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

Just listening to a Cork County Council offical speaking right now on Morning Ireland.

He said it was the contractor that approached them earlier this year with the idea of the partial opening.

Hopefully that corrects some political stunt suggestions

The words ”no way they’re letting Varadkar have it” were used in the story that I heard when this partial opening was first mentioned, and the odd date did suggest that they were working to a gap in someone’s diary, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that An Taoiseach Micheál Martin is doing the blather and cut this morning..

@yerwanthere123 's photo would have made a much better pic than the one RTÉ chose for the story above, where the angle makes it look like the road is unevenly surfaced - it’s far from it.

It’s a really impressive piece of construction, and the western side will be even more so. The terrain here is probably the most difficult of any major road project. It’s just a shame we can’t get Ovens-Macroom lined up to fill the big gap that this scheme will now leave in the N22.

I just drove along the bypass, lovely road. Big chunks of sheer rock by the sides showing the work they put in. Wouldn't fancy using the millstreet turn heading west during rush hour. Sorry heading East, went up it to avoid town, didnt notice the west one.

There are gardai at the coolcower roundabout and the millstreet road trying to divert as many as possible away from the town because of that accident.

How long until google maps update roads usually?

Awful to hear on what should be a great day for the town. The prick in me says if only they hadn't done the ribbon cutting exercise but on the flip side, at least there's a good road diverting traffic now (scant consolation to the family).

Sounds like a good road anyway, lot of dynamite used. Must trek west as an excuse to use it now.

1 person on here has consistently stated that it’s a bad idea.

Pretty impressive how quickly OSM gets new roads shown compared to Google Maps.

Yes, none of the junctions have on-slips. This is what the “Compact” in Compact Grade-Separated Junction means (the next step up is called “left-in, left-out” or LILO, and that does have acceleration lanes). There’s around 150 m of deceleration lane coming up to each exit, but it’s a straight left-turn for joiners.

But in fairness, this road is not a motorway; it’s a 100km/h main road and the traffic levels are low by motorway standards. If you want to join, you wait until there’s enough space for you get on and accelerate - it won’t take long. Also, the junctions are very visible, so people already on the road can pull over into the passing lane when they see traffic joining.

Traveling eastbound this afternoon a car entered from the R582 and seemed to misjudge my approaching speed. I was traveling at about 80km/h in lane one, faster traffic was overtaking me in lane two and I had no option but to hit the brakes. Unfortunately, he/she was one of the types that pull out and then don't accelerate briskly away, easing up on the juice would have done me if he/she did put the boot down a bit.

No acceleration/merging lane to join a rural DC with a 100km/h speed limit is a BAD idea.

Or to put it another way, a bad driver made a not very smart manoeuvre to join the road but the car behind still had plenty of time to see it happening and react. Sounds like the design is fine to me.

No road design is immune to stupid diving. I have seen people sail straight into the left lane on motorways at well below the prevailing traffic speed, rather than use the accelerating lane. Coming up to any junction, expect stupidity and you'll be grand.

And as there are only three intermediate junctions on this road, it's not like you'll have to be constantly watching out...

The design standard says STOP.

And the road says STOP too... three ways:

(N22 Westbound, Millstreet Road junction)

Bypass now showing on Google maps.

Adding a merge lane would only make things worse and confer on these idiots who just pull out a "right of way" that only exists in their heads. If a full stop junction doesn't force them to respect free flowing traffic on the main road, a short (or even longer) merge lane will only reinforce their ignorance. These people are bad drivers and probably do the same at every junction. It's not practical to engineer out their stupidity from the roads network. They need to be caught and prosecuted really.

I am pretty sure this junction design is actually safer than one with short merge (barge in) lanes. The AADT on these roads is sufficiently low that you will not have to wait long for a gap in traffic and as people get used to driving on them, they will attempt to move over to let traffic merge more easily. These roads are far superior to the ones built in most countries for such low traffic volumes.

Sweden builds dual carriageways in places with similarly low traffic levels. The centre divide is for safety, not capacity.

This isn't a very busy road, it has a reasonably high share of goods vehicles and tractors, which would increase collision risks from overtaking if it was left as a single carriageway.

I suppose this would have originally been considered as 2+1, but the pilot 2+1 schemes showed that doing this road type the right way wasn't going to be much cheaper than doing a 2+2, and the 2+2 type was significantly safer as it didn't create pent-up demand for overtaking on the one-lane sections.

2+1 has been retired, and there will be no new ones.

As you say people like that behave like this on other junctions. I've often seen drivers pull out onto the hard shoulder of two-lane roads and treat it as a merge lane - often without seeming even to look.

My solution? A ruddy great speed bump just before the junction - you know one of those lethal ones that makes you come to an almost complete stop.

And to people who say that we shouldn't have to counter bad driving behaviour - we do this all the time. That's why we have drink-drive and speed limits. I'd rather counter the bad behaviour than end up with a horrific crash.

I dont agree, the line of sight for people is poor at that stop sign, anybody with eyesight issues, or health issues makes that line of sight worse, entering a road which traffic is traveling at 100km from a standing start is asking for trouble.

A merge lane, where some drivers dont know how to merge in or allow people to merge in has its problems as well but at least cars are not entering from a standing start and the traffic on the road has more visibility of them, you can read their intentions and hopefully see a clear indicator flashing.

Time will tell i suppose and road design has come a long way, but entering a road at an angle from a standing start with traffic driving at 100km is a terrible idea i think.