M7 - Castletown to Nenagh

mysterious · 17-04-2008 9:53pm #1

I have seen ecavation works starting on either end. I could be wrong on it, as on either end it could just be the tie in works for the existing two new road schemes Portlaoise M7 and the Limerick end M7

Limerick M7 to Nenagh well speeding up now, it's to be finished in 12 months time.:)

Has the tender gone through for the remaining section of N7 in the middle. Has it officially started?

DWCommuter · 18-04-2008 12:42am

Everything is underway on the Limerick inter urban. By mid 2010 it will be all Motorway/dual carraigeway. In fact all Inter urbans are underway in entirety, but 4 years or so later than planned.

Blame the farmers.:D

culabula88 · 18-04-2008 10:42am

mysterious wrote: »

I have seen ecavation works starting on either end. I could be wrong on it, as on either end it could just be the tie in works for the existing two new road schemes Portlaoise M7 and the Limerick end M7

Limerick M7 to Nenagh well speeding up now, it's to be finished in 12 months time.:)

Has the tender gone through for the remaining section of N7 in the middle. Has it officially started?

How much of the Limerick Nenagh have they finished? Is 12 months the offical time for it to be finished?

rekrow · 18-04-2008 11:46am

culabula88 wrote: »

How much of the Limerick Nenagh have they finished? Is 12 months the offical time for it to be finished?

According to the NRA website the target completion date is Q2 2009. I assume this includes a couple of months for them to say it was completed ahead of schedule. So 12 months sounds about right. Don't know if they'll do a partial opening sooner as seems to be the fashion. Last time I was in Limerick they hadn't much done on the tie in to the SRR. Junctions seem to take the longest on these projects.

Chris_533976 · 18-04-2008 8:35pm

Also where possible they seem to open it in sections (eg: Mitchelstown to Cashel scheme on the N8, half of it was opened back in October 07 and the other half is being done now).

testicle · 20-04-2008 9:07pm

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Also where possible they seem to open it in sections (eg: Mitchelstown to Cashel scheme on the N8, half of it was opened back in October 07 and the other half is being done now).

The Sections here are Limerick to Nenagh and Nenagh to Borris-in-Ossory.

Chris_533976 · 20-04-2008 9:35pm

Yeah but often contractors would open the first half of an individual scheme and then work on the second. Thats what happened on the N8. The scheme is officially called "Mitchelstown to Cashel", but the Cahir to Cashel part is open, and the Mitchelstown to Cahir section is now being worked on.

mysterious · 21-04-2008 6:06pm

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Yeah but often contractors would open the first half of an individual scheme and then work on the second. Thats what happened on the N8. The scheme is officially called "Mitchelstown to Cashel", but the Cahir to Cashel part is open, and the Mitchelstown to Cahir section is now being worked on.

It would be great to open is segments. But both of the N7 schemes are fairly short in comparison to the sections underconstruction on the N6 and N8.

Though they could open the Limerick to Birdhill interchange section as it will bypass the most heavily trafficked N7 and Bypass the village of Birdhill where well over 16,000 vehicles a day carve through pretty village. This section is ahead of the remainder of the route also.

Has Anyone seen a peak of the proprosed interchanges for the Castletown scheme?
The Roscrea interchange, will have to be something out of ordinary, I mean as it will feed N62 both Roscrea town and Templemore routes to connect to this particular interchange for the N7. I hope they future proof this important interchange. I suspect with the upgrades of the N62 and proximity between both towns and the main interchange for the entire town of Roscrea. Where as other towns in comparison,

Interchanges/acceses on other interubans
Nenagh 3
Cashel 3
Portlaoise 3
Fermoy 3

Roscrea on a national route bear in mind still will have only one connection. so they should make sure that this interchange can carry extra traffic etc.

mysterious · 29-04-2008 3:12pm

Nenagh Castletown M7 Scheme is underway officially.

Contractors are Somague Bowen.
Never heard of them.

Any update on the Limerick/Newport interchange. I hope this is a free flow junction. Over 26,000 vehicles a day use it. with many R roads joining. Such as Newport and Castleconnel roads intersect the old N7.

Anyone have the plans for it? There are none on the net?

serfboard · 29-04-2008 4:46pm

Should this discussion not be on the infrastructure forum?

mysterious · 29-04-2008 7:23pm

Well there is no need for two forums.

Infastructure threads are in the commuter and transport forums too.

Zoney · 29-04-2008 8:44pm

mysterious wrote: »

Any update on the Limerick/Newport interchange. I hope this is a free flow junction. Over 26,000 vehicles a day use it. with many R roads joining. Such as Newport and Castleconnel roads intersect the old N7.

Anyone have the plans for it? There are none on the net?

I don't know. If they don't do something sensible with it, it will be a disaster I agree. My guess is that the best we might get is the new Limerick-Nenagh road crossing the existing roundabout continuing directly to the SRR mainline, and the existing roundabout just having slips added from the DC. The worst we might get is just expanding the at-grade roundabout... That would be doom (already is disasterous at rush hour but will be even worse with traffic continuing to grow and encouraged by the DC/motorway all the way to Dublin).

mysterious · 30-04-2008 3:07am

Well judging by NRA website the N7 between The existing N7 roundabout and Ballysimon exit is nearly 25,000 vehicles with above average growth figures

With Newport doubling it's size and has no accesss to the new M7 apparantly. It will still cause mayhem to the existing road layout.

As you said when the M7 is finished traffic will reach double figures and long distance traffic will be more popular.

I asked a friend of mine about this interchange, and he said the Roundabout is being moved or taken out. The N7 will flyover the existing road network with many slips added. The existing roundabout is too small to add slips when you have a 30m wide road cutting through it, and the roundabout already has four exits, two slipways on each side extra added from the motorway would be distrastrous and inadequate.

I hope it's not a rotary interchange
I hope it's not a dumbell with roundabout

these interchanges are tacky, dangerous, inefficient and costly to upgrade

mysterious · 30-04-2008 3:12am

Zoney wrote: »

The worst we might get is just expanding the at-grade roundabout).

The planners in Limerick almost TICK.. But not THAT tick.. It would be illegal to have it at grade since this road is reclassified to Motorway.

That roundabout is already very busy at present anyhoo. we really shouldn't have over 20k vehicles from a full blown motorway a day ramming into it 120kmh do you?

Anyway at bride over IMO is still not enough. to meet the demands of local and long distance traffic.

emmagean · 30-04-2008 1:50pm

am I correct in saying then that there will be dual carriageway/motorway all the way from Newlands cross to the end of the Portloaise bypass, then single carriageway from there to Borris-in-Ossary and then dual carriageway again from Borris to Limerick?

A huge improvement, but does anyone know if there are plans to bypass Mountrath with dual-carriageway?

loyatemu · 30-04-2008 2:17pm

emmagean wrote: »

am I correct in saying then that there will be dual carriageway/motorway all the way from Newlands cross to the end of the Portloaise bypass, then single carriageway from there to Borris-in-Ossary and then dual carriageway again from Borris to Limerick

no theres another motorway scheme that will bypass Mountrath and includes a new M7-M8 junction. This is already under construction.

emmagean · 30-04-2008 2:38pm

loyatemu wrote: »

no theres another motorway scheme that will bypass Mountrath and includes a new M7-M8 junction. This is already under construction.

oh ok. Thanks!
didn't see that on the NRA site

Zoney · 30-04-2008 4:05pm

mysterious wrote: »

The planners in Limerick almost TICK.. But not THAT tick.. It would be illegal to have it at grade since this road is reclassified to Motorway.

That roundabout is already very busy at present anyhoo. we really shouldn't have over 20k vehicles from a full blown motorway a day ramming into it 120kmh do you?

Anyway at bride over IMO is still not enough. to meet the demands of local and long distance traffic.

As I said, it would be worst case scenario. Don't forget there's no confirmation that the N7 Limerick Southern Ring Road is going to be reclassified as motorway (though it's really stupid if it isn't), and a motorway can terminate at an at-grade roundabout. If they do this it'll be a disaster though.

ardmacha · 30-04-2008 6:05pm

The M1 motorway in Belfast terminated at a roundabout for 45 years.

kevin7 · 01-05-2008 10:14am

There used to be a website which I had bookmarked (limerickbusiness.com) which gave details of the Nenagh-Limerick road, including interchanges. It was still live up to about 1 month ago, but now seems to be gone. I don't know who ran the site but it did have details and maps.

From the cached version of the site on google I retrieved this description of the Newport interchange (below), although its hard reading without the accompanying map. They are building a larger version of the exisitng roundabout (this work is already underway). The dual carriageway goes straight over this roundabout. 3 (not the 4 you might expect) merge/diverge slip roads come off the dual carriageway onto the roundabout. The missing slip road is to get on to the DC coming from Limerick on the old N7. Instead, you would join a realigned N7, which stays north of the DC, go along this for about quarter mile to a roundabout tieing in with the Castleconnell road. From this point you could somehow get on to the DC, although this is not described or mapped on the website. Here's the text:

"This junction consists of a grade-separated roundabout. This is the location where the proposed N7 Scheme ties in with the LSRR and the regional road R503. Two bridges (UB3 & UB5) carry the proposed N7 road over the roundabout. This roundabout allows traffic movements in all directions with merge and diverge ramps to the LSRR and a diverge ramp from the proposed N7 Scheme. The merge function to the proposed N7 Scheme is combined initially with the realigned existing N7 and separates at the Castleconnell Road roundabout. Pedestrian and cyclist facilities are included to allow pedestrian and cyclist movements between the R503, the existing N7 (both directions) and the Castleconnell road."

Amtmann · 24-01-2009 11:09pm

This is the only web resource I can find on the Castletown to Nenagh scheme, apart from what's on the NRA site. It concerns archaeological discoveries, and is out of date: http://www.roscrea.ie/content.asp?section=923

The NRA map (which I suppose everyone has already seen) is attached below.
Bowen Mowlem built the Watergrasshill Bypass in 2001-2003; I wonder if they're connected to these contractors.

Anyway, as usual I request photos if you're passing by and not in a hurry!

L1011 · 24-01-2009 11:15pm

ardmacha wrote: »

The M1 motorway in Belfast terminated at a roundabout for 45 years.

And it was, admittedly, a disaster at least in recent years.

It now ends (after a bit of a meander as the A12, but entirely grade separated) at a set of traffic lights which isn't much better, mind!

Chris_533976 · 24-01-2009 11:42pm

This is one of those schemes thats so incredibly hush-hush I'd competely forgotten it was being built.

Geogregor · 17-02-2009 12:45am

Does any one have any news from N7 construction between Borris-in-Ossory and Nenagh Bypass?
I can find infos on this forum from most of the projects under construction but I couldn't see any news about this one. Also M9 is quite unrepresented on Boards.ie
M8 is covered the best thanks to Furet

Amtmann · 17-02-2009 3:10pm

The EIS for the M7 C-N scheme is here: http://www.kildare.ie/CountyCouncil/NationalRoadsDesignOffice/N7CastletowntoNenagh/EnvironmentalImpactStatement/Volume2-Figures/index.html

Maps here: http://www.kildare.ie/CountyCouncil/NationalRoadsDesignOffice/N7CastletowntoNenagh/EnvironmentalImpactStatement/Volume4-Non-TechnicalSummary/index.html

Some archaeology along the route: http://www.roscrea.ie/content.asp?section=923

Chris_533976 · 17-02-2009 6:51pm

I spy a compact GSJ at Roscrea

Amtmann · 21-02-2009 11:00pm

I also took a spin along this today. To get to it I left the M8 at Junction 4 and took the R435 from Johnstown to Borris-in-Ossory. I then proceeded towards Limerick turning off at appropriate sideroads that cross the mainline of this scheme, which is officially called "Castletown to Nenagh".

So, what's the story?

Well, it is less advanced than the M7/M8 scheme. No structures are complete (though most have started), and there is still quite a bit of topsoil along the mainline. I met one farmer near Dunkerrin who claimed that the early finish bonus will no longer be awarded, so he says the builders have slowed down. Yet down the L-road opposite the Dunkerrin Arms work was going on today (Saturday).

***

The M7 C-N scheme looking to Limerick from 3km east of Dunkerrin.

The M7 C-N scheme from the L road across from the Dunkerrin Arms, looking to Dublin along the mainline.

The M7 C-N scheme seen from the N62 south of Roscrea. This photo of the mainline looks towards Dublin.

The M7 C-N mainline seen from 3km east of Dunkerrin looking towards Dublin.

The M7 C-N scheme mainline taken from the N7 at Moneygall. This photo looks towards Limerick.

The M7 C-N scheme mainline taken from north of Toomevara, looking to Dublin.

The M7 C-N scheme mainline close to the village of Knock, which is a few kilometres southwest of Borris-in-Ossory off the current N7.

An underpass underconstruction about 1km opposite the Dunkerrin Arms. The motoway will be carried over a local road by this.

***
From what I've seen, it's fair to say that most of the work is concentrated at the moment between Moneygall and Nenagh. East of Moneygall things are generally quite unadvanced, to a degree that surprised me. Still, this 36 km scheme isn't due in until Q3 2010.

jagged · 25-02-2009 8:42pm

Furet wrote: »

http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/LaoisCountyCouncil/N7CastletowntoNenagh/Map,15445,en.pdf

Bowen Mowlem built the Watergrasshill Bypass in 2001-2003; I wonder if they're connected to these contractors.

Anyway, as usual I request photos if you're passing by and not in a hurry!

Bowen are the cork based firm, generally over all the structures.
Somague are portuguese,over the big dig.
Its not their first joint venture
They also worked on the new rail terminal/garage in portlaoise

Chris_533976 · 25-02-2009 9:57pm

haha wow N18 Crusheen - Gort is only 3 months into construction and its about the same level of progress.

jagged · 25-02-2009 10:41pm

Chris_533976 wrote: »

haha wow N18 Crusheen - Gort is only 3 months into construction and its about the same level of progress.

Really

Structures too?????
Try get some pictures up;)

mysterious · 25-02-2009 10:42pm

Chris this route is twice as long. This scheme only started a few months ago.:rolleyes:

The Castletown scheme started last with one of the Waterford schemes.
You should see the earthworks at Moneygall. I think they could go a teeny bit faster. But I think they are doing fine.

M7 - Castletown to Nenagh

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