NRA have this morning advertised for engineering consultancy to design medium to long term solution to the junction!
:):)
Supposed to be Feb 2024
Any estimated completion date
Some interesting photos from today's email and from a screenshot I just took from the webcam.
Huge amount of earth dug away where the old road ran. Will be interesting to see when they remove the old concrete tunnel covering the rail line.
Tunnel exit showing the pillars now fully formed for the N25 East to M8 North slip. Eventually the mainly Tunnel to M8 north movement will run between both sets of pillars where the 2 orange JCBs are.
Above shows the significant earth works as part of Link F. Huge amount of work done already. This will facilitate the N8 West to Tunnel movement.
Finally, a short from the 4/4 Dumbbell being built to the east of Dunkettle. The bridge is now fully formed with its surface being worked on. Huge earth works completed to the south.
Another great update email today.
Appears that the existing railway bridge / tunnel will be demolished and replaced with a new structure for N25 West to M8 North movement.
Pillars on ST05 now all completed. Concrete spans will begin to be installed in March.
Huge progress on the embankment works for Link F. (Middle of present roundabout). This work could be finished within a week given the pictures.
It’s one lane.
Green arrows = West (N25 and Little Island), two lanes.
Red arrows = South (N40), two lanes: one from N8 (Tivoli), and one from M8 South.
Blue arrows = North (M8), two lanes: one from tunnel to M8 North, one from N25 to M8 North.
On the artist drawing it looks like there may be a possibility of adding a second lane for tunnel to M8 if needed, but right now, one should be plenty - once tunnel-originated traffic isn’t fighting with traffic from N25 trying to go north, things will flow a lot more smoothly.
Three crews on site at 11:30pm tonight. One on the bridge over the rail line where the old M8 was, one on the new bridge for the dumbbell interchange and one at the pillars on the left as you enter the tunnel southbound.
Seems to be a round the clock operation. The only road closure is the N25 east over the flyover which is diverted via the interchange (work is ongoing under the over bridge for the dumbbell in the lanes of the N25 east)
Just a question re the tunnel to M8 north movement. Do people think that it'll be one or two lanes? The new bridge can take two lanes but the image above only looks like it will be one. I know its just an artist impression. Obviously you will also have the M8 south to tunnel movement and the N25 east to tunnel slip going under the existing eastern bridge so it will probably be a maximum of 4 lanes or could it take 5?
Wide screen view looking north taken today from the dunkettle cam.
And a bonus one taken looking south. Pillars being put in place for the bridge to take the east cork to M8 north slip.
I think you've misread what I was saying there. I was making that point that I think it will be removed. Sorry if that wasn't clear in my post.
I’m really not certain on your last point.
Artists drawings make it look like the current concrete tunnel will be removed and replaced with a whole new bridge. The picture below appears to show the N8 West to Glounthaune and the railway line being open to each other.
If you want to see how much was dug out, compare it to this screenshot from 2 weeks ago!
Took the screenshot below from the Dunkettle cam north yesterday. You can see given the perspective of the "small" white van how much they've dug out already. The way this is going the Tunnel to East Cork slip that is to run under the new bridge could be completed very quickly indeed.
Re the old bridge that used to take the M8 north and south over the railway bridge, I wonder will it actually be removed? In order to provide for the new east cork to M8 north link they will still have to construct another two or three structures to bridge over the railway line, the new tunnel to east cork link as well as the new slip road feeding in to that new roundabout to the east of the primary school. I'd imagine it may well just be cleaner to remove that railway bridge in its entirety? I could be wrong on that. We'll find out soon I suppose!
They’ve really dug away where the old road was, where the new slip road for Tunnel to M25 East will go.
I think they’ll let the old rail concrete tunnel remain and utilise it for the N25 West to M8 North movement.
Some change in one week. You wouldn’t think there was an active motorway going over that railway bridge less than a week ago.
N8E -> M8N is next as you say. End of March 2022 according to the email
Work seems to be focusing on opening the M8 East to M8 north slip.
I think they are the final beams in order to take the Little Island access road over the myriad of slip roads underneath?
A couple of shiny new bridge beams were being put up in the rain this morning - just next to the new junction south of the N25.
Dont think thats correct. The road you've marked "A" will be the slip for traffic coming from the east and heading north on the M8. Traffic coming from the tunnel heading north on the M8 will go over the new bridge where the traffic currently goes north on the M8. In order to do that traffic will travel from the tunnel under the eastern over bridge of the existing roundabout.
Current view from about half ways on. The concrete tunnel from the old road over the railway is now clearly visible.
Huge work done to demolish the old road already.
That'll be an absolute riot to build!
All very interesting. Thanks all!
Suspect the mainline coming out of the tunnel will be lowered to help in this case.
That will be tight for headspace going over M8 north and then under N25 west. Interesting
Okay. I had forgotten the exact movements, but anyway it’s clear that this link cannot stay in place. I can’t see when that final West-to-North movement would go live, but it could be quite late in the project.
What is also clearer when comparing the two maps is that the current Westbound N25-N8 carriageway is going to be removed, with Westbound traffic for the city being eventually routed over the current eastbound deck, and the new deck being constructed North of that will eventually carry Eastbound N25 vehicles - basically the East-West road is being shunted North by three lanes.
The reason the old Westbound N25 has to go to give the N25-M8North loop space to safely change height: it leaves the main East-to-West road at the same elevation, must stay under the Little Island junction structures, then vault over the main North-South carriageways, before turning and going under the East-West carriageways. Trying to do that with the East-West carriageways as far south as they are now would be lethal for traffic
That could only be a temporary movement though as link A will evtually only carry N25 East to M8 North traffic.
The final Tunnel to M8 north traffic will go over the current bridge which at the moment is temporarily being accessed with the yellow line you’ve drawn. Traffic exiting the tunnel will eventually go north by veering to the right and eventually onto the new bridge. The top right picture shows this final movement.
i would be very surprised if Tunnel to M8 North traffic will ever use link A even in a temporary alignment. Link A is for one movement as per top right below.
So, after a bit of head-scratching and comparing maps, here’s what has happened: The pink drawing is the existing interchange and approaches; the background is the finished plan. The M8 carriageway that has been demolished is dashed in black, and the new link for northbound M8 is in yellow.
The next change for this movement would be to build the bridge to take M8 northbound from tunnel (marked A on my diagram), at which point Northbound traffic will be diverted onto that. Don’t know if that could be done before late Summer, though, but things can happen surprisingly fast on these projects.
Pillar to mount a gantry or cantilever?
I also am baffled by that pillar. Visible at 38 seconds in this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/RvGvkMl0iIM
Its placement doesn’t match any drawing or diagram though. The additional slip road merges with the mainline much later, after the bridge crosses the rail line, with the slip not going near where that pillar per the webcam shots.
Of course, those diagrams may be inaccurate / plans have changed.
It's for another slip road. You can see in the diagrams above.
:):)
