NRA have this morning advertised for engineering consultancy to design medium to long term solution to the junction!
:):)
The beams on the eastern element of the structure directly adjacent to the N25 eastbound over the roundabout were installed last night. The eastern part of the circulatory roundabout carriageway was closed and traffic diverted via N25 J2.
Details on the M8 realignment to be published next week. Looks like that’ll be the next part of the jigsaw to open in the next few weeks
N40 lanes to be moved east also at the northern approach to the JLT to facilitate the construction of the bridge to carry the N25W -> M8N movement over these lanes
These beams Marno?
https://www.dunkettletraffic.ie/live/?id=2
That is them!!
Those very ones. Road under there was closed last night as the cranes lifted them up. A nice detour off to N25 J2 for all M8S -> N40W traffic.
Continuing work I see on the M8 new alignment. Full details and timelines to be announced next Friday.
Bah. Confirmation of new alignment of M8 and sliproads opening held until next weeks email.
I think this means that the N8 East to M8 North slip will open soon enough.
I would hope so. I passed there yesterday and I noticed traffic light poles up for the "new" M8 south alignment. So AFAIK there will be no new loops or slip roads open soon. Whether M8 north will change at all with this I don't know... to me there doesn't seem to be the angles available for it just now... nor the tar in place.
I read incorrectly. Looks like details of the cross over will be announced on Monday.
First new Dunkettle interchange flyover to open in days
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40790967.html
N8 East to M8 North slip road to open in early March.
N8 East to Glounthaune slip to open in May / June (Old M8 needs to be demolished first)
From now on, I think we can expect to see the results of the project, but it’s going to be a gradual phasing in of the new design over the next two years, rather than any kind of “big opening”.
M8 southbound one lane for the next while. Thats going to be carnage at rush hour.
M8 South to Dumbell interchange slip to be open in Q3 2022. I assume this may mean a partial opening to the Dumbell for Little Island access too.
A lot of the cars will probably go through Glanmire to avoid Dunkettle and end up causing even more traffic in Glanmire too. It's going to get very busy everywhere.
Another little update email today. Nice aerial shot of where surfacing needs to be finished to allow M8 South traffic over the new bridge and onto the current roundabout.
Once this is complete, the old area where the M8 hit the roundabout will be used to divert traffic going north from the roundabout onto the new bridge.
This is one of the easiest traffic movement adjustments they’ll have. I think the next one is moving N25 West to Tunnel movement. I thin
So this phase is: M8 South as far as the roundabout, then M8 North from the roundabout northwards, then N25 East to M8 North (entirely) then Little Island dumbell interchange (entirely) by Q3. So with that in mind, and bearing in mind that I have no inside info, I am guessing....
N40 North (Tunnel) to N25 East (Little Island and Midleton) could be done with low enough fuss immediately after that, with the dumbell interchange in place. The N25 East (Tivoli) to N40 South (Tunnel) can be done, with that previous movement done.
The dumbell interchange in place will demand that the existing Little Island west junctions be closed, freeing up all of the space on the south of the interchange for development. With the existing Little Island junctions are gone, you can do the N25 West to Tunnel movement.
N40 North (Tunnel) to N25 West (Tivoli) can happen pretty much any time as far as I can see. That could probably happen even now? But I haven't seen any dates for it.
The N25 West to M8 North looks to me like it will be one of the last movements. It's that and the Little Island to Tivoli ones that look like the latest ones, to me.
Yep I think N25 West to Tunnel has gotta be one of the next ones ready.
It's great fun from the outside looking in at the puzzle!
I think there’s going to be a temporary rerouting of this movement to allow construction. I think the movement will change again when bridges, groundwork is complete.
No work at all done on N40(N) to Tivoli (confusingly thats actually the N8 west, not the N25). That one would be so easy and would take all Glanmire traffic off the roundabout, but I wonder will they need that patch of land for temporary diversions etc?
Yep I don't understand why that particular movement wasn't done early. They must have some logic as you say. Maybe it's so easy and disconnected that they're keeping that space available as contingency for plant/machinery/supplies.
Very interesting, I had assumed they'd do it in one big bang! Thanks.
Definitely one of the most interesting transport infrastructure projects in the country in a good few years.
North facing camera on the Roundabout has now been refocused to point at the new piece of road and bridge.
Contractors have the best coverage of a road build I’ve ever seen. Updates are just fantastic.
Surprised they stuck with N8 Cork on the road markings instead of City Centre, as is done on similar roads in Dublin, and given this is City Council territory now. Maybe they want to really discourage use of the N40 (just refferred to as "West") to access the city southside and centre for people coming from the M8
They’re a carbon copy of the existing M8S markings and it’s a temporary slip road, I’d doubt they put a massive amount of thought into it tbh
Ah, I thought that was the final route. To be honest, this whole project confuses me a lot, I don't think I will fully be able to visualise and understand it until it is built!
This will be the final route for M8 South to Tunnel. However the whole area will eventually be raised and levelled off.
This will also basically be tunnel to M8 North too. The difference is that this movement will go anti-clockwise around the roundabout eventually.
Nice recent video showing the eventual N8 West to Glounthaune movement. This will require the demolition of the old M8 and the surfacing of the area from there to the new roundabout at the Bury’s Bridge end. If people don’t know, this is basically the old alignment of the N25 before the Dunkettle Interchange was constructed in the early 90s.
A question for some of the more golden aged members on here.
The old movement pre-Dunkettle interchange took the Tivoli dual carriageway over the Glashaboy River on the current bridge and then off to the left and into Glounthaune.
Does anyone know how old that bridge is? If you go back far enough, assume the old method of getting to Middleton was to drive into Glanmire, cross the bridge on the right and then take the L2998 all the way to Glounthaune. Did this alignment exist in living memory?
I have a vague memory of the old Dunkettle/Glasboy bridge (and I'm only nearly 40). The old bridge was flat and had stone sidings to it. It was demolished and replaced with the current structure when the Glanmire bypass was done in the 1990s and when the Dunkettle Interchange roundabout was first built. Then Dunkettle - Cobh was built. I think it crossed the Glashaboy river where the northbound carriageway is now.
Before that (according to old maps) there was a Dunkettle Station and an old road or swing bridge at the same spot back in the 1800s. But those maps don't show the REALLY old alignment which went through Glanmire itself. I'd say that alignment is very very far past any living memory!
On another note, the new bridge has opened at Dunkettle, taking M8 southbound traffic over the new structure to get to the interchange roundabout.
New aerial photos
https://twitter.com/dunkettleint/status/1487780171553853442?s=20&t=Chnl_tiIEVWk8oaA4P31tw
The volume of updates are just fantastic. Video of the new alignment below. The work done since yesterday looks huge. The area now looks completely different.
:):)
