 link outside Westport, according to this:
Was recently chatting to one of the lads working on the Attireesh piling section mentioned in that article. He was saying there were originally supposed to be somewhere in the region of 50 piles used in that section, but due to the underground boulders mentioned (plus the fact that there's about 12 metres of soft ground before hitting rock) that the new figure was somewhere around 90, and that he reckoned there were still more to be added on top of that due to breakages etc.
With the extra delay, I wonder would it be worthwhile to get the dual carriageway between Knockranny and Turlough open as early as it can, and then to open the Knockranny to Barley Hill at a later date when it is completed?
This is the spot - no real movement for months
The eastern end of the scheme isn't a million miles from completion going by these pics from Jack Walsh:
