N69/N22/N70 Tralee Bypass

Hoof Hearted · 20-01-2014 9:01pm

Any updates on the bypass actually reducing traffic delays. Hopefully the council is doing traffic counts post-construction to see if results match predictions

Hoof Hearted · 20-01-2014 9:06pm

esprimo wrote: »

Don't know if it has been mentioned already but there is a very dangerous spot I think on this road. The junction at which the old Tralee/Killarney road meets the new bypass road. Now this has happened to me a few times, but as you are on the new road coming say from the Tralee side approaching the junction on the way to Killarney, some idiots who are waiting at the stop sign there waiting to turn left onto the main road just pop out at the last second causing me to slam on the brakes to slow down. It goes without saying that drivers going 100 kmph on the main road have the right of way. But some people particularly early in the morning seemingly just get fed up of waiting,turn onto the road right in front of you,not realizing the cars approaching on the road are doing anything up to 100kmph meaning you catch up to them in a matter of seconds while they're trying to build up speed. I think the road should be completely clear and then drive on the slow lane there if people are turning at that spot. An accident waiting to happen.

Is it possible that they could close off this old road at one end?

carchaeologist · 20-01-2014 9:19pm

Forge cross roundabout is now named the Mary O'Halloran roundabout. There's a small stone erected on the Listowel side to mark this.
Anyone know who Mary is or presumably was?

Jimmyireland · 20-01-2014 11:50pm

carchaeologist wrote: »

Forge cross roundabout is now named the Mary O'Halloran roundabout. There's a small stone erected on the Listowel side to mark this.
Anyone know who Mary is or presumably was?

Now deceased..former Tralee town councillor and First Female Lord Mayor of Tralee..came from the Oakpark area..

BPKS · 21-01-2014 6:19pm

esprimo wrote: »

Don't know if it has been mentioned already but there is a very dangerous spot I think on this road. The junction at which the old Tralee/Killarney road meets the new bypass road. Now this has happened to me a few times, but as you are on the new road coming say from the Tralee side approaching the junction on the way to Killarney, some idiots who are waiting at the stop sign there waiting to turn left onto the main road just pop out at the last second causing me to slam on the brakes to slow down. It goes without saying that drivers going 100 kmph on the main road have the right of way. But some people particularly early in the morning seemingly just get fed up of waiting,turn onto the road right in front of you,not realizing the cars approaching on the road are doing anything up to 100kmph meaning you catch up to them in a matter of seconds while they're trying to build up speed. I think the road should be completely clear and then drive on the slow lane there if people are turning at that spot. An accident waiting to happen.

Spot on - its a dangerous junction. I also noticed this morning when I was coming from the old road to the new junction that somebody had gone into the fence, just after the small road at the left before the T junction. I could see how if you were driving this for the first time you might mistake the smaller road for a slip road onto the main road.

Also, today at the Ballygarry roundabout there were signs up saying the footpath was closed. I drove north, up past the quarry trying the figure out what was wrong with the footpath. At the top of the hill there were 3 lads fixing the fence. This prompted the footpath closure

RevBlueJeans · 21-01-2014 10:35pm

carchaeologist wrote: »

Anyone know who Mary is or presumably was?

Mary and her husband opened what is now the Spar in Upper Oakpark in the mid 1970's and ran it for about 25 years. She was a lovely lady and passed away a number of months ago.

carchaeologist · 22-01-2014 12:24am

RevBlueJeans wrote: »

Mary and her husband opened what is now the Spar in Upper Oakpark in the mid 1970's and ran it for about 25 years. She was a lovely lady and passed away a number of months ago.

Ah yes, I, and many others still refer to it as Hallorans shop even though its owned by the Byrnes now.

pickled101 · 23-01-2014 3:49pm

According to radio kerry some parts of the bypass were closed this morning??

Anyone know why?

carchaeologist · 23-01-2014 4:51pm

Seems there is a lot of issues with the final costing of the bypass.
The original BAM contract was for €30 million but the final cost is over the €60million mark with the total bypass cost then being over €120 million.
This info is in this weeks Kerry's eye.

pickled101 · 23-01-2014 5:09pm

That's handy, put in a low tender bid with the expectation you can double it later.

Might explain their 47% increase in profits last year

http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/bam-contractors-reports-a-475-hike-in-pre-tax-profits-to-59m-245205.html

hanamandiol · 04-02-2014 11:43am

One lane of dual carriageway [northbound]between Killarney Rd roundabout and Ballygarry Hotel roundabout closed yesterday[Mon 3rd]because of flooding.Zero points to design engineer team of the road which opened on 16/06/2013

michael999999 · 04-02-2014 12:20pm

I posted the first week it opened that this road was going to flood. There was a small river flowing across it.

Kerry County Council should be made to answer for this, but I wouldn't be expecting any answers from them.

Once in a hundred year event yada yada yada....unforseen weather yada yada yada......

carchaeologist · 04-02-2014 2:10pm

hanamandiol wrote: »

One lane of dual carriageway [northbound]between Killarney Rd roundabout and Ballygarry Hotel roundabout closed yesterday[Mon 3rd]because of flooding.Zero points to design engineer team of the road which opened on 16/06/2013

Anyone have photos of this? There is a flood plain area there alright but I would have thought that the road would have been designed high enough to allow for this. When Liam Beausang took me on that tour the night before the road opened he pointed this flood issue out specifically so it must be a much higher than usual water level there yesterday?

hanamandiol · 05-02-2014 4:24pm

carchaeologist wrote: »

Anyone have photos of this? There is a flood plain area there alright but I would have thought that the road would have been designed high enough to allow for this. When Liam Beausang took me on that tour the night before the road opened he pointed this flood issue out specifically so it must be a much higher than usual water level there yesterday?

I took no photos but left-hand lane travelling north was signposted in advance and coned off by KCC The field to the left,the drainage drain and one lane of the road were all flooded at the one level.Yes rainfall is close to double the January norm

carchaeologist · 18-02-2014 10:36am

Amazing that 99% of the fencing survived the storm last week.
I drove the bypass in the height of the storm, a very interesting experience!

xxyyzz · 18-02-2014 11:02am

Some crazy lady nearly forced me onto the Leith roundabout yesterday. I was coming up the bypass turning right at the roundabout onto the Listowel road. About 100m before the roundabout I went into the right lane indicating right and I noticed this lunatic in a black Passat coming up the left lane behind me at 80mph +. We arrived at the roundabout together with me in the right lane and her in the left (not indicating, naturally). She then proceeded to overtake me on the rounadbout in an attempt to get onto the listowel road ahead of me, cut across in front of me cutting me off completely.

2 seconds later she had to slow down anyway to turn left at Leith cross. I don't think she was aware there was an issue.

RevBlueJeans · 20-02-2014 8:54pm

carchaeologist wrote: »

Amazing that 99% of the fencing survived the storm last week.
I drove the bypass in the height of the storm, a very interesting experience!

Yes and the dugout shelters at the mitchels were destroyed as was the mickey mouse brown sign for the Hotels a the Killarney Junction turn off.

carchaeologist · 24-02-2014 7:10pm

Still waiting on traffic stat numbers on this road.

dmeehan · 25-02-2014 10:10am

carchaeologist wrote: »

Still waiting on traffic stat numbers on this road.

Maybe we should all use Waze to get real time traffic conditions

carchaeologist · 10-03-2014 11:16pm

Saw some epic moron reversing back down the dual carriageway in a red Focus after taking a wrong turning at the Ballygarry roundsbout on Sunday.
What a clown.

michael999999 · 11-03-2014 12:34am

carchaeologist wrote: »

Saw some epic moron reversing back down the dual carriageway in a red Focus after taking a wrong turning at the Ballygarry roundsbout on Sunday.
What a clown.

I was coming on to the new section from Killarney last week, and there was a car coming head on in my lane. A lot of flashing and beeping finally snapped him out of he's day dream, with only metres to spare.

And don't get me started about the people driving at 40km an hour in the overtaking lane. Impervious to everything going on around them!

carchaeologist · 29-03-2014 12:50am

I see that in two seperate sections of the road just above knockwaddra bridge there has been incidents of cars running into the central median destroying many of the posts.

ainiseoir · 29-03-2014 1:19pm

carchaeologist wrote: »

I see that in two seperate sections of the road just above knockwaddra bridge there has been incidents of cars running into the central median destroying many of the posts.

Just as well that those posts did their job.

carchaeologist · 09-05-2014 9:28pm

Forge cross roundabout is now signposted as such with three signs on the roundabout.

ainiseoir · 10-05-2014 10:49am

For some time back I have noticed a new sign coming in the Cork Road and the N69 junction.
It shows the way to "Tralee North". Guides you nicely around the roundabout.
A bit of an overkill in my opinion.
Out of curiosity I took myself out to the other end of the bypass in search of a sign for "Tralee South".
No luck.
I can only assume that Tralee South is where you are when you see signs for Tralee North.

I also see that the Bypass is now becoming a favourite site for the dumping of the rubbish bag, perhaps in that it can be done at 100Km/hr.
The first day I saw this , on arriving home I heard on the radio that an American satellite on coming to the end of it's useful life was crashed on to the Moon the result described as "scattered over the lunar surface".
Take away the jargon and they seem on the same level as the plastic bag of rubbish on the Bypass.

ongarboy · 19-05-2014 12:27pm

I still think there is one omission in signage is when motorists join the northern tip of the bypass from the Listowel road. There is a sign pointing out Cork, Killarney, Killorglin and Dingle (I think) but not Limerick. While I believe there is another sign that says "All Other Routes", I still think it would be wise to have Limerick included as it's such a primary destination and I think when some Limerick bound visitors/tourists see the sign without Limerick, they may think they're going the wrong way when they're not. Maybe that's just my perception.

Regarding the inclusion of North in signage, my opinion is that the bulk of Tralee's built up area resides north (or northwest or northeast) of the town centre whereas the town centre is located towards the southern edge. So Tralee town centre and Tralee South are one and the same as regards direction whereas the majority of built up area outside the town centre is in the northern section of Tralee and probably justifies that signage distinction. I am open to correction on this though!

veryangryman · 19-05-2014 12:58pm

ongarboy wrote: »

I still think there is one omission in signage is when motorists join the northern tip of the bypass from the Listowel road. There is a sign pointing out Cork, Killarney, Killorglin and Dingle (I think) but not Limerick. While I believe there is another sign that says "All Other Routes", I still think it would be wise to have Limerick included as it's such a primary destination and I think when some Limerick bound visitors/tourists see the sign without Limerick, they may think they're going the wrong way when they're not. Maybe that's just my perception.

N21 is the preferred Tralee-Limerick road. N69 while it DOES lead to Limerick really should be downgraded to R status now that Limerick Tunnel has made the Ferry somewhat redundant as a nationally important route. That's where the logic is (i think)

M6 has something similar - the Clara exit used to be the way from Athlone-Tullamore, now they sign you there via Kilbeggan

ainiseoir · 19-05-2014 3:11pm

veryangryman wrote: »

N21 is the preferred Tralee-Limerick road. N69 while it DOES lead to Limerick really should be downgraded to R status now that Limerick Tunnel has made the Ferry somewhat redundant as a nationally important route. That's where the logic is (i think)

M6 has something similar - the Clara exit used to be the way from Athlone-Tullamore, now they sign you there via Kilbeggan

The N69 was always the traditional way that Tralee people travelled to Limerick (From what I'm told).
I also think it makes access to the tunnel easier.
in my time I remember the old T69 extending down to Dingle!
Pity the Bypass planners didn't have that in mind when constructing the Leith/Lidl highway.
Another thing my sat-nav gives a limit of 120 Km/hr on the dual carriageway. Just as well my old banger isn't up to it!

RevBlueJeans · 20-05-2014 10:19pm

ainiseoir wrote: »

The N69 was always the traditional way that Tralee people travelled to Limerick (From what I'm told).

Yes the coast road was always the preferred route. And there was allways the manditory stop off at Francos (later Montys, and later still Kirbys Lanterns) for a mixed grill. As children we used to marvel at the three chimneys at the Cement Factory in Mungret.

ongarboy · 27-05-2014 9:30am

I think as the crow flies, they are both the same distance mile wise and the N69 was possibly a better road back then, hence faster journeys, but in the last couple of decades, the N21 obviously has gotten most of the improvements so usually a quicker journey nowadays. I still used to use the N69 on bank holiday weekends before Castleisland was bypassed because the double whammy of Adare and Castleisland was too much to endure. I can just about tolerate the hold up in Adare now.

I wonder how much benefit the Tralee Bypass is providing these days. The few times I've used it, it seems very quiet - and this would be during daytime hours. Irrespective of the economic downturn, are traffic projections being met?

N69/N22/N70 Tralee Bypass

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