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What is the Republic's Best Motorway?

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Comments

  • #32
    BluntGuy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,468 ✭✭✭BluntGuy


    M8
    It'll be interesting to see the results of a similar poll in a few years time, especially after (well, it's looking like a big "if" at the moment) the M18 and M20 come online.


  • #33
    Zoney
    Registered Users Posts: 1,639 ✭✭✭Zoney


    tech2 wrote: »
    Motorway - M7

    Dual Carriageway - N18 outside Limerick

    I have to agree with Mysterious the N18 is a different dual carriageway to any you would see in the country. Wide mean and a footpath on some parts of the hard shoulder heading southbound!! Access also on some parts of the median if you want to do a nice U turn!!

    For the last couple of years there were only two such accesses remaining, both just entering/exiting Limerick. One has now been replaced by a roundabout, and the other will be removed with the N7 SRR tie-in.

    The N18 is fairly pleasant, including the Newmarket-on-Fergus bypass, which will probably be M18.

    I haven't experienced the M4. To be honest, I found the M1 boring, so I wouldn't vote for it despite the completeness. The M7 is just too disjointed from all the various projects for it to be entirely admirable - although the Limerick-Nenagh section may well push it to the top. I like some parts of even the existing N7 there as you pass the silvermines - great views. The new road should be even more impressive. The M7 will include the Limerick southern ring too, so I think when complete, it will surely win hands down for the length and the various nice stretches (the section near the curragh is quite pleasant too).


  • #34
    mysterious
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,133 ✭✭✭mysterious


    M8
    The M7 will be a very busy motorway once all the motorways are completed.

    You have The M20/M21/M20/M18/M9/M8 all joining it so from Limerick to Dublin it wil busy throughout.

    Somone also said it too of the concrete barriers:( I don't like them either. I really like the old grass medians. The concrete barriers make the road so rigid and boring, just not a nice sight when looking over the other carriegways.

    Does anyone else agree with me. I much prefer the grass medians that are in place on all the old motorways/DCs in Ireland.


  • #35
    BluntGuy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,468 ✭✭✭BluntGuy


    M8
    mysterious wrote: »
    Does anyone else agree with me. I much prefer the grass medians that are in place on all the old motorways/DCs in Ireland.

    So do I tbh... :(

    But, the benefits of concrete barriers, it must be said, outweigh the cons (i.e reduced cost, safety, reduced land take, easier to maintain etc.)

    What they could've done was have concrete barrier in most sections, and then grass median in others (i.e the most scenic areas).


  • #36
    KevR
    Registered Users Posts: 3,110 ✭✭✭KevR


    M7
    It's a toss up between the M4 and M6 for me.

    Both have really good surfacing and good alignment.

    The M4 definitely beats the M6 on landscaping though.

    But the M4 has an expensive toll, while the M6 currently has none. And when the M6 eventually does have a toll it will more than likely be cheaper for a much longer section of motorway.

    M4: cable barrier
    M6: concrete step barrier

    The under-construction sections of the M6 might have improved landscaping on the finished sections, but then again it might not. Won't take that into account when casting my vote anyway.

    Will have a think about it further in my sleep tonight and cast my vote tomorrow.


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  • #37
    Amtmann
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,093 ✭✭✭Amtmann


    M6
    KevR wrote: »
    Will have a think about it further in my sleep tonight and cast my vote tomorrow.

    Yes, it's a vital issue. ;)

    Also, I agree with Mysterious and Blunt: concrete medians are fugly. I remember back in 2004 when the Cashel Bypass opened, and the first thing I said when I saw it was that the barrier looked cheap and ugly. I remember having a conversation with my father about it and asking why they couldn't have put in "a nice bit in the middle" or words to that effect. (I had zero interest in roads back then.)

    The only way to make these new motorways nice will be to accentuate the positives - that's to say the verges and embankments - by landscaping them properly. I'm sorry for continuously harping on about this, but it's so blindingly obvious to me that this needs to happen, and that it should have been happening all along. The M/N8 Watergrasshill Bypass, for example, gives me a pain in the head, as does M8 C-M in August when the summer foliage is all dead and brown. The "Golden Vale" my a**se.

    Despite the fact that we had much less money in the 90s, the motorways we did build we built very well; and that, I think, is reflected in the voting above. Granted, the payback has been marvellous: huge sections of quality road built quickly and cheaply, but still, for crying out loud, why didn't they plant more trees along them? I do think, however, that Cashel to Cullahill, Mitchelstown to Fermoy, and parts of the M6 will be quite good tree-wise after a few years.

    EDIT: Actually, the M8 isn't faring too badly above for a newish motorway. The impressive engineering of the Cashel to Cullahill segment, plus the Galtee/Knockmealdown views, are probably the main reasons for this.


  • #38
    Zoney
    Registered Users Posts: 1,639 ✭✭✭Zoney


    Incidentally, as regards how these roads "look", the N20 planting is making a brilliant show this year (8th year I guess for the plants, so some of the trees are finally a bit more established). I may be somewhat biased, but I think it's perhaps the best done planting I've seen on the national route network. Makes a huge difference when you have to travel the route frequently.

    That said, it is a piece of nonsense that there haven't been barriers fitted along the sides of the DC as well as the median. Some of those trees are now getting rather thick trunks, not to mention all the unprotected signage poles. It will of course have to be done at some stage - probably after some fatal accidents.


  • #39
    Sponge Bob
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 25,234 ✭✭✭✭Sponge Bob


    M6 ( Athlone - Kinnegad) is REALLY BORING ...but no matter as it is so fast :) M4 the same thereafter.


  • #40
    Amtmann
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,093 ✭✭✭Amtmann


    M6
    I would like to hear the reasons people have for voting for the M50.


  • #41
    Amtmann
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,093 ✭✭✭Amtmann


    M6
    Zoney wrote: »
    Incidentally, as regards how these roads "look", the N20 planting is making a brilliant show this year (8th year I guess for the plants, so some of the trees are finally a bit more established). I may be somewhat biased, but I think it's perhaps the best done planting I've seen on the national route network. Makes a huge difference when you have to travel the route frequently.

    Zoney, is that the wide single carriageway Croom bypass (opened 2001) that you're talking about? Just wondering, RE M20: what'll become of this fine (and new) section if and when the M20 gets built?


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  • #42
    testicle
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,430 ✭✭✭testicle


    M11
    The M11 is about 2 miles long isn't it?


  • #43
    Carawaystick
    Registered Users Posts: 8,779 ✭✭✭Carawaystick


    yeah maybush is gorse or furze or whin. It's burnt ( along with tyres!) on bonfire night which is another variable time of the year depending on location...

    Yeah, I saw a demo of the damage hitting a 3" tree trunk vs a 3" steel pole, the pole collapsed while the tree made a complete wreck of the car.


  • #44
    Zoney
    Registered Users Posts: 1,639 ✭✭✭Zoney


    Furet wrote: »
    Zoney, is that the wide single carriageway Croom bypass (opened 2001) that you're talking about? Just wondering, RE M20: what'll become of this fine (and new) section if and when the M20 gets built?

    I mean the Limerick-Patrickswell dual carriageway.

    The Croom bypass will I think get the same treatment as the Nenagh bypass if M20 goes ahead, at least going by what I could see of the preferred route.


  • #45
    Gonzo
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 16,707 Mod ✭✭✭✭Gonzo


    M4
    mysterious wrote: »

    Does anyone else agree with me. I much prefer the grass medians that are in place on all the old motorways/DCs in Ireland.

    I agree also, they dont look as good and the motorways themselves look cheaper as they are much more narrow now, especially compared to motorways ive seen in other countries. But the thing I hate the most about Irish roads is Irish Road Signage, its horrible, looks real amateur compared to the great signage in other European countries like UK, France, Spain, Holland, Germany etc.


  • #46
    Amtmann
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,093 ✭✭✭Amtmann


    M6
    Gonzo wrote: »
    But the thing I hate the most about Irish roads is Irish Road Signage, its horrible, looks real amateur compared to the great signage in other European countries like UK, France, Spain, Holland, Germany etc.

    I agree with you on the barrier bit, and I agree with you regarding older signage, but I think the newer signage on motorways is generally very good.


  • #47
    G_R
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 5,022 Mod ✭✭✭✭G_R


    M8
    Gonzo wrote: »
    ut the thing I hate the most about Irish roads is Irish Road Signage, its horrible, looks real amateur compared to the great signage in other European countries like UK, France, Spain, Holland, Germany etc.

    i actually prefer irish road signs, maybe its just because im used to them but i found French ones very confusing when i was over there, altho i wasnt actually driving, im just speaking from experience on the bus


  • #48
    bazzer06
    Registered Users Posts: 100 ✭✭bazzer06


    M50
    Had to get the poor old M11 off the ground! I do think that the (soon to be) redesignated sections are quite nice though - particularly on the ashford/rathnew where there are some great views over the sea, and on the Arklow Bypass where you can see the Arklow Bank Windfarm


  • #49
    Cool Mo D
    Registered Users Posts: 1,419 ✭✭✭Cool Mo D


    M32 (added afterwards)
    I don't know if it fits this threads definition of "best", but I voted for the M50 because if all the motorways i the country disappeared tomorrow, it would be the hardest to live without. And since I don't live in Dublin at the moment, I rarely drive it at peak, so it gives me little grief.


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