Careful if you use Newlands Cross

MarkN · 09-02-2014 10:50PM #1

Hi all - just a heads up if you use Newlands Cross particularly coming into Dublin. This may be sorted during the coming week but whoever is looking after the roadworks is very lucky they're not (touch wood) looking at a fatality of a motorcyclist this weekend due to going over the handlebars.

As you approach the crossroads where Bewleys is on your left, the middle lane has a huge hole in the road surface. There is a 60 speed limit during the works but due to the size of the hole this is too high a limit. I drove through this junction last night and hit the hole so hard that the tyre on my car blew out and how it didn't damage the suspension I don't know.

Today I had a new tyre fitted at a cost of €340 and my alloy wheel (OEM) is damaged although not cracked.

There is a Facebook page called Garda Checkpoints and many motorists have posted similar stories about this part of Newlands Cross.

I will be contacting South Dublin County Council and the RSA about this as it's so dangerous and yet presumably someone on Friday evening decided they wanted to go home and 'shure it'll do' must've been the attitude! If the person or people responsible are reading this you're very lucky there isn't blood on your hands tonight. Many people have said the only way to avoid it is to swerve and with thousands of motorists using the road daily, to walk away and leave the surface the way it is is a disgrace.

king size mars bar · 09-02-2014 10:53PM

That's serious , going to be very dangerous in the morning

Stavros Murphy · 09-02-2014 10:56PM

MarkN wrote: »

Hi all - just a heads up if you use Newlands Cross particularly coming into Dublin. This may be sorted during the coming week but whoever is looking after the roadworks is very lucky they're not (touch wood) looking at a fatality of a motorcyclist this weekend due to going over the handlebars.

As you approach the crossroads where Bewleys is on your left, the middle lane has a huge hole in the road surface. There is a 60 speed limit during the works but due to the size of the hole this is too high a limit. I drove through this junction last night and hit the hole so hard that the tyre on my car blew out and how it didn't damage the suspension I don't know.

Today I had a new tyre fitted at a cost of €340 and my alloy wheel (OEM) is damaged although not cracked.

There is a Facebook page called Garda Checkpoints and many motorists have posted similar stories about this part of Newlands Cross.

I will be contacting South Dublin County Council and the RSA about this as it's so dangerous and yet presumably someone on Friday evening decided they wanted to go home and 'shure it'll do' must've been the attitude! If the person or people responsible are reading this you're very lucky there isn't blood on your hands tonight. Many people have said the only way to avoid it is to swerve and with thousands of motorists using the road daily, to walk away and leave the surface the way it is is a disgrace.

fcuk me, I thought that was just me! I had to swerve to miss it today and everyone in the car went nuts giving out to me! I just thought, jasus, that's a bloody deep hole that right there. Very dangerous.

testicle · 09-02-2014 11:19PM

€340 for a tyre???

09-02-2014 11:23PM

Any chance you could chuck up the exact area it is on http://fixmyarea.com/?

MarkN · 09-02-2014 11:26PM

testicle wrote: »

€340 for a tyre???

For a 19" run flat that isn't a part worn, yes.

paddydriver · 10-02-2014 12:11AM

Get onto the NRA too.. SDCC will probably pass you off to them anyway. I came thru it Friday evening on way home from working in Limerick and hit it too. At that time it felt bad but can only imagine it got worse as weekend went on.

It does make you wonder what level of sh!te these guys give that they can head off for the weekend and leave such a bad surface in place.

Based on the damage it did to your car I think you would have a good case to claim from them for your tyre. Put that irritating American sounding NRA spokesman in his place..:mad:

Gran Hermano · 10-02-2014 12:12AM

This hole was flagged by several sources on twitter over the weekend. Contractor/council have a duty of care, I'd be sending on the invoice for any damages.

Stavros Murphy · 10-02-2014 12:18AM

Gran Hermano wrote: »

This hole was flagged by several sources on twitter over the weekend. Contractor/council have a duty of care, I'd be sending on the invoice for any damages.

Considering the budget on the job, it would be a drop in the ocean anyway..350,000 tonnes of tarmac..75,000 bolts... :pac:

alphabeat · 10-02-2014 12:20AM

i hit that b'stard today , scared the ****e out of me , lucky no so far damage . it seems to be two channells one hard and the other not so bad heading over to the right as you approach bewleys maybe pipes or some such , but to leave it like that is fcuking criminal at minimum .

arseholes

Stavros Murphy · 10-02-2014 12:25AM

alphabeat wrote: »

i hit that b'stard today , scared the ****e out of me , lucky no so far damage . it seems to be two channells one hard and the other not so bad heading over to the right as you approach bewleys maybe pipes or some such , but to leave it like that is fcuking criminal at minimum .

arseholes

They filled it with 804, it sunk and got dragged out by wheels. We're in the same line of work and it happens, but ffs, where it is, you'd think they'd be monitoring the surfaces - sure they've 490,000 working hours to fill..

paddydriver · 10-02-2014 12:50AM

See now it was mentioned on the Garda Traffic twitter feed earlier today.. How ironic that they are now out on the N7 doing speed checks in the 100kmh zone.. Time could have been better served stopping people near killing themselves at Bewleys.

MarkN · 10-02-2014 08:38AM

paddydriver wrote: »

See now it was mentioned on the Garda Traffic twitter feed earlier today.. How ironic that they are now out on the N7 doing speed checks in the 100kmh zone.. Time could have been better served stopping people near killing themselves at Bewleys.

I tweeted Garda traffic and they seem to have spotted it.

_Kaiser_ · 10-02-2014 09:20AM

paddydriver wrote: »

See now it was mentioned on the Garda Traffic twitter feed earlier today.. How ironic that they are now out on the N7 doing speed checks in the 100kmh zone.. Time could have been better served stopping people near killing themselves at Bewleys.

Didn't notice this break in the road myself but I did spot the camera van just after Naas (inbound) @ around 9pm! At least he had the good grace to have the hazards on I suppose but all the idiots dropping anchor anyway even when they weren't "speeding" in the first place is really annoying! :mad:

dar83 · 10-02-2014 12:21PM

I'm a victim of this as well...

Mark, PM me if you make any headway on getting it sorted. I got passed from SDCC to the contractor performing the works and I'm currently waiting on a call back from the Site Manager. I'm thinking I'll probably be having to follow this up myself a lot in the next few days, so it would be good to know other people in the same situation as well and how they're getting on.

MarkN · 10-02-2014 01:15PM

Well feel free to tell him you're not alone, I'll back you up. I'll do my best chasing it up too, I'm just out the door with work also but I do intend on writing a letter or email so if you get a contact for him/her let me know and I'll add my name to the list.

MarkN · 10-02-2014 05:57PM

A mate took this for me I've a slow motion video of it now and a contact in SDCC if anyone wants to send an email it's cmalone@sdublincoco.ie I'll be doing the same this evening.

Idbatterim · 10-02-2014 06:08PM

hard to make out from that photo, is it the lane you are in, or the peugeot?

the magician · 10-02-2014 06:28PM

Something similar happened my Dad recently up around the Airport. With the work they're doing there , the roads have been in a bad way for a while.

He bust a wheel and rim. He got onto the council(cThink it's Fingal council up there) and they referred him to the contractor for the works.

Once he sent in his invoice for the repair they paid it fairly quickly.

His workmate same evening bust the rim and suspension in his E class merc in the same spot. Same again sent in invoice to the contractor and cheque came out a while later.

So I'd imagine these companies are well used to this sort of thing and have possibly budgeted for paying out for some damages to vehicles.
Hopefully it doesn't take too long for anyone affected to get sorted , and they sort out the road before someone gets injured

MarkN · 10-02-2014 06:33PM

Idbatterim wrote: »

hard to make out from that photo, is it the lane you are in, or the peugeot?

I didn't take the picture it was sent to me.

Gran Hermano · 10-02-2014 06:37PM

Idbatterim wrote: »

hard to make out from that photo, is it the lane you are in, or the peugeot?

According to the tweets from Gardai yesterday it was lane 2.

Zascar · 10-02-2014 06:51PM

There is a massive pothole by the roundabout on the strand road at Sydney parade. I think my wheel is ok but it was a massive thump. How can you best report these when they happen?

Rhys Essien · 10-02-2014 07:14PM

Zascar wrote: »

There is a massive pothole by the roundabout on the strand road at Sydney parade. I think my wheel is ok but it was a massive thump. How can you best report these when they happen?

Here is what you do for claiming.

http://cars.ie.msn.com/winter-motoring-cars/how-to-claim-pothole-accident-damage-compensation-1

Also report to
http://www.potholes.ie/

finnharpsboy · 11-02-2014 06:45AM

Just after coming through the cross from belgard road, be very careful huge lumps of road the size of footballs all over the crossover part

MarkN · 11-02-2014 11:47AM

Current bill so far is just over €1,000 inc vat. Suspension on the car will be checked on Thursday also.

I've emailed both a lady in SDCC and a contact I was given via a poster here for Bam Construction. We will see........

unkel · 11-02-2014 01:31PM

So €400 for the tyre then!

I normally travel through NC regularly, but will try and avoid it at all costs until the works are finished

dar83 · 11-02-2014 01:34PM

I'll be emailing the SDCC contact today.

Currently sitting in the waiting room of the tyre place, new front passenger tyre and alignment needing to be done. Looks like I got away with the alloy being ok, the tyre took all of the punishment (along with the suspension/alignment).

Bill for me is only about €200 so far by the looks of things...

paddydriver · 11-02-2014 01:43PM

Wonder is some young fella losing his job over this.. it was mentioned a lot in traffic reports on radio and also online. Looks like it is going to cost the contractor a good lot of payouts. Am sure they have insurance for this kind of stuff, but still they should have taken a little more care when putting down the tarmac in the area involved. You see it so often, these lads just don't give a sh!te about the damage they can cause.

MarkN · 11-02-2014 02:41PM

Guy from Bam called me back fairly quickly after my email this morning. He seemed fairly ok with the idea of coughing up but did mention he'd have to run it by his bosses as to who exactly is to blame (council or them) and mentioned the weather causing problems with the road. He asked me what I drive as I suppose the invoice I forwarded is hefty enough but I don't make up the prices, BMW do. I don't think the weather caused the size of the hole but I let it slide until I hear back again.

dar83 · 11-02-2014 02:55PM

MarkN wrote: »

Guy from Bam called me back fairly quickly after my email this morning. He seemed fairly ok with the idea of coughing up but did mention he'd have to run it by his bosses as to who exactly is to blame (council or them) and mentioned the weather causing problems with the road. He asked me what I drive as I suppose the invoice I forwarded is hefty enough but I don't make up the prices, BMW do. I don't think the weather caused the size of the hole but I let it slide until I hear back again.

Sounds like you spoke to the same person I did. I'm also awaiting further feedback after he speaks to his bosses.

Stavros Murphy · 11-02-2014 08:00PM

I drove through the same lane in a work van today and it was all lovely shiny tarmac. On another note, we dug a similar trench across a heavily trafficced industrial entrance on friday and filled it with 804 - I had a goo this morning and it was also pulled out to a large degree. Identical issue. Wet + traffic + 804 = migration. Difference is people are passing over ours in artics at about 4mph.

Careful if you use Newlands Cross

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