M11/N11 - M50 (J4) to Coyne's Cross (J14) [options published]

The problems of bypassing the Glen to the west are geological; the ones to the east are primarily commercial and political.

May not be able to get full electrification anytime soon to Wicklow town, but hopefully the addition of BEMUs will facilitate some extra services like this

Interesting proposal. Only part of it of real interest to me is to see how they will cater for cyclists/pedestrians on the route. The rest of the plan is largely irrelevant but hard to see how there could be too many complaints against the proposal? Though no doubt they'll surface. Removing access is always going to irritate someone.

The active travel proposal from Kilmac to the Glenview on the southbound side seems like a massive waste of money when you consider that there is a seemingly viable alternative already in place in the shape of Quill Road and Donnelly's Lane which will take you to the Glenview https://goo.gl/maps/B2kQuXAU6Sk4LDgp6

Its like when (I assume WCC) wasted a load of money building the most bizarre 500m cycle lane that appears halfway up Windgates heading south, when they could have just accommodated cyclist friendly access through pedestrian access already present onto this parallel road to achieve the same thing for a fraction of the cost https://goo.gl/maps/es7BNnTNsb9ECjui7

They have made proposals for closing some access points south of Kilmac.

One of the access points proposed to be closed is the one for kilmurry cottages, which has already been blocked off as part of the recent works in Kilmac.

Now, mind you, it's just a row of orange plastic bollards that's blocking it off atm so it will likely be made more permanent under this scheme.

there was a speed limit review for the whole of Wicklow at the end of last year and it's proposed that southbound through Kilmac will go up to 100km/h (northbound remains 80km/h) - I think it's being implemented in June:

(anything that isn't coloured is the default for that type of road).

I doubt this is a significant contributor to the congestion further north though, it's mainly caused by 4 lanes of traffic (M50+M11) being funnelled into 2 lanes and then having multiple junctions very close together between J5 and J8.

Did they consider preventing the traffic from J7 merging with the mainline traffic and instead allow them join after the petrol station and roundabout in Kilmac? You'd still have to allow mainline traffic merge in left so it would have to be something 'soft' like a double line, solid on the inside, broken on the outside. Nothing but the law to prevent people abusing and joining I suppose.

Unfortunately, despite the current layout being there for some time, many people merging from J7 heading south still feel it's their life's mission to merge with the N11 as soon as humanely possible despite there being 750m of road to do it in, causing people on the mainline to have to slow or even brake to let them in without crashing into them. Pretty much the same thing is the case with the section between the M50/M11 merge and Bray North. Pure incompetence really.

Not sure how long it has been the case, if its official or a bit of opportunistic vandalism, but unless I'm mistaken, the 60kph sign is no longer on the mainline heading southbound.

I've been wondering the same. The 60 sign on the left is just after that lane splits and then there's immediately a 50 sign there too which doesn't apply to the mainline, so think they'd be hard pushed to argue that 60 applies. Although the pole is still there on the right so who knows if it was intentional.

Interesting snippet of information in this Indo article https://www.independent.ie/regionals/wicklow/wicklow-district/kilmacanogue-residents-pet-peeve-of-illegal-n11-parking-raised/a1705291964.html

Badly, badly needed along that section of road.

Given the local uproar last year when there was talk of parallel link roads I've come to the conclusion we can't have anything nice no matter how much sense they make to the bigger picture.

What’s the thinking, turn the hard shoulder, such as it is, into a bus lane ?

I'm sure it'll be pinned on the Greens, but the objections to the off line plans/ closing junctions wasn't them.

they could close a lot of the minor junctions without a big over-arching scheme. I'm still not convinced it would make much difference to peak time congestion (particularly in the morning) but they should do it anyway. There are still 4 separate junctions NB for Kilpedder, 3 of them could be closed tomorrow and should have been closed when J11 opened. Quill Lane access could also be closed and the SB off-ramp at Drummin as there are currently 2 off-ramps leading onto the same road.

Thanks for proving my point - it wasn't the Greens that objected to that solution. It was local campaigns, supported by local and national politicians to retain all the direct access. I don't recall any of them being Green.

Tunnelling was considered earlier in the project, but was eventually rejected on cost grounds.

Details of new road tunnel at Glen of the Downs released – The Irish Times

No, in Europe they would have provided suitable public transport alternatives as most of the issue is volumes of commuter traffic. A six lane tunnel is an American solution and would have done nothing to solve the bottleneck further north and would only make that problem worse.

How much will a tunnel with three lanes in both directions cost? With two lanes already in both directions the benefits aren't huge but the cost would be enormous. If the road through the Glen was removed, the gain is only one lane in each direction, the business case would be very poor. That's before considering that such a road tunnel to facilitate car commuters would be against every bit of national and EU policy.

A road tunnel would also kill the business case for a rail tunnel as very few would switch from driving when additional road space is provided. A rail tunnel at Bray Head doesn't even solve the full rail issue as capacity limits north of Bray would remain. To do public transport right, you'd have to build the Bray Head tunnel, then put the cost of the road tunnel into the rail network north of Bray.

The road tunnel is a fantasy, it's not going to happen for decades anyway (even if it was approved as a project for design now) so shorter term solutions need to be advanced before that.

A solution that works. They build proper roads.

Yes, Spain built lots of motorways, and nobody uses them - construction really tailed off after the 2010 financial crash. Many were built as toll-roads, but traffic levels were so low anyway that locals were fine on the existing network, and tourists (the intended target) quickly learned the same, thanks to Sat-nav systems.

The reason why Spain has so many motorways is that the regional governments in Spain were able to borrow directly and had full control over infrastructure investment: that meant motorways were built in areas where there was no demand for that kind of capacity - this wild spending on vanity motorways by the regional governments was something of a scandal in Spanish politics at the time. The closest thing in terms of insane spending would be Northern Ireland's oversized motorway network as planned in the 1960s, but the start of the Troubles and imposition of direct rule prevented those plans from proceeding.

Actually, Spain built shitloads of infrastructure that it had no use for, on the assumption that cheap international credit and the holiday property market bubble would never burst. It's not just motorways: there's airports, hospitals, whole towns that are still just ghosts.