N5 - Westport to Turlough [open to traffic]

Couple of new aerial shots courtesy of Mayo County Council. Top is Islandeady and bottom is N84 junction.

Blacktop going down at the N84 junction. Hopefully they will finish the bridge soon.

Good shout. Bridge now open to one way traffic.

Pic from Jack Walsh drone photography.

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.

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.

There was some talk of this before but seems to be official now unfortunately.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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?

The contractor has run into problems on the N5/N59 link outside Westport, according to this:

This is the spot - no real movement for months

I took advantage of the good weather today to check out progress on the Westport end of the scheme.

First the N59 realignment, these pics were taken near the northern end the N59 section, top pic is looking south towards Westport, and the bottom one is looking north to the tie-in with the Kilmeena realignment. This bit is quite advanced, but the Barleyhill section between here and Westport is way behind, with earthworks not yet complete.

Piling has restarted at the boggy section of the Westport relief road at Attireesh. The contractor had run into trouble here as mentioned upthread.

Work has started on the roundabout on the Westport relief road behind Allergan.

Just outside the town, this is the view east from the Sheeaun road overbridge. Surfacing work is underway here and one of the future emergency lay-bys is visible in the distance.

Big changes in Islandeady but the new overbridge is not yet open. Traffic is being diverted via the new cemetery road to the old N5. This is the view from the new cemetery road to the new N5. The land between the two roads has been planted with sapling trees so the view won't be around for long!

The Islandeady bridge is still under construction:

View from the bridge towards Westport, with stormwater attenuation ponds on right:

The newly realigned Islandeady road going north from the bridge. Some nasty bends here have been consigned to history: