NRA have this morning advertised for engineering consultancy to design medium to long term solution to the junction!
:):)
Yet another great Drone Hawk video. The signage saying “Cork” instead of “City Centre” is infuriating.
That little bit of tarmac they completed for the M8 North is now being used for M8 South approaching Dunkettle.
They’ll have free reign to work on this whole area in a few weeks when the loop is open and that section of the roundabout is closed.
You know, it think to open the new section at the end of the M8, I think they may be forced to open the new loop at the same time. Think both might open over the weekend.
VMS gone up today on the New N25 Circular slip to Tunnel.
Also they have tar mac'd a bit of the new roadway North of the roundabout that will take cars from the Tunnel heading to M8 North.
Signage northbound out of the tunnel went up last night.
2 news letters a week with updates for next few weeks so hopefully get bit more detail on what's going on. Probably won't be much new for people in this thread who already follow in detail, but hopefully it'll stop the moaning elsewhere
Nice tweet showing a pic of the realignment.
Yeah. It’s to facilitate raising the road where the M8 presently hits the roundabout. Gradient is too much.
Guessing they're shifting it east to the "end" of the loop, maybe relocate traffic lights or something like that.
Looks something like that from the cameras, they're digging up the road like mad anyway
Anyone know what is being planned with the end of the M8 tonight.
M8 is closed between Glanmire exit and Dunkettle tonight nothing it is to put a realignment in place.
M8 traffic to used part of the loop?
I see they are raising the road surface right at the end of the M8 where cars will eventually start travelling north.
Suspect southbound traffic will be diverted over this raised section temporarily while they raise the final section on the southbound carriage in a few months.
Bad for years, especially the exit from the roundabout going towards Midleton. Shocking.
Badly needed as well, the Glanmire Roundabout looked like it had been ploughed in places.
In case you’re not aware, the DKI project team has been at pains to point out in the last couple of newsletters that the closure you’re referring to and the resurfacing that necessitated it are unrelated to the DKI project. Different contractor.
Access to the old Dunkettle roundabout is closed tonight (at least Westbound), and I didn't see any adequate information about how to get to the city. After coming out of the tunnel (Northbound) and finding access towards Tivoli closed, I took two trips to Little Island via both exits off the N25 and followed signs for Cork, but ended up in a loop. I finally chose my own route through Glanmire.
I did see a "diverted traffic" sign on the DKI roundabout, but I wasn't sure if it was for me (as I saw no previous indication that there was a diversion) and it looked like it may have been sending me up the M8!
That sounds like the obvious scenario. Interested to see how fast they can get a temporary link done. I think the following quote was just poorly written in the newsletter:
“with the diverge reopening as quickly as possible but not later than 12 noon on Sunday the 25th June 2023”
They’ll need to build a small embankment over the current N25 to roundabout slip.
This one change will be transformative. Having no lights at the exit if the tunnel is the one biggest reason for this project.
I don't think the original diverge will reopen. I think they'll push N25W to tunnel traffic onto the new lanes, and under the new bridges, where it'll join the current lights at the roundabout. Then you can do the temp link quite easily - there will be no traffic needing to "cross" it
I’m not sure I fully understand what I’d happening. Are they saying that they are opening a temporary link to go from the dumbbell south roundabout onto the n25 westbound towards Tivoli.
Won’t this require an at grade junction with the N25 to roundabout diverge if the original diverge reopens?
Isn’t it much more likely that part of the new alignment will open to remove the need to fan at grade junction as ST04 will be used?
Oh where to set up the deck chair and popcorn to see that chaos, should be fun. But yeah, will be worth it
Todays newsletter -
The works are being carried out under weekend/night-time working in order to minimise disruption to traffic but additional time should be allowed for journeys in the area during peak times on Saturday the 24th June 2023.
Interesting one this - they are going to do a tie in from the new Little Island south roundabout towards Tivoli, and presumably open the new roads to facilitate N25W to tunnel traffic.
Not quite what I predicted, but it means that a lot of traffic can be taken off the roundabout. And a lot of circulating traffic too. I'd have to think about it more, but it means the crossing movements (M8S to Tivoli mostly, and Little Island to N25W) can be taken off the roundabout. In theory, I THINK that means that the big one, tunnel to N25E can be made freeflow as, with the opening of the loop from Tivoli to tunnel and a few diversions, there is no need for traffic lights there anymore.
We wont mention that that weekend will be utter pandemonium, but it'll be worth it.
I would imagine this is just part of their plan to get the information out to the public, and maybe tomorrow's newsletter will contain the same information (not as hopeful on that though).
That would be excellent if that were the case! Perhaps he knows someone on the project. Or maybe he just emailed them and asked!
Great new video from Drone Hawk.
I’m not sure where Drone Hawk is getting all this information and dates.
To summarise. Most of the new links will open in late June or early July. However, the mainline tunnel to M8 north will not move to the right until later this year along with the N25 west to M8 north slip. The N25 west to M8 north movement will temporarily be facilitated by going to the Dunkettle roundabout and doubling back and using the N8 east to M8 north slip.
Drone Hawk claims that all lights will be removed from the roundabout by late July. This is possible if all the slips mentioned are open. It would mean that all traffic heading north out of the tunnel would no long have any lights to deal with.
May 30th
June 1st
I didn’t think the yellow dashed lining to indicate the hard shoulder was previously done.
Eastbound carriageway was lined on the night of May 30th
Eastbound carriageway on the roundabout flyover has now been lined having been resurfaced last week.
Appears that work is recommencing on the embankment south of the existing roundabout.
... deleted, been posted already.
Ideally yes, however the lights at the Tivoli roundabout my still impact the left hand lane of the tunnel which would also impact east bound traffic - time will tell.
:):)
