M6 - Galway City Ring Road [planning decision pending]

Wrong bog, what's holding up significant housing Development East, North and West of Galway City and surrounds is Wastewater treatment. Arduan which will not have one but has two dual carriageways servicing it to the East of the City - it cannot go ahead due to this.

I'm not confident enough to give you a clear answer, but my understanding/belief is that it is the County Council, City Council and TII together.

I've seen similar "dogs dinners" in Cork, where two LA's and the TII combine to design and commission roads that are well beyond "unorthodox" or "experimental" (Silversprings most recent upgrade for instance). These even fail safety audits but are constructed anyway, and nobody does anything about it. When a TII road reaches a city all bets are off IMO.

I mean, it isn't government policy? The latest shove to try and get this road approved is being led by the local authority. The planning which was done as part of Project 2040 was quashed.

So saying that this road will be built per national policy just isn't accurate, especially given what "national policy" is basically will be out the window by Christmas. Policing this seems pointless.

The MAJOR weakness of the GCRR is that there are ZERO plans to change this "mediocre bridge" and a few street-road hybrid "stroads" that you mention post GCRR been built. Could have gotten over the line by now if they had.

It's still a monumental improvement. As you say, it's 40 years since we've had any similar, single investment. It won't solve all problems but given the lack of capital investment in Galway, bar the university, everyone should be jumping at this. It's so rare it happens.

And as we keep saying, that effort may have safeguarded the project.

Without any kind of effort at all though, it seems likely it will go through loads more delays.

In fairness, I think the tram thing has been bubbling along all the time.

But speaking as someone who doesn't expect to see a Cork tram in my lifetime, I don't think the Galway tram will happen in my lifetime either unfortunately. Both LA's are just not yet able for this level of strategic project. It's sad, because even ignoring discussion of the Ring Road I'd like to see trams in both cities.

And again to repeat myself I would be in favour of a bypass and a distributor. But I think the current proposed "ring road" is nonsense. Tram + bypass + N6 distributor projects please. And upgrade rail while we're at it.

https://connachttribune.ie/greenway-environmental-evaluations-look-set-to-delay-application-for-another-three-years/

This is a complete joke. The planning and development systems in our country are broken beyond repair. Why does this only surface with the proposed greenway from where Galway County Council take over its construction? Why has this greenway been constructed with no issues up until it reaches Galway Co Co’s section?

We will be the ones to sort climate change in Galway by blocking this project, well done to all responsible, thank God that's sorted, world peace next

They are not slower, unless you are travelling off peak.

In peak traffic conditions, roundabouts get backed up and blocked and then you are in full gridlock where even if your exit off roundabout is clear, you cannot cross because there are cars blocking the entire roundabout.This was and still is happening in Galway at the remaining roundabouts - they cannot handle peak Galway traffic.

Traffic lights are predictable and reliable, it guarantees a certain throughput of traffic even in the busiest scenarios.

The biggest issue I find with lights in Galway is that drivers dont take off when they turn green. They fumble with gears and controls, and piss about before driving off. This delay has a huge knock on effect on the drivers further behind. If a light timing is designed to allow 15 cars to get through, I,d say the average in Galway is less than 10 cars getting through.

And side roads where the lights stay green for 10 seconds, galway only gets 3 cars through max.

I drive in Dublin, UK and Europe, and never see delays at traffic lights. Everyone is ready to take off. Why are Galway drivers so poor in general?

job for life planning for that road

Most of Europe, by population. The UK and pretty much everywhere east of the Rhine uses a Red+Amber phase before green. Like us, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy do a straight-to-green, but we're in the minority.

In the old Soviet Union (and still Russia), they flashed the green light before the amber comes on, which to me seems like a provocation to speed up.

The Netherlands goes straight-to-green, but newer signals in the Netherlands run a 3,2,1 countdown display in the amber lamp space (here's one).

The lights not going amber before going green makes a difference in Ireland all right I find. A lot of dozy older people driving around the west of the country doesn't help either.