N3-M50 interchange

Jip · 28-01-2010 10:40am

Heroditas wrote: »

The longest it's taken me from Ashtown roundabout to get onto the M50 has been 10 minutes.

You've been very lucky so, 10 minutes would have been seen as a good time, it would sometime takes over 20 minutes on a bad evening.

Heroditas · 28-01-2010 1:32pm

Jip wrote: »

You've been very lucky so, 10 minutes would have been seen as a good time, it would sometime takes over 20 minutes on a bad evening.

Ah this is since last October.
Prior to that, I used to avoid the N3 altogether because it was so bad. I was quicker going home via Strawberry Beds

Zamboni · 28-01-2010 2:56pm

Random wrote: »

they've really gotta do something with the road as you pass total fitness eastbound and just get onto the m50 junction roundabout. there's 3 lanes which merge into a sliproad and 3 lanes .. but the roads markets are beyond confusing. the road signs also don't help the issue one bit as both sides of the road seem to suggest different things with the signs.

It's just as bad trying to get southbound on the M50 from the N3 in the evenings.
As you hit the roundabout you have the right lane and middle lane all going southbound. You then have a situation where traffic merges on the actual roundabout as everyone that was in the right lane on the N3 tries to get into the middle lane on the roundabout for the 3rd exit.
You then end up with 3 lanes of traffic trying to get off at the 3rd exit which results in all forms of hilarity and danger...

daymobrew · 28-01-2010 5:56pm

Zamboni wrote: »

You then end up with 3 lanes of traffic trying to get off at the 3rd exit which results in all forms of hilarity and danger...

I was in the right lane once and no one would let me merge left so I had to go around the roundabout again. Bloody annoying.

Heroditas · 28-01-2010 5:58pm

Random wrote: »

they've really gotta do something with the road as you pass total fitness eastbound and just get onto the m50 junction roundabout. there's 3 lanes which merge into a sliproad and 3 lanes .. but the roads markets are beyond confusing. the road signs also don't help the issue one bit as both sides of the road seem to suggest different things with the signs.

I experienced that today!
I was in the leftmost lane as we hit the M50 roundabout yet three cars in the second lane decided to drift straight into my lane.
I was very lucky to avoid one of them coming straight in on top of me.

The road markings are appalling.

Stark · 28-01-2010 6:06pm

As far as I know, the correct movement is for cars in the middle lane from the N3 inbound to move over to the outermost lane on the roundabout while the cars from the left lane take the M50 NB on ramp. Then the cars coming from the right lane go to the middle lane as there are hashed road markings stopping you from going from right lane to innermost lane on roundabout. It should be fairly straightforward but there's a tendency for cars to go from middle lane to middle lane squeezing you into the innermost lane.

Zamboni · 28-01-2010 6:27pm

Stark wrote: »

As far as I know, the correct movement is for cars in the middle lane from the N3 inbound to move over to the outermost lane on the roundabout while the cars from the left lane take the M50 NB on ramp. Then the cars coming from the right lane go to the middle lane as there are hashed road markings stopping you from going from right lane to innermost lane on roundabout. It should be fairly straightforward but there's a tendency for cars to go from middle lane to middle lane squeezing you into the innermost lane.

I agree but this cannot happen at the moment as the there is only one lane left at the exit (instead of two that merge). Which essentially means the middle lane is the best place to be from the interchange until you're on the M50.
As people realise this the middle lane queue has become longer.
When people see a shorter queue in the right hand lane, they dive up thinking they are getting an advantage, hence people in the middle lane are reluctant to let the merge on the roundabout.
Can't wait until it gets back to some form of normality!

Random · 28-01-2010 10:44pm

i don't suppose anyone knows of a google maps type website which would have relatively up to date aerial / satellite photos of the junction?

thanks

Davy · 28-01-2010 11:32pm

Random wrote: »

i don't suppose anyone knows of a google maps type website which would have relatively up to date aerial / satellite photos of the junction?

thanks

Their is open street map but its far from perfect

mackerski · 29-01-2010 9:19am

Davy wrote: »

Their is open street map but its far from perfect

OSM has no aerial imagery, which is what was requested, but what errors are you aware of in the mapping of this junction? (I mapped it, you see...)

Jip · 29-01-2010 11:07am

Stark wrote: »

As far as I know, the correct movement is for cars in the middle lane from the N3 inbound to move over to the outermost lane on the roundabout while the cars from the left lane take the M50 NB on ramp. Then the cars coming from the right lane go to the middle lane as there are hashed road markings stopping you from going from right lane to innermost lane on roundabout. It should be fairly straightforward but there's a tendency for cars to go from middle lane to middle lane squeezing you into the innermost lane.

That's how I see it and that's how it works most of the time, cars in the middle lane at the lights move to the left lane on the roundabout itself, and then cars in the right at the lights can use either the middle or rightmost lane on the roundabout, but it only takes one person to fu(k it up by either cutting across lane from the middle lane at the lights or those pricks who go down the empty leftmost lane which should be for the M50 northbound but then cut across to go onto the roundabout.

Heroditas · 29-01-2010 11:11am

Jip wrote: »

That's how I see it and that's how it works most of the time, cars in the middle lane at the lights move to the left lane on the roundabout itself, and then cars in the right at the lights can use either the middle or rightmost lane on the roundabout, but it only takes one person to fu(k it up by either cutting across lane from the middle lane at the lights or those pricks who go down the empty leftmost lane which should be for the M50 northbound but then cut across to go onto the roundabout.

I must have a look at the road signs approaching the roundabout again.

As you approach the roundabout just after the old Blanch roundabout, don't the signs indicate the leftmost lane can enter the leftmost lane on the M50 roundabout?

Random · 29-01-2010 9:28pm

as you go past total fitness (on your left) and coming onto the roundabout there's 2 lanes. the sign (on the left) suggests left lane goes m50 north and onto left lane on roundabout. the middle goes to middle and the right goes to right.

then on the roundabout left goes city, middle goes city / m50 south, right goes m50 south.

the sign on the right hand side of the road suggests left lane is m50 north, and confuses the rest.

it's badly marked and the road markings don't help one bit.

Heroditas · 29-01-2010 11:01pm

Random wrote: »

then on the roundabout left goes city, middle goes city / m50 south, right goes m50 south.

the sign on the right hand side of the road suggests left lane is m50 north, and confuses the rest.

it's badly marked and the road markings don't help one bit.

That's what I thought!
I'm amazed there haven't been more accidents.

Davy · 30-01-2010 12:38am

Random wrote: »

as you go past total fitness (on your left) and coming onto the roundabout there's 2 lanes. the sign (on the left) suggests left lane goes m50 north and onto left lane on roundabout. the middle goes to middle and the right goes to right.

then on the roundabout left goes city, middle goes city / m50 south, right goes m50 south.

the sign on the right hand side of the road suggests left lane is m50 north, and confuses the rest.

it's badly marked and the road markings don't help one bit.

Cant say ive noticed the signs much, but the left lane was always M50 NB only so i think its still meant to be that way. I have seen cars and buses using it and continuing straight on to the roundabout.

If you are on the right lane before the roundabout, i think you should go to the middle lane on the roundabout. The right lane on the roundabout is useless imo.

I remember first time coming onto the roundabout and did use the right lane and tryin to get m50 SB was pretty bad, but always goes into the middlelane from lane 3 now.

AlekSmart · 30-01-2010 12:54pm

Whilst it`s gratifying to see the end finally in sight for this project I still have reservations about the quality of design which goes into these.

One of my major issues is the sheer abundance of Solid Bordered Cross Hatched space which adorns virtually every major junction on our newer systems.

Whilst these borders are common throughout the world I`m not so sure that the rest of the world has embraced them to such an extent in a relatively small area.

The native Irish attitude to these SBCH zones is usually one of total disregard as whenever any minor tailback occurs the accepted wisdom appears to be that its ok to scoot past on the marked zone.

Any area of carriageway which is not intended for vehicular usage should,I believe,be kerbed off or otherwise made physically impossible for the uncouth and uneducated to drive across (unless they`re prepared to pull the chassis off their motor).

Already on this thread we read of issues at some of the new junctions due to ignorance and inability.
Surely it should be a perogative to actively reduce the occasions where this is possible.....Fence em In I say !!!!

Random · 10-02-2010 1:01am

Driving past the Auburn / N3 roundabout tonight and noticed heaps of sand and gravel there along with lots of heavy machinery. Looks like they're moving to proper sort this junction in the next couple of days.

cargo · 10-02-2010 10:18am

Random wrote: »

Driving past the Auburn / N3 roundabout tonight and noticed heaps of sand and gravel there along with lots of heavy machinery. Looks like they're moving to proper sort this junction in the next couple of days.

Also saw a huge beam been escorted along the M50, just on the Red Cow side of the N3/M50 junction last night around 9pm. I assume it was destined for this junction also. Looked like some of the V-shaped ones already in place.

MessyRedBlue · 16-02-2010 12:59am

Theres a new sign out bound on the navan road just after the phoenix park train station that says there wll be a "New road layout from 18/02/2010". I guess the roundabout at the travel lodge will be gone on Thursday.

Random · 16-02-2010 1:51am

Was driving down there tonight. Coming inbound from the M50 roundabout you're now going under a bridge and out the little road by the travellodge. You can't turn up Auburn without going down the Navan road and over the bridge at the Phoenix Park station.

Looks like lots of works to the road removing roundabout.. would imagine it'll be a nice mess in the morning

Jip · 16-02-2010 11:37am

Wasn't too bad this morning actually, just a little confusion for those heading inbound and wanting to turn onto Auburn Avenue. There's also a new overhead gantry on the N3 just before the junction where Scotts Roundabout used to be.

MessyRedBlue · 17-02-2010 11:36pm

The sign has changed, it now says Friday 19th. Fair play to them for doing this when the schools are off - decent planning for once. The free movement mght change come monday!

Random · 17-02-2010 11:38pm

They appear to be changing things so that you can't:
- turn right inbound onto Auburn
- turn right from Auburn inbound

Wonder how long this will last for?

MessyRedBlue · 18-02-2010 10:52am

Hopefully it wont be for too long, they may be just linking up one side of the roundabout at a time.
I guess the traffic from auburn will be forced toward the phoenix park and rejoin the navan road at the halfway house.

daymobrew · 18-02-2010 12:30pm

What is the route for the following situations?
I'll be dropping my car in for service at Brady's.
1) Coming down Auburn Ave from Castleknock and turning right onto N3 inbound, toward Ashtown.
2) Outbound on N3 from Ashtown to get to the Phoenix Industrial Estate opposite Phoenix Park Racecourse?

Gaspode · 18-02-2010 3:38pm

Anyone know what the plan is for the N3/auburn Ave junction?
I use it daily coming from the River Road/Dunsink Lane heading to Beechpark avenue. Will I still be able to get through the junction after the roundabout is gone?

Roryhy · 18-02-2010 4:07pm

This should answer your question.
N3%20Alternative%20Final%20Proposal%20vf.jpg

Maldini2706 · 19-02-2010 3:12pm

How did the new layout go this morning?

whosedaddy? · 19-02-2010 3:17pm

Some info from m50.ie

This change in layout will see the removal of the roundabout and the introduction of a permanent signalised junction. For a period of about 2 weeks there will be no right turn inbound onto Auburn Avenue and instead traffic will have to continue inbound to the Train Station junction to turn around and approach from an Outbound direction.

Auburn junction pdf

Random · 19-02-2010 7:18pm

I've used the junction today and no complaints. Traffic seems to be flowing fine, much better than the roundabout anyway.

Thanks for the PDF link.

mackerski · 19-02-2010 7:46pm

Random wrote: »

I've used the junction today and no complaints. Traffic seems to be flowing fine, much better than the roundabout anyway.

The removal of the right-turning movements will have helped a lot, so it may not stay that good.

Jip · 19-02-2010 7:50pm

There's specific right turning lanes so once the right turn ban ends there won't be much difference.

Stark · 19-02-2010 8:16pm

But they'll probably have to give more green time to Auburn Avenue and River Road?

richardjjd · 19-02-2010 10:41pm

Gaspode wrote: »

Anyone know what the plan is for the N3/auburn Ave junction?
I use it daily coming from the River Road/Dunsink Lane heading to Beechpark avenue. Will I still be able to get through the junction after the roundabout is gone?

The PDF posted by whosedaddy? suggests that even after the junction is finalised there won't be any through road from River Road to Auburn Ave in either direction - the quickest solution might be to loop around the M50 roundabout and turn right onto Auburn Ave (or left onto River Road).

Gaspode · 20-02-2010 12:08am

Yeah, its hard to tell from the plans whether it will be a through road or not. feck it anyway, detouring via M50 roundabout or via the overpass at Pheonix park would just burn too much petrol - I'll just have to head up to the N3 via the Halfway House roundabout. That'll cost me a fortune in petrol, progress eh!! :rolleyes:
Still, everyone else will save by not having to inch around that awful roundabout that they just removed, so I suppose I'll just suck it up and get over it. This time next year we wont even be able to remember what the roudnabout looked like!

daymobrew · 20-02-2010 12:04pm

Gaspode wrote: »

Yeah, its hard to tell from the plans whether it will be a through road or not. feck it anyway, detouring via M50 roundabout or via the overpass at Pheonix park would just burn too much petrol - I'll just have to head up to the N3 via the Halfway House roundabout. That'll cost me a fortune in petrol, progress eh!! :rolleyes:

Coming from Auburn Ave, the PDF shows left (N3/M50) and right (N3/City) only. That's surprising, but they might have examined River Road traffic volume and deemed the impact justified (obviously those affected don't see it that way).

The image of the final junction seems to show straight through routes.
Southbound M50 to River Road might have to cross a few lanes in a hurry before the River Road junction.

Davy · 21-02-2010 7:21am

Sorry about the quality, was using a crappy camera phone. This are looking towards the M50/N3 roundabout from the new road that's parallel to the N3 on the dunsink lane side.

Jip · 22-02-2010 12:21pm

Stark wrote: »

But they'll probably have to give more green time to Auburn Avenue and River Road?

True.

I was behind some tool in a transit van on Saturday morning on the N3 inbound and despite all the signs he still tried to take a right turn onto Auburn Avenue, he didn't manage it anyway.

chewed · 22-02-2010 10:44pm

Here's a photo from Feb 18th

Davy · 22-02-2010 10:50pm

Show off with your decent camera

ipodrocker · 23-02-2010 10:51am

where on the n3 junction is the photo taken?

mackerski · 23-02-2010 10:59am

ipodrocker wrote: »

where on the n3 junction is the photo taken?

Here, looking north.

nordydan · 23-02-2010 2:26pm

chewed wrote: »

Here's a photo from Feb 18th

Good photo, it reminds me of the film Speed for some reason!

Mimikyu · 23-02-2010 8:06pm

This post has been deleted.

cargo · 23-02-2010 9:04pm

Captain Morgan wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Does it not mean that at all lights?

Mimikyu · 24-02-2010 1:22am

This post has been deleted.

Jip · 24-02-2010 11:59am

Captain Morgan wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

The problem there is, from the point of view of coming inbound on the N3 wanting to turn right into Blanch village, is that the light sequence is ridiculously short. In the evenings if the first driver in the queue is not ready to go like he/she is in a race, only two or three cars will get through on green, if even. This leads to frustration in having to wait again for so long and some people will just go through on red. A bit of sensible timing there will ease that problem.

Anyway, the bad traffic has now seemed to have shifted to the other side of the M50 inbound these days. You can get through to the Auburn Avenue junction quite fast these but it means that traffic on the otherside gets backed up very quickly, the last few mornings it has been backed up to where the travellers site is, way before the petrol station. This is a right pain in the arse as lots of dicks will either do the up and over on the bridge or just go down the bus lane.

I don't think it has anything to do with the no right turns as the vast majority of traffic is heading right into the city.

A sign of things to come when the free flow arrives, i.e. the traffic congestion will just be shifted to the Halfway House roundabout as that can't cope with the increased traffic volume arriving so soon.

munchkin_utd · 24-02-2010 12:20pm

Jip wrote: »

....
A sign of things to come when the free flow arrives, i.e. the traffic congestion will just be shifted to the Halfway House roundabout as that can't cope with the increased traffic volume arriving so soon.

I think you are 100% right with that! There's only so much you can do with an overwhelming torrent of traffic through overpasses and green waves if the cars are all headed for a 1 lane road at the end of it all.
The only real way to ease the congestion problem inbound on the N3, inside the M50 is to reduce the number of cars.

At least with the park and ride coming online at Pace just off the M3 the motorists will have a choice on whether to go to town by road or not.

Heroditas · 24-02-2010 12:35pm

Jip wrote: »

The problem there is, from the point of view of coming inbound on the N3 wanting to turn right into Blanch village, is that the light sequence is ridiculously short. In the evenings if the first driver in the queue is not ready to go like he/she is in a race, only two or three cars will get through on green, if even. This leads to frustration in having to wait again for so long and some people will just go through on red. A bit of sensible timing there will ease that problem.

Anyway, the bad traffic has now seemed to have shifted to the other side of the M50 inbound these days. You can get through to the Auburn Avenue junction quite fast these but it means that traffic on the otherside gets backed up very quickly, the last few mornings it has been backed up to where the travellers site is, way before the petrol station. This is a right pain in the arse as lots of dicks will either do the up and over on the bridge or just go down the bus lane.

I don't think it has anything to do with the no right turns as the vast majority of traffic is heading right into the city.

A sign of things to come when the free flow arrives, i.e. the traffic congestion will just be shifted to the Halfway House roundabout as that can't cope with the increased traffic volume arriving so soon.

I've noticed this too.
All this has actually managed to increase my travel time to work.
I join the N4 at Woodies and exit at Blanchardstown and work by the Phoenix Park.
Due to the improvements on the main lines, the N4 is now backed up from Palmerstown so I crawl in the N4, the upgrades at the N3 junction means I sit on the M50 for ages waiting to get off it and then have to crawl in the N3 as far as the Halfway House!
Travel time has increased from 15-20mins to sometimes well over 45mins.

I might have to reconsider my route and come in via the back roads up by Castleknock Hotel etc

Jip · 24-02-2010 12:40pm

Well for me it means I have to start leaving early again ! Previously it was 30 minutes, sometimes a little more from house to O'Connell Street leaving around 8, now it's constantly 45 mins.

N3-M50 interchange

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