NRA have this morning advertised for engineering consultancy to design medium to long term solution to the junction!
:):)
Also, we're currently on Page 99 of this thread. We HAVE to time it so that the main freeflow links open on Page 100.
Great to see the project coming to fruition and I'd echo Curiosity's comment "Credit to the planners and doers" for the amount achieved with minimum disruption. Hopefully the signposting, temporary and permanent, will be up to scratch on this occasion.
”Once the new links open and the traffic lights are switched off, motorists will be able to drive through the Dunkettle interchange without stopping at lights for the first time since the Jack Lynch tunnel opened to traffic in 1999.”
This isn’t quite true. There were no lights at first on the roundabout. I think they were introduced in 2004?
The Examiner is not known for publishing correct information!
Several link roads have opened since the first one in February 2022 took M8 southbound traffic on a new route to the tunnel—including three in October 2022, four the following month, two of which are set to be busiest when the scheme is complete, and another link road into Little Island in February 2023.
Thats just claptrap, the first link was Tivoli - M8 North.
Today's newsletter (Wed 5th July) has a few new details that weren't known previously. We knew that they're opening the new links by 10am Sunday but we didn't know that the permanent closure of two existing links must happen well in advance of that at 8pm Thursday. Those 62 hours in the interim spanning all of Friday and Saturday are going to be "interesting"!
As expected, the roundabout will also cease to exist come Sunday morning. 31 years in existence.
It reads like the n25w diverge will still be open, otherwise every car would need to go to other roundabout and come back, that'd be carnage otherwise.
Yes, the existing N25W diverge will remain open after 8pm Thu until the new N25W diverge opens on Sun. However, the existing diverge will only provide access to the tunnel after 8pm Thu - you won't be able to get to the N8N.
I think it would make sense to do a phased opening over a few hours?
Lots of links opening this weekend.
After this, what is left to do?
Finish N25W -> M8N and route N40E -> M8N around the other side of the flyover.
A whole pile of landscaping and tidying up.
Anything else?
They should be finished before Christmas at this rate.
A nice break for commuters until the M28 kicks off a year later.
Should be well finished before Feb 24.
I think I’ve read that the City to M8 north merge with the M8 mainline isn’t final? I think the merging lane will be lengthened?
What does the yellow box information mean on the photo above? Why is that traffic being diverted to the glanmire roundabout - wouldn't some of it be going that way anyway? Do they mean tunnel traffic coming from that direction?
I think that’s referring to the N25 West to M8 movement. This will be facilitated for the next 6 months by proceeding to the Dunkettle Roundabout, doing a 180 and then taking the City to M8 north slip.
Also at the moment under the bridges on the roundabout, the new freeflow links will just... be... there. They have to tar, improve, seperate and landscape those new lanes. That'll all have to be done at night.
Closing of the R623 will allow the permanent slip to M8N to be built as well, that'll probably be the last to do. But really the big deal is getting N40N to N25E and N25W to N40S open this weekend.
Drone Hawk couldn’t help but do another video.
By the way, if Drone Hawk posts in here, huge thanks for all the videos they throw up. Doing a huge service for infrastructure enthusiasts.
I think N25W -> Little Island West needs to be finished too if I'm not mistaken. Not much left to do there either really.
And then we'll all get to see what happens at Douglas. My guess is that Dunkettle won't affect Douglas too much on its own but M28 could be the problem. We'll see: this weekend will begin a whole new chapter in Cork traffic patterns.
How will M8S traffic go to Cork City after this weekend?
Well they're meant to be routed east with the Midleton traffic, around the dumbells and back down N25E towards Tivoli.
Some of the openings are surprising to me as they look like they haven't even been started.
That Link B from tunnel heading left up the ramp towards Lr Glanmire Road; I thought it was going to be newly done at a more curved angle. Unless they start tarmaccing soon, it looks like they'll just use the existing ramp up.
The N25West towards tunnel. Theres a whole chunk missing that's currently the R623. So do they bulldoze that and start again or surface over it.
The little island southern dumbell to N25W tie-in. Only done last week over what seemed a small hump ramp of tarmac. Doesn't look you could even make out the alignment, never mind have it surfaced.
I guess the actual surfacing of the above links is a breeze to be done in a few hours as opposed to groundworks.
Go to Little Island, or go past the city to Kinsale Road Roundabout.
Yes, I believe nobody is going to do either: they're all going to go through Glanmire. And the original Glanmire bypass will now need a new Glanmire bypass.
R623 is closing from tonight and there's 24 hours working to get it ready for Sunday, so must be possible to be done. Imagine that's how it'll all be completed
I reckon the first casualties will be people from East Cork wanting to go up the M8 who don't read signs or think they can chance the (ex)roundabout from this evening. They'll end up in Mahon.
I don't think that will happen. While intuitively it might seem like bad design (going East to go West), after a few times getting stuck in Glanmire regular users of the route will revert to Dunkettle because they'll discover that it's quicker.
Occasional users will follow the road signs or (updated) sat navs.
I can’t see any issues with the M8 to City movement. Most Road users will use this movement as required.
Quite frankly if you’re going towards the City Centre, you’d want to be half mad to go N40 - N27. Heavy traffic at various points and a much long drive.
Echoing this. Dronehawk's videos have made the project so much more interesting and digestible.
I was however horrified when looking at this latest video by the drone flying at road level through live traffic flows (1:30 to 2:10 along Link E, Link G and the Dumbbell) until the penny dropped that it was Dashcam footage !
Like this....
Anyone who does either once won't do it again, far more time consuming routes
Let's wait and see: I reckon Google will direct many through Glanmire. If you're going almost anywhere North of the river, then going through Glanmire or Upper Glanmire will be faster. South of the river then N40 will be faster.
I don't think most people will use this proposed movement to get to the city, but I'm very open to correction and of course we'll have the answer within a few months by the looks of it. I don't think it will be reasonable to assess it during the next few weeks because Dunkettle (Tivoli) roundabout is going to be hell. But once N25W-M8N opens, we should know.
Yes, it depends where you're going to in the city. They've basically built a little loop that makes the N8 unattractive for way more than half of the end users. There will be a thin sliver of destinations based around the river for which the N8 will be the preferred route. I've been moaning about this since the start of the project. But I could be wrong. In fact, hopefully I'm wrong.
Am I missing something because I can't see any mention of the route for travelling from N40 to the M8 northbound. I have watched the vids put up to explain this weekends changes but still can't figure it out.
Will be going from Kinsale to Thurles this Sunday afternoon.
:):)
