€2.75 million on unneeded signposts

monflat · 27-07-2014 11:48AM

Also I hope they spend their money " wisely " and get the spelling correct. I've seen some signs with terrible spelling of a village or town.

kneemos · 27-07-2014 12:25PM

No Pants wrote: »

I didn't realise it was that simple. So, to recap, you simply buy some sheet metal and it decides for itself what to write on itself, makes itself, transports itself to the correct location, digs itself a wee hole, installs a pole, adds some concrete and then pops itself on top.

Where can I get some of this magical metal?

Plus wages,insurance on workers and vans,the van itself,somewhere to manufacture the signs and all the overheads that brings,a profit also needs to be made.

No Pants · 27-07-2014 12:32PM

kneemos wrote: »

Plus wages,insurance on workers and vans,the van itself,somewhere to manufacture the signs and all the overheads that brings,a profit also needs to be made.

Sssh, you're spoiling it now.

timetogo · 27-07-2014 12:44PM

tomwaterford will know better next time. He can submit his quote for the tendering process. A lot of them are open to pretty much every company. At his rates he could submit €200 per sign and be rolling in it.

Annasopra · 27-07-2014 01:07PM

How can the cost of a couple of sheets of metal be seriously compared?

No Pants · 27-07-2014 01:08PM

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

How can the cost of a couple of sheets of metal be seriously compared?

Because magic.

Annasopra · 27-07-2014 01:10PM

No seriously I buy a sheet of metal for €50 and I compare that to

Cutting a sheet, designing the roadsign, adding the pole, transporting it to the person who will fit it, installing the road signs along the route.

Yeah right.

El Weirdo · 27-07-2014 01:11PM

runawaybishop wrote: »

They'll need to spend another 2.75 million putting up signs that explain what the fook these signs are supposed to be.

I doubt they need to spend that much. I can't see there being too many people who are unable to understand a sign that reads "Wild Atlantic Way" along with either "North" or "South".

Annasopra · 27-07-2014 01:12PM

timetogo wrote: »

tomwaterford will know better next time. He can submit his quote for the tendering process. A lot of them are open to pretty much every company. At his rates he could submit €200 per sign and be rolling in it.

And all the government would get would be sheets of metal to pick up themselves!

No Pants · 27-07-2014 01:15PM

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

No seriously I buy a sheet of metal for €50 and I compare that to

Cutting a sheet, designing the roadsign, adding the pole, transporting it to the person who will fit it, installing the road signs along the route.

Yeah right.

Indeed. It's comparing apples and oranges. To be more precise, it's like comparing apples on display in your local fruit and veg shop with a box of orange tree seed sitting in a small shed in Brazil.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 27-07-2014 01:49PM

jellyboy wrote: »

The wild atlantic way is off the beaten track in most places and as such never hardly gets visitors in the villages that the signage points to

money well spent ,as my relatives can now find where i live and stop for a coffee along the way (there worth it)

Sat nav is useless in rural areas ,trees blocking satellite,not knowing what town land is etc etc
your more likely to get lost than found

now go back to bed and stop stressing about it

Where is this place that the tree cover is so intense that it blocks gps signals for so long that people get lost? Are you sure your not thinking in the Black Forest?

Knowing the names of town lands is irrelevant in finding your way about in Ireland.

timetogo · 27-07-2014 01:50PM

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

And all the government would get would be sheets of metal to pick up themselves!

I was being sarcastic.

CrazyRabbit · 27-07-2014 05:36PM

No Pants wrote: »

I didn't realise it was that simple. So, to recap, you simply buy some sheet metal and it decides for itself what to write on itself, makes itself, transports itself to the correct location, digs itself a wee hole, installs a pole, adds some concrete and then pops itself on top.

Where can I get some of this magical metal?

Granted that there is a cost for all this. But €690 per sign seems excessive. That's my main issue with all this...not the actual signs being made/installed.

Barely There · 27-07-2014 05:46PM

€2.75m will get you about 1.5km of new single carriageway road if you allow for land acquisition and design and planning costs. It's feck all in the context of infrastructural spend and IMO represents good value for what the Wild Atlantic Way can potentially bring into the country wrt increased tourist dollars.

kneemos · 27-07-2014 05:49PM

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Granted that there is a cost for all this. But €690 per sign seems excessive. That's my main issue with all this...not the actual signs being made/installed.

The signs themselves might be the cheapest cost,it's the cost of production and installation that adds to the price.

Tigger · 27-07-2014 06:25PM

all the waw signs i've see are on existing poles
to buy and have installed a similar sign for ones own business to add to an existing co co pole is approx €200

expectationlost · 27-07-2014 10:47PM

timetogo wrote: »

Tourists generally like them ffs. Every country I've ever been to has them. Its handy if you're a tourist.

tourists need to be told they are tourists?

efb · 27-07-2014 10:52PM

Wishiwasa Littlebitaller wrote: »

Money wasted on signs: reminds me of a similar debacle back in 2001, when Seamus Brennan, the then minister for transport, had 500 brand new road signs taken down after the city traffic manager had them put up. Seems it was customary for traffic managers to generally run such things past the minister for transport. Makes sense I suppose.

No doubt that traffic manager is now sweeping out buses in some depot for that little faux pas.

Oh wait...

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/brennan-wins-battle-of-the-signs-26039308.html

The original signs were awful and not very usable tbf

sleepytrees · 27-07-2014 11:10PM

Unneeded are ya mad? Have you ever driven around Ireland? They just expect you to be a mind reading and magically know where you are going.......!!! I've had to do the "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" most of the time!

ErnieBert · 27-07-2014 11:15PM

It's money well spent when compared to the out-of-date iodine tablets
in my bathroom cabinet.

ted1 · 27-07-2014 11:20PM

tomwaterford wrote: »

a lot less than e690 a piece :pac::pac::pac:

sure I bought an 8*4 sheet of the stuff for making signs off a crowd that makes signs for e40 (I did get it at around cost alright...know the manager;))
to put on top of an old workbench at home here

that would make at least 2 signs.....where is the other e670 going.....it stinks of corruption to me

The signs don't put themselves in the ground.

P_1 · 27-07-2014 11:20PM

It's easy to see how the costs can be driven up for something like this, off the top of my head there's:

1 - Designing the sign template
2 - Purchasing the steel and paint needed for both the signs and the poles
3 - Manufacturing the signs and poles
4 - Installing the signs

So the €2.75 doesn't stretch long between these

Wishiwasa Littlebitaller · 27-07-2014 11:46PM

efb wrote: »

The original signs were awful and not very usable tbf

Oh no doubting, but it's his communication skills, or lack thereof, which I was poking fun at

El Weirdo · 27-07-2014 11:49PM

Wishiwasa Littlebitaller wrote: »

Oh no doubting, but it's his communication skills, or lack thereof, which I was poking fun at

Look, the Brooks concerts didn't go ahead, the thread was locked.

Let it fucking go.

delly · 28-07-2014 12:06AM

There should be some return on the old signs I should think, either via scrap metal prices or some well thought out online sale for the likes of pubs or ex pats.

runawaybishop · 28-07-2014 08:38PM

El Weirdo wrote: »

I doubt they need to spend that much. I can't see there being too many people who are unable to understand a sign that reads "Wild Atlantic Way" along with either "North" or "South".

If they said "wild atlantic way" that would be great, because right now they don't.

http://img.rasset.ie/0009492c-642.jpg

^^ see that blue wavey thing, thats what the money was spent on. Sure everyone will know what that is, right?

CrazyRabbit · 28-07-2014 08:44PM

runawaybishop wrote: »

If they said "wild atlantic way" that would be great, because right now they don't.

http://img.rasset.ie/0009492c-642.jpg

^^ see that blue wavey thing, thats what the money was spent on. Sure everyone will know what that is, right?

Yay! Signs for tourists in a language that >99.5% of them don't understand.
Totally worth it.

byhookorbycrook · 28-07-2014 08:50PM

I spend time in West Kerry every summer, have done so since the 80s, originally it was lost tourists with maps I'd see on the Slea Head route, at at least 4 junctions. Every year, the same places .The last few years it was lost tourists whose phones or SAT NAVS had no signal.
This year, plenty tourists again but only one lost car and that was because they turned down to Wine Strand and then went over the road to the commonage to park.

This is "throwing a sprat to catch a mackerel."

Cienciano · 28-07-2014 08:57PM

jellyboy wrote: »

The wild atlantic way is off the beaten track in most places and as such never hardly gets visitors in the villages that the signage points to

money well spent ,as my relatives can now find where i live and stop for a coffee along the way (there worth it)

Sat nav is useless in rural areas ,trees blocking satellite,not knowing what town land is etc etc
your more likely to get lost than found

now go back to bed and stop stressing about it

I definitely think signs for stuff like the wild atlantic way are needed (i love following those tourist routes), the bit in bold is bollocks! Trees blocking satellite! Rural areas are the one place a sat nav is vital.

Dont be at yourself · 28-07-2014 09:03PM

Drove a section of the WAW in Donegal and thought the sign-posting, and the whole initiative in general, was absolutely fantastic.

It's not a matter of putting a destination into a sat-nav; it's a matter of directing tourists through decent roads with lovely scenery, attractions and (most important) rural businesses!

A sat-nav will bring you the quickest way to a particular destination; the WAW is carefully curated path. Having used a sat nav in rural Ireland, I would rather have tourists led around by the nose by Failte Ireland, than stuck up a dirt track in the middle of nowhere with not as much as a coffee shop for miles around.

€2.75 million on unneeded signposts

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