N22 - Macroom to Ballyvourney (Macroom Bypass) [open to traffic]

Full finish is still down as late next year - I’d guess October/November 2023. That date may slip due to the partial opening of the eastern end.

You haven’t considered local traffic that is not going to Macroom at all, and will continue to use the current N22. For these users, the new roundabout and link roads must remain open as they are now, and it is this that makes a tie-in so dangerous here:

Local traffic from west of Macroom (the blue line) is in direct conflict with Killarney-origin traffic (green line) wishing to join the new road. The distance between the crossover point and the roundabout is barely 150 metres, and traffic that has just turned left off that roundabout will be naturally be accelerating, as will the right-turners joining the new road.

If you were designing a layout to encourage high-speed frontal collisions, this would be a good starting point. And to save less than two and a half minutes of travelling time bypassing a free-moving road at a lower speed limit with one at a higher limit?

And as for relieving Macroom, opening from Coolcower to the Millstreet Road will do this already. The western edge of Macroom town does not suffer from traffic congestion except as a result of eastbound traffic backing up.

There isn’t room for a temporary roundabout on the new link road, and one could not be built on the dual carriagway. Maps are flat, and that’s fooling a lot of people, but the terrain here is not: at their closest point, there’s a considerable difference in height between the new and old roads (around 3 metres, I think), and that makes any tie-in more dangerous and expensive.

I don’t get why the partial opening as far as Millstreet Road is now seen as a poor option - it means that for the first time in decades, Macroom town centre will not be choked by traffic. To me, that is a major win.

All other problems on either side of Macroom are due to that congestion within the town centre. If I’ve been stuck in traffic before the Auld Triangle (west of the Millstreet Rd), that traffic jam has lasted all the way through Macroom to Coolcower. Once you fix the centre, there’s really no need for a longer-distance opening, because traffic will be running freely on the old N22 between Millstreet Rd and Carrigaphuca.

And 18 months from now, the whole thing will open, and whether or not a a tie-in was built won’t matter - it seems like a lot of effort, cost and risk to go to for such a small benefit for such a short length of time.

Scroll up six posts: Local TD Michael Creed has said that it'll be "before the end of the year", at Carrigaphuca.

I am sceptical of Carrigaphuca, but fairly sure that the new road will be open at least as far as Millstreet Road by the end of the year.

As I’ve said before, an opening as far as Carrigaphooca might be legally difficult. Planning permission was never sought for a junction at that location so it would be “unplanned development” as the term goes. If I can’t knock an 800mm wide pedestrian entrance in the garden wall of my house without planning permission, they surely won’t be able to do that, even if temporary. I genuinely hope I’m wrong but rules are rules.

The first layer of ashphalt was going down at the section in Carrigaphooka where the roads are almost the same level, to me it looks very unlikely there will be any tie in there and it will be the Millstreet road option, I hope I'm wrong but we will see.

Must be something planned, the road markings are down now. They’re wouldn’t be done too early for fear of getting them damaged by site plant

Wow! Really is ready to go. Only to-do is finishing the access roads at the Millstreet Road junction.

I'd prefer the concrete barriers for no other reason than it goes some way towards blocking the view of opposing traffic and headlights.

Thanks. I was getting muddles between my Jerseys, my Armcos and my cheese-graters!

I think Marno is referring to the section between Toonlane Lunction east of Baile Bhuirne, and Millstreet Road junction. At nearly 12km long this would be the longest section of uninterrupted 2+2 road in the country:

Here’s where the junctions are

Chainage (km) Junction

-0.2 Baile Bhuirne, Compact GSJ

5.0 Toonlane, Compact GSJ

16.5 Macroom, Millstreet Road, Compact GSJ

21.6 Macroom, Coolcower, Roundabout

(the zero km mark is not necessarily the start of new construction - that’s why the Baile Bhuirne junction is at -200 m)

is there any estimated time savings for the whole scheme. Time saving in heavy traffic and low traffic conditions? Assume it should knock off 10 min when the entire scheme is opened?