They might have a go at finishing that childrens hospital in Dublin😉. Fantastic work, lovely video.
There aren't many bricklayers, electricians or carpenters involved in road construction. And there aren't 50k (the number of tradespeople we're short) people working on these jobs either.
Roads construction isn't finished either. The N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge is about to go to construction. The M28 isn't far behind. The Limerick Foynes road is hopefully heading towards construction too.
I think OSM is wrong there - whoever drew it just didn't realise.
Even just looking at how they align onto the roundabouts.
That junction is frustrating as hell though. Why not just facilitate all movements and be done with it.
Sane as the M7 - M8 and M7- M9 junctions.
It’s frustrating that this junction only has limited access. I’d imagine local businesses such as the Mills Inn won’t be thankful either. Travelling from east to west, road users will need to travel through Ballyvourney village to call into the Mills or do a U turn on the county bounds by which time you’re well passed the Mills.
Why a limited design like this ? A little more spend and we’d have a full junction.
What was going on when this project was in design & approval?
A big budget and then to leave two junctions incomplete. Madness
Awesome photography on DroneHawk's latest video for July 2023
The video makes clear that the originally mapped interchange is not correct. I've updated the map data and the visual map should begin to update over the next while.
When I looked at that at exact view in the video at lunchtime I immediately thought it was CGI. DroneHawk's work is really excellent. It brings these projects alive. If TII had any cop-on they would hire him full time to pump out promotional videos.
Big tailback in Lissarda this evening going west, my be from the works on the 4 mile bridge, almost reaching the turnoff for Crookstown.
Heading westwards, It'll be possible to access Ballyvourney via the old road 1.5km west of this junction. Not ideal but might be easier than trying to do a U-turn.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/zbKwP1wu5L3ZjRhM6
Good Lord. That wasn’t one of the segments of road replaced in the early 90s? That looks apocalyptic. Other replaced sections further on aren’t near as bad as that.
Yep! One hopes it might be cleaned up a bit if folk start using it.
So was this -> https://goo.gl/maps/7PZkNPNtP4GDrC1t9
And here. However this bit of road at least resembles a main road.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/RPPJa34A4PFuPHMq9?g_st=ic
Took the new bypass for the first time yesterday - as far as the roundabout on the Killarney side of Macroom. It was so lovely I thought! Then went home through the town and there was practically no traffic. The town can breathe.
I'm guessing he lives nearby and if he goes one way when he goes out his gate, he heads for Macroom/Cork and if he goes the other, he's off towards Dunmanway or Bantry.
Since this is his lived experience he believes that everyone travelling from Cork to Dunmanway, or Macroom to Bantry will pass his house.
Don't confuse limited ability with corruption.
Thats not the original road - thats part of the 90s work that was then itself bypassed - presumably because everything was tipping over on the bend coming down the hill.
The original road goes through the field - theres actually a little bit of it still visible.
Yes thats it, at that truly ridiculous angle. If you look at the 1800s map thats the alignment. I've actually walked on it and its in ok condition.
Important to note that some of those old stretches see so few cars nowadays that they are very overgrown and in shocking state. Some of them were narrowed also when bypassed.
Nevertheless, the N22 from Killarney to Ballyvourney pre 1996 was absolutely appalling. It's little wonder it got such an upgrade at the time.
The 7km section east of Ballyvourney is the last absolute shocker of N22 that will only be N22 for 3 more weeks thankfully.
I have fond memories of rushing from Cork City to Caherciveen, when it was a regular port of call for Spanish trawlers, in the early 1970's, it's where I learned good car control, no ESC, no ABS, no power steering, etc. 😉
When was the newer bit of road built. I think the original rework was done around 1994 or 1995? There must have been a scandal when yet a new alignment was put in place a few years later?
The Ordinance Survey maps track the main alterations - 6 inch map
1995 aerial
1999 aerial
Found my old photos.
The abandoned part of the 1990s alignment, presumably bend too sharp and stuff tipped over?
The old-old alignment across the field
Still some centre lines, but theres not a huge amount left of this awful alignment
Nature starting to win
A bit eerie.
The old alignment has had a bank and a gate put up on it by a farmer, which I largely expect is illegal. Not my job to decide though.
The old-old alignment goes right across a field. Its interesting to see it if you're ever in the area. You get three generations of the same road in one picture if you're careful.
If the owner of any property fails to assert their ownership, then the person using or occupying the property isn’t necessarily doing anything illegal. They’re just squatting.
A historic road improvements thread might be good. There was a lot of work done in the 80s and 90s on trunk roads that brought them from 3rd world level to where we are today.
Those works resulted in a lot of replaced alignments and a lot of ghost sections of roads like in Chris’ photos above.
The state of the early 90s N22 prior to works has shocked me.
Improvement in air quality in Macroom with fall in NO2 levels.
And to think some on here were against the early opening of the Macroom section.
Would be curious to compare against the air quality on around the new road.
I presume it wouldn't be a 50% increase on the new road area since a lot of the NO2 levels are from stopped cars in comparison to cars constantly moving on the bypass
It's peoples proximity to the air pollutants is the issue, for the residents. I think all towns now have a smoky coal ban as well. Macroom has a good opportunity to develop as a hub.
And to think we have a Minister for Transport against bypasses or any sort of roads investment on environmental grounds!
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w2.vanillicon.com/v2/28da96eaa61d06f20f0857b86ee00088.svg)
