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Child Item

N3 - Belturbet Bypass

munchkin_utd

I couldnt find a thread for (non M3 project) N3 issues so am starting one!

Surprisingly, despite the budget tightening measures, theres still good progress being made on the Belturbet By-pass project, to by pass the town and remove the high accident stretch from the Butlersbridge ByPass into Belturbet town.

There is nothing on the NRA website reporting progress or project plans but I found 2 interesting articles from Mid-December on the Belturbet-ByPass.
(Does anyone have any maps etc of the planned route seeing as the NRA arent so forthcoming?)

Movement on Belturbet bypass
There was some good news for Belturbet in the run-up to Christmas when the town manager revealed that by year's end, they would receive funding totalling €6.5 million for acquisition of land and further design work for the proposed Belturbet bypass.
Kevin O'Reilly informed the monthly meeting of Belturbet Town Council that they had received two tranches of money €4.8m and €2.7m during the year. The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith, has urged his colleague the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey to advance the bypass.

source :http://www.anglocelt.ie/news/roundup/articles/2009/12/16/3993602-news-briefs/
Published: Wednesday, 16th December, 2009

Smith urges NRA to advance Belturbet By-Pass
Mr Brendan Smith TD, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has had further contact with the Minister for Transport, Mr Noel Dempsey TD and the National Roads Authority regarding the need to progress the proposed N3 Belturbet By-pass.

Minister Dempsey in his reply to the Cavan/Monaghan TD stated that the National Roads Authority has overall responsibility for the planning and supervision of works for the improvement, construction and maintenance of National roads. He added that the implementation of, and the allocation of funding to, individual road improvement projects is a matter for the NRA in conjunction with the relevant local authority, in this case Cavan County Council.

Minister Smith was further informed by Minister Dempsey that he had made enquiries of the National Roads Authority regarding the current position on the N3 Belturbet By-pass and they stated that the preparation of contract documents and land purchase is ongoing and will continue in 2010. The NRA also confirmed that archaeological surveys have been completed and that it expects that on-site investigations will be completed by the end of this month.

Minister Smith has again outlined to the Minister for Transport, Mr Noel Dempsey TD and the National Roads Authority the urgent need to have this essential Project proceed to construction stage at the earliest possible date.

source: TD's website, via Gooogle Cache
Published: 11/12/2009

Aside from Belturbet, on the NRA site there is no mention of a Virginia ByPass but they seem to have (had) bigger plans in mind.

N3 North of Kells to Cavan
Description: The proposed scheme involves the realignment of the existing N3 from Edenburt (Cavan.Meath County Boundary) to the Cavan Bypass.
Mainline Length (km): 38km
Current Project Phase: Feasibility Study

This project will never see the light of day you would have to presume.
The road they are replacing, aside from either side of Virginia, is on the whole pretty OK, especially compared to some other roads competing for funds like say the N22 at Ballyvourney that has much more traffic and a much worse allignment.

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Comments

Wild Bill

Bummer1234 wrote: »

New Bridge crossing the Erne in the distance.

Look at all that rock in the river! - I'm surprised that isn't threatening the spawning ground of the Seldom-spotted Cavan Midge (Midgeicus cavoniumo rarelyseen) or some other priceless part of our fauna :rolleyes:

Did they not do an EIA?

withless

Annagh lake has been diverted around for at least a week. Hope they finish that part soon and the regular road opens again. Going to Cavan/Dublin is a nightmare at the moment.

munchkin_utd

withless wrote: »

Annagh lake has been diverted around for at least a week. Hope they finish that part soon and the regular road opens again. Going to Cavan/Dublin is a nightmare at the moment.

its only till tomorrow aparantly

Notice is hereby given that Cavan County Council has made an order to close to public traffic the roads described hereunder from 0800 hours on Tuesday, 20 March to 1700 hours on Friday, 30 March 2012 inclusive for construction works for the N3 Butlersbridge to Belturbet Road Improvement Scheme.

Road Closed: N3 Butlersbridge to Belturbet Road from its junction with the N54 Clones Road at Butlersbridge to the junction with the R197 at Sugarloaf, Belturbet.

Alternative Route: Access from Cavan will be via the N54 Butlersbridge to Clones road to Gannon’s Cross and the R197 Drumalee road to the N3 at Sugarloaf, Belturbet and vice versa.

All enquiries regarding the above road closures should be directed to Cavan Area Roads Office, on 049 437 8700

http://www.cavancoco.ie/cavanweb/publish/domain/cavancoco/Default.aspx?StructureID_str=255&guid=676

Ted Mosby

Wild Bill wrote: »

Look at all that rock in the river! - I'm surprised that isn't threatening the spawning ground of the Seldom-spotted Cavan Midge (Midgeicus cavoniumo rarelyseen) or some other priceless part of our fauna :rolleyes:

Did they not do an EIA?

[irony on] Thanks for the heads up, must lob an objection in. Perhaps it will force Cavan and the NRA to scrap the scheme in its entirety and get taxpayers' money back off the landowners

A small bit of enforcement from the Guards will solve the alleged safety issues [irony off]

dubhthach

Ted Mosby wrote: »

[irony on] Thanks for the heads up, must lob an objection in. Perhaps it will force Cavan and the NRA to scrap the scheme in its entirety and get taxpayers' money back off the landowners

A small bit of enforcement from the Guards will solve the alleged safety issues [irony off]

Surely the [Sarcasm] / [idealism] tags would be better used above eh?

Wild Bill

dubhthach wrote: »

Surely the [Sarcasm] / [idealism] tags would be better used above eh?

Like :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::eek:;);):cool::p:p:rolleyes::rolleyes::D:pac::pac:

Bummer1234

Some more pictures guys.

munchkin_utd

Bummer1234 wrote: »

Some more pictures guys.
....

is that from the start of the scheme on the Cavan side looking north?

i.e. here: http://maps.google.de/maps?q=Cavan+ireland&hl=de&ll=54.06241,-7.390451&spn=0.017883,0.096817&sll=35.08227,-118.632774&sspn=0.027498,0.048409&t=h&gl=de&hnear=Cavan,+County+Cavan,+Irland&z=14&layer=c&cbll=54.062398,-7.390452&panoid=QmOkyoK1fMQ251ESfFBakw&cbp=11,317.63,,0,6.62

Bummer1234

munchkin_utd wrote: »

is that from the start of the scheme on the Cavan side looking north?

i.e. here: http://maps.google.de/maps?q=Cavan+ireland&hl=de&ll=54.06241,-7.390451&spn=0.017883,0.096817&sll=35.08227,-118.632774&sspn=0.027498,0.048409&t=h&gl=de&hnear=Cavan,+County+Cavan,+Irland&z=14&layer=c&cbll=54.062398,-7.390452&panoid=QmOkyoK1fMQ251ESfFBakw&cbp=11,317.63,,0,6.62

Thats the spot yea.

johnbk

Great to see the pictures, thanks.

mintoffdom

Looking north at the start of the works on Thursday 31st May......

mintoffdom

Forgot about that.....:rolleyes:

At this junction.....

...looking north towards Belturbet

mintoffdom

At the halfway stage....looking north.....

......looking south

mintoffdom

At the northern edge of Belturbet where a roundabout joins the N3/(A509) to NI with the N87 to Swanlinbar.......

The northern end of the bypass.......

Apologies for the greyness but it was very late and very dull.

Storm2

Nice pictures there, excellent work.

Wilderbeast1

Thank you!

I took them before some communication difficulties evolved.

- Wild Bill

Bummer1234

Bummer1234 went for a walk!!

First three located here

The next few pictures are located in backroads

Below: Putiaghan bog ...Alot work to do here yet.

View of the Staghall Roundabout from the new road.

One of the new bridges.

Bummer1234

Noticed how small them pictures appear to be on this so here is a link so you can see them bigger and in more detail by zooming in.

Also if you click on "full details page" on the left hand side you will see the exact location via the Latitude and Longitude if you wanted to know

M three

Bummer1234 wrote: »

Noticed how small them pictures appear to be on this so here is a link so you can see them bigger and in more detail by zooming in.

Also if you click on "full details page" on the left hand side you will see the exact location via the Latitude and Longitude if you wanted to know

Great pictures, thanks for sharing.

Will be a great job when its done. Hopefully the belturbet town council will get up off their arses and do something with the town when the bypass is done but I doubt it.

spacetweek

M three wrote: »

Hopefully the belturbet town council will get up off their arses and do something with the town when the bypass is done but I doubt it.

Lovely town.

bureau2009

spacetweek wrote: »

Lovely town.

Will always have a soft spot for Belturbet and the truly friendly, pleasant people there.

Sponge Bob

Any chance of close up pics of the Erne Bridge and the Bog Bridge ???

TIA

M three

spacetweek wrote: »

Lovely town.

Not saying it isnt but the people elected to represent it arent much use.
They've spent the last few months quibbling over the fact that there isnt money to maintain the public toilets so they closed the toilets instead.

Not one of the town councilors suggested taking a pay cut for a few months or forgoing some of their expenses so the work could be done.

Bummer1234

One of the bridges on the road

http://www.rod.ie/projects-N3-Butlers-bridge.asp

munchkin_utd

Staying on the original topic of all things N3 outside of the motorway (which was the original thread title before someone came along and renamed it), it seems that the 46km stretch from the Kells Bypass to the Fermanagh border is now reactivated and is again in planning.

http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/CavanCountyCouncil/N3NorthofKellstoCavan/SchemeName,16536,en.html

The Virginia by-pass is needed, but to investigate that they probably needed to reactivate the entire existing project to be able to work on planning of the Virginia section.

Actually if its considered a fact that the N4 north of Mullingar needs upgrading then on that basis the N3 north of Virginia actually is more in need and should have priority seeing as traffic levels there are 20% higher than on the N4 and are even higher than some sections of the M6 or M8 or M9!

Chris_5339762

I highly doubt a 46km, presumably 2+2 scheme will be going ahead anytime soon!

munchkin_utd

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

I highly doubt a 46km, presumably 2+2 scheme will be going ahead anytime soon!

have to agree theres places more in need of work, but unlike the Longford or Monaghan planned bypasses of the bypasses and associated works which are offline and of questionable merit in the first place, the majority of the 46km study area would be an online upgrade from very good wide offline single carraigeway with hard shoulders and limited enough local access to a 2+2 with even more limited local access. The problem with the current road is similar to many others in Ireland that it just takes one muppet doing 30mph on a busy day with lots of oncoming traffic and the benefits of such a monster of a road are out the window.
And again, to put it in perspective this road north of Virginia is busier than sections of the M6 M8 and M9 so traffic can build up behind slow cars.

Heres a section that shows a long straight that has no entries and at the end a few local accesses that could be merged into one if the old parallel road was reinstated just as an example of what most of the road is already like.
https://maps.google.de/maps?q=N3,+County+Cavan,+Ireland&hl=en&ll=53.888035,-7.151349&spn=0.001203,0.003076&geocode=FYo4NwMd7reR_w&hnear=N3,+County+Cavan,+Ireland&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=53.888035,-7.151349&panoid=uQs4f9Fe1pX5aBEXuyA-iQ&cbp=12,318.32,,0,22.8

The only real major work needed offline is the actual Virginia By-Pass and the couple of km either side of the town that hasnt been touched in the past decades but unfortunately thats all wrapped up in the super major upgrade project so it means that Virginia must be done as part of the bigger project, or is split from the bigger project - but either way the bigger project has to be reactivated or modified to allow just Virginia to proceed.

spacetweek

How on earth is traffic so high? There is nothing in that part of the country and no major destination at the end.

Bummer1234

spacetweek wrote: »

How on earth is traffic so high? There is nothing in that part of the country and no major destination at the end.

1)Alot of people have to Drive and commute to and from Dublin to work and towns inbetween.

2)Other road networks in Ireland have Rail services up against them and there is nothing along the N3/M3 route.

M three

spacetweek wrote: »

How on earth is traffic so high? There is nothing in that part of the country and no major destination at the end.

Theres a lot of people travelling from Dublin to cavan, and onwards to Enniskillen and a large part of donegal also.
No train service available either as already mentioned so all public transport is via bus