M3 progress

AFAIK, it's still full steam ahead. I live in Dunshaughlin and I have been watching its progress from Clonee to north of Dunshaughlin. Some of the sections are pretty much completed and it makes for a perfect cycling environment, which I have tried out a few times! The road is so smooth in parts, you could land a plane on it - if you know how to fly a plane!
Sad case that I am, I have been taking photos at certain points along the route since the work started - like holiday snaps, there would only be about ten people on the planet who would have the remotest interest in looking at them, but the changes in the landscape are quite spectacular when you compare earlier photos to recent ones...now, where did I leave that anorak???

CUCINA wrote: »

AFAIK, it's still full steam ahead. I live in Dunshaughlin and I have been watching its progress from Clonee to north of Dunshaughlin. Some of the sections are pretty much completed and it makes for a perfect cycling environment, which I have tried out a few times! The road is so smooth in parts, you could land a plane on it - if you know how to fly a plane!
Sad case that I am, I have been taking photos at certain points along the route since the work started - like holiday snaps, there would only be about ten people on the planet who would have the remotest interest in looking at them, but the changes in the landscape are quite spectacular when you compare earlier photos to recent ones...now, where did I leave that anorak???

I'd love to see some of those photos mate - I'm a regular on both the "Commuting and Transport" and "Infrastructure" forums where people do upload progress pics on road projects. One can see plenty of progress on the M8 motorway to Cork. On the "Waterford City" forum, there are plenty of progress pics on the N25 Bypass. As a Meathman, I'm surprised at the lack of local interest in the M3 - like it's the longest single road project in Ireland - 60km mainline of which 50km will be motorway. We may no longer be All Ireland Football Champions, but we are All Ireland contenders for road building!!!

With the above said, an update on the M3 website should be due soon!

Regards!

Kenno90

Well i travel from Dublin to Kells all the time and outside there making huge progress despite the recession they have the road laid out but not covered with tarmac , i've also seen the layout for the toll but it looks easy enough to drive around it and go onto the m3 after that ,

in Dunshaughlin they've done a large bridge with many new roads being connected to the motorway ,

in Navan i haven't seen much as it steers clear of the town , but there are plenty new roads linking the two

and in kells they've laid out the motorway and built 2 overpasses and 4 on/off ramps , now it's just a matter of connecting them all

Pleasant surprise to find that I am not the only one after all who is interested in the progress of the M3. The tree-huggers have cast a shadow over the whole project, with scholars from the other side of the world seeming to be on their side, with Professor-so-and-so-from-the obscure-university-of-the back-of-beyond type-of-thing writing to the letters page of the Meath Chronicle to vent their indignation at the bombing mission being carried out on the Hill of Tara by the NRA! (Maybe they think that those initials stand for The National Rifle Association?)
In fairness to the paper, they have also printed letters arguing the case for the other side, including a couple that I sent on the subject!
Anyway, re photos...I've been taking them with a humble digital camera, and then printing them. Once printed, they would mostly have been deleted. Not being a 'techie", I've never tried up-loading them on a site(apart from thinking that nobody would be interested in seeing them).
But if it is any use to you, Irish and Proud, I would certainly be willing to photo-copy them on a colour printer we have in work which I think would produce a reasonable level of quality. So if you are interested, PM your details and I will gladly send you a selection of photos. Re the sites that you mentioned, are they part of BOARDS.IE? I am new to "Boards", I find it compulsive browsing material...
As for Meath not winning All-Irelands anymore, I am like Kenno90, a Dubliner hiding in Meath (from the tree-huggers!) but I admit I was quite disappointed last year when Meath collapsed in the second half of that match against Limerick...talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

...actually, the match i was thinking of was the one last summer against Wexford. I was in the car-park of the Clonee garden centre listening to the commentators talking at half-time about how it was all over, Meath had to only go through the motions in the second half . When I got to Dunshaughlin, I was amazed to hear that Mattie Ford and co. had won!

Bog Butter

I have an interested in the M3 and i'm looking forward to seeing it's completion. I also have an interest in Irish Archaeology but it must be said that those tree huggers are a disgrace. Who knows what rameis they are telling the worlds archaeological acedemic sholars.

Stroke Politics

It's being discussed here.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055504912

The apathy surrounding the construction of this motorway does not surprise me in the least. Apathy is the reason it took so long....

pullandbang

Kenno90 wrote: »

in Navan i haven't seen much as it steers clear of the town , but there are plenty new roads linking the two

In Bohermeen/Ardbraccan one of the flyover bridges is cracking up - literally. One side of the new bidge is sinking back into the ground leaving a big crack!

pullandbang

malman wrote: »

but it must be said that those tree huggers are a disgrace.

Aw c'mon, give the tree huggers a break. They're running out of things to protest agianst with the downturn in the economy.

There's less building going on so they've got nothing to protest against.

The whales have been saved, the forests have been replanted, seals are not being culled, we're all recycling and 4 x 4's are no longer fashionable!

The fact that the new M3 is FURTHER AWAY from Tara than the old N3 makes no difference to them.

dixiefly

CUCINA wrote: »

AFAIK, it's still full steam ahead. I live in Dunshaughlin and I have been watching its progress from Clonee to north of Dunshaughlin. Some of the sections are pretty much completed and it makes for a perfect cycling environment, which I have tried out a few times! The road is so smooth in parts, you could land a plane on it - if you know how to fly a plane!
Sad case that I am, I have been taking photos at certain points along the route since the work started - like holiday snaps, there would only be about ten people on the planet who would have the remotest interest in looking at them, but the changes in the landscape are quite spectacular when you compare earlier photos to recent ones...now, where did I leave that anorak???

Any chance of sharing where one can access the motorway for some cycling like you mentioned?
Cheers.

lostexpectation

pullandbang wrote: »

Aw c'mon, give the tree huggers a break. They're running out of things to protest agianst with the downturn in the economy.

There's less building going on so they've got nothing to protest against.

The whales have been saved, the forests have been replanted, seals are not being culled, we're all recycling and 4 x 4's are no longer fashionable!

The fact that the new M3 is FURTHER AWAY from Tara than the old N3 makes no difference to them.

where does tara end?

Probably the best place to access with a bike is the gate on the Drumree road (a couple of hundred yards on left after community school, coming from Dunshaughlin. Also, at the new roundabout on the N3 just north of Dunshaughlin, opposite the new water tower. The best time is Sunday...Saturday might be ok but chance of getting in the way of construction workers, which would not be advisable...a two ton JCB might just overpower your average push bike!

dixiefly

Thanks, would hope to try that.

Bog Butter

lostexpectation wrote: »

where does tara end?

The site of Tara is known as a complex as it has a range of monuments which span thousands of years in date. The earliest being a passage tomb (Newgrange is a passage tomb too and as such they are comtemporary). The state owned Tara complex covers an area of around 100 acres and the M3 will be located further away from it than the current N3.

The thing is though it was not just this 100 acre site which was a symbolic and important place to our past peoples. It was the whole landscape: the Tara to Skyrne valley. There are many other monuments which occupy the valley. Some of which were recently discovered during archaeological excavations prior to construction, most notabley the Lismullin timber circle.

This is where some confusion may lie as to the position of the motorway in relation to Tara. The protesters may claim that the road is going through Tara but what they are refering to is the wider symbolic landscape and not the state owned complex.

lostexpectation

my point exactly, but its not just symbolic

pullandbang wrote: »

In Bohermeen/Ardbraccan one of the flyover bridges is cracking up - literally. One side of the new bidge is sinking back into the ground leaving a big crack!

Wonder what the situation is now, regarding the bridge in question. The abutments for such bridges are usually piled - so maybe the piles do not go deep enough.

Will the bridge have to be knocked and reconstructed? :eek:

We'll just have to wait and see!

Regards!

Yesterday was a perfect day for a leisuely cycle so once again my wife and I explored the emerging roadway on and leading to the M3. I hadn't realised that there is a whole section of new road from the Trim Road to the bridge near the new water tower. It is more or less running parallel to the existing Drumree Road. Also, I was pleasantly surprised to note a couple of other family groups also cycling around, enjoying the fine weather.
As I mentioned before, it is a fine amenity for cyclists and walkers albeit temporary, and, of course, strictly speaking, we are tresspassing on a building site. But as long as the users are responsible I don't imagine it would cause a problem, leaving aside all that red tape to do with public liability insurance etc. in the event of someone injuring themselves while there. Sometimes I think there is too much insurance paranoia in the modern world.
At the same time, I can see that in the event of, say, guys on scrambler bikes invading the scene, then I wouldn't blame the authorities for having to crack down on the tresspassers...

spacetweek

Stroke Politics wrote: »

It's being discussed here.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055504912

The apathy surrounding the construction of this motorway does not surprise me in the least. Apathy is the reason it took so long....

Trying to remember when work began. Was it 2007? I believe it was originally supposed to be 2003, and it slipped year by year.

Stroke Politics

's and week;59931236]Trying to remember when work began. Was it 2007? I believe it was originally supposed to be 2003, and it slipped year by year.[/quote]

What happened in the 1980's and 1990's? Did no-one want to improve the road then and attract jobs to the region? Noel Dempsey first promised a train line in 1999.....

upmeath

pullandbang wrote: »

In Bohermeen/Ardbraccan one of the flyover bridges is cracking up - literally. One side of the new bidge is sinking back into the ground leaving a big crack!

Well it is Bohermeen :rolleyes:
You'd have more joy in building a tunnel under Bangor Erris than in building a road anywhere around Tullaghanstown/Greetiagh/Bohermeen. The Drogheda-Mullingar road is a disgrace in that area, it's subsiding and has been for 15 or 20 years.

malman wrote: »

The protesters may claim that the road is going through Tara but what they are refering to is the wider symbolic landscape and not the state owned complex.

Actually I think a lot of protestors do it to deliberately mislead people and sensationalise the whole affair.

Furet wrote: »

Actually I think a lot of protestors do it to deliberately mislead people and sensationalise the whole affair.

Welcome to Meath mate - yeah, it's true what you're saying - saw some of their (M3 protesters) material and it had pictures of high level connectors directly above the actual earth mounds in Tara - as well as the same earth mounds being incorporated into a roundabout with the M3 in the background...

...like talk about trying to stir things up! :mad:

Regards!

leitrim lad

i worked on the new m3 between dunshuaghlin and navan,

used to go into dunshuaghlin every morning for the feed in thet lovely little cafe forget the name ,i think its named after a woman

was coming out one morning eyeing up a nice blonde and she shouted back at me youll know me the next time you see me.in a real dirty deep dub accent

but anyway back to the m3

one of the hippies gave me a piece of marble and he told me that it would keep me safe as a human ,i went in the next morning to find the same hippy asleep under the bonnet of my digger,

then they found a land drain in a farmers field and stopped the job for 3 weeks,

but there should be traffic on it before christmas all the big works done now, but them dirty hippies just made life hard for us all, they cut pipes and smashed windows on my diggers costing me thousands.

and you want to smell the sh2t they smoke. it would make a bale of silage fly,

they say dublin to cavan in just under an hour when it opens ,i dont know at what speed though, and i would be surprised if all the bridges stay up, some of them are built on soup

leitrim lad wrote: »

they say dublin to cavan in just under an hour when it opens ,i dont know at what speed though, and i would be surprised if all the bridges stay up, some of them are built on soup

Very entertaining post leitrim lad!

But seriously, what's this about bridges cracking already? Has the scheme been badly built?

leitrim lad wrote: »

but anyway back to the m3

one of the hippies gave me a piece of marble and he told me that it would keep me safe as a human ,i went in the next morning to find the same hippy asleep under the bonnet of my digger,

then they found a land drain in a farmers field and stopped the job for 3 weeks,

but there should be traffic on it before christmas all the big works done now, but them dirty hippies just made life hard for us all, they cut pipes and smashed windows on my diggers costing me thousands.

Well you should sue for the damage caused - they have no right to violate your property! :mad:

leitrim lad wrote: »

they say dublin to cavan in just under an hour when it opens ,i dont know at what speed though, and i would be surprised if all the bridges stay up, some of them are built on soup

Well who is responsible for the bridges? - anyone found negligent should be seriously punished and made pay for the waste of money, and the waste of materials. Again, if they can't pay - foreclose on their personal assets! :mad:

It's so-called professionals like the above that make this country into a complete joke - the leaking pool walls at the aquatic centre come to mind - we should make Ireland like Japan where people who inexcusably screw up are forced to make public apologies! Also, I heard something that some seats at Lansdowne Road will have obstructed views of the pitch - I seriously hope not!!! :mad:

Regards!

The first greyhound stadium in Cork was so badly designed that you couldn't see the first bend of the track from the stand.

Anyway, we need to see some pictures of the M3 on boards.ie.
It's amazing - after the M50, it is already the most notorious motorway in Ireland, yet we have no photographs of it. Over on the Commuting & Transport and Infrastructure fora we have stacks of M8 photos, a lot of M6 photos, a good few M9 pictures, and a steadily growing number of M7 shots. But no M3! Given the reports made about several bridges on the scheme, I'd like to see some evidence.

IIMII

I'd take some pics but it's hard to know where to start and I've a wee problem with my camera lens at the moment. It looks very much like an other motorway works. One thing that it does have is the railway station being built under the M3 Dunboyne junction at the same time and that is unique. The Blackbull Toll Plaza is under construction, and I haven't seen the northerly one yet. Lot of this road is away from other roads, in relatively remote countryside. It'll take a few jaunts up and down it to get to grips with. I still think the biggest surprise (for the want of a better word) is the new link road taking shape in the newly carved valley up at the back of the Old Bridge Inn - that will catch many people by surprise