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M7 - Naas/Newbridge Bypass Upgrade [Junction 9a now open]

JupiterKid

Following on from the suggestion of a poster, this thread has been set up to discuss the need for widening the M7.

The section of the M7 IMO in immediate need (really a backlog need) for widening is the section from the Maudlins Interchange at Naas to the M9 interchange - basically the original 1983 Naas Bypass and half of the 1993 Newbridge Bypass. Is this likely to proceed in the near future?

Would the central median be wide enough for widening to D3M here? I'm pretty sure it is wide enough on the Newbridge bypass section but I'm not so sure in the case of the Naas Bypass.

Also, what bridges will need to be demolished and rebuilt? Or would it be more practical to drop the hard shoulder through the existing bridges?

What about the proposal a few years back to build a new junction at on the Naas Bypass at Osberstown? Will it still go ahead?

In the longer term, does anyone see a need to widen the M7 to the N7/M8 junction?

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Deedsie

It is very surprising we haven't had any official press release from Kildare coco on progress of this project. It was implied it was shovel ready and just waiting for funding. Funding was announced in September and we haven't had an official word from Kildare CoCo?

marno21

Deedsie wrote: »

It is very surprising we haven't had any official press release from Kildare coco on progress of this project. It was implied it was shovel ready and just waiting for funding. Funding was announced in September and we haven't had an official word from Kildare CoCo?

Funding was announced but not actually provided. There is no funding for construction in this years TII budget either. This government are very good at talking but not acting

marno21

Deedsie wrote: »

It is very surprising we haven't had any official press release from Kildare coco on progress of this project. It was implied it was shovel ready and just waiting for funding. Funding was announced in September and we haven't had an official word from Kildare CoCo?

Funding was announced but not actually provided. There is no funding for construction in this years TII budget either. This government are very good at talking but not acting

regedit

Might be good to email the Minister for Tourism Transport and Sport at minister@dttas.ie and remind him we're in election year and just emphasize how traffic doesn't move in the evenings from Castlewarden to well past Newbridge any day of the week from 15:45-18:30 in a road of national importance. The announcement was obviously made to stress what the Government was doing but 'not doing'!

annfield1978

Tender for engineering consultancy services due out in Q1 2016

regedit

annfield1978 wrote: »

Tender for engineering consultancy services due out in Q1 2016

Any idea what this means in real life? From a planning and execution point, is there a long time lag
The Irishmotorway info web site states

The equally ambitious M7 widening scheme now has a confirmed start date of April 2017, with some preliminary work getting underway next year. The works would see 11.5 km of the M7 widened from 4 to 6 lanes from east of Naas to the split with the M9 near Newbridge. A new junction 9A would be built at Osberstown, north of Naas. A bypass of the village of Sallins would connect to this new junction. This bypass would consist of 1.6 km of dual carriageway and 2 km of single. Additionally, junction 10 will be entirely reconstructed, and will connect with a different road. Currently the junction intersects with a road leading to M7 Business Park and Newhall Retail Park (map link). The newly built junction will interface with the R445 (old N7). All of this is badly needed as at rush hour every evening, improvements to the Naas dual carriageway from Naas to the M50 at Dublin have resulted in traffic arriving at the 4-lane motorway faster than previously, and it is not able to cope.

rameire

regedit wrote: »

Any idea what this means in real life? From a planning and execution point, is there a long time lag
The Irishmotorway info web site states

They have started to cut down central median bushes.

NedNew2

http://www.kildarenow.com/news/new-action-plan-for-sallins-bypass/70373

regedit

rameire wrote: »

They have started to cut down central median bushes.

I drive there every day and haven't seen any evidence of bushes being cut down.

beertons

regedit wrote: »

I drive there every day and haven't seen any evidence of bushes being cut down.

Drive slower. I've seen them.

alias no.9

L1011 wrote: »

Actual upgrade will require CPOs, new accesses to houses, local access roads alongside, possibly some access bridges for same, etc. Won't be cheap by any means but will probably be cheaper than the clearly destroyed plan for an M7 from Maudlins to "J8" of the M50 - the land bank is now mostly built on.

The alignment coming northbound towards Maudlins looks like any new M7 alignment would have followed on between the canal and the railway. There's precious little new been built in this alignment since the M50. The Clondalkin Industrial Estate is the only area with any significant building density. It'd probably need to go north of the railway at Ardclough and back before Hazelhatch but for once, the alignment has been preserved pretty well (assuming they'd follow this logical alignment). It'd have had to terminate at the M50 however with no onward corridor to the City Center.

Once they invested in the widening of the N7 in the '00s, I think any proposal to do this was dead.

Schadenfreudia

Given the traffic on the M50 it hardly needs another junction...the Outer Orbital would be a greater priority?

NedNew2

Kildare Co Council has estimated that it will the end of 2019 before the N7/M7 bottleneck will be upgraded between Johnstown and Newbridge.

Also included in the project is the M7 Osberstown Interchange and R407 Sallins Bypass Scheme.

Consultants to oversee the tender process for the entire project are currently being recruited.

A Council spokesman said: "The objective is to sign a contract for the construction of the project in April 2017 with all works to be completed by the end of 2019."

A steering group has been put in place with representatives from the Department of Transport Tourism and Sport (DTTaS), Kildare County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

The N7/M7 will be upgraded to three lanes between Johnstown and Junction 11 at Great Connell.

Cllr James Lawless of Fianna Fail raised the issue with officials in the local authority.

http://www.kildarenow.com/news/it-will-be-4-years-before-the-extra-lane-opens-on-the-n7m7-bottleneck-council-says/75002

Schadenfreudia

marno21 wrote: »

Funding was announced but not actually provided. There is no funding for construction in this years TII budget either. This government are very good at talking but not acting

Actually that's not just talking - that's lying - something the Government majors in :mad:

annfield1978

This year will be spent appointing consultants (take 3 months) commencing June to prepare the specimen design, then pre qualification of Contractors and then formal tender process 4 6 months so construction wont start until 2017 in any case

gilly0512

regedit wrote: »

Any idea what this means in real life? From a planning and execution point, is there a long time lag
The Irishmotorway info web site states

How is the widening of the M7 in any way ambitious, it's hardly a major feat of engineering? However just like everything in this country, we are taken for fools by our government, who think that we should all be down on our knees giving thanks to our wonderful government for giving the go ahead to such wildly ambitious projects. Any other normal country would start and complete this project in a year tops.

marno21

Tender has gone out for this project:

https://irl.eu-supply.com/app/rfq/publicpurchase_frameset.asp?PID=96682&B=ETENDERS_SIMPLE&PS=1&PP=ctm/Supplier/publictenders

The proposed scheme involves the widening of the M7 motorway from a two lane into a 3 lane carriageway, in each direction, from the three lane N7 East of Junction 9 Maudlins to the M7 and M9 merge at Junction 11 in Co Kildare. (15 km Approx)The widening will be within the boundaries of the existing motorway with the exception of the provision of attenuation ponds. It will require the upgrade of the existing road drainage system while maintaining a functioning drainage system during the period of the works. The scheme also includes the removal of the use of the existing on/off access ramps at Junction 10 Newhall and the construction of two new interchanges, one just immediately south of the existing Junction 10 and another at Osberstown approximately half way between Junctions 9 and 10. The Osberstown interchange will require a new road bridge crossing the M07 motorway, replacing an existing accommodation bridge. This will require the demolition of the existing bridge as well as the construction of the new bridge over live motorway traffic. A realignment of a local road and the construction of a roundabout will be required at Newhall as well. The proposed scheme also involves the Sallins Bypass (3.7km approximately) starting from the Osberstown Interchange terminating at a new roundabout on the R407, Clane Road, North of Sallins. The Bypass includes a link toad from Sallins town centre. The Bypass will be a Dual Carriageway from the Osberstown Interchange (1.7km approximately) to the roundabout with the Sallins link road. From this point the bypass will be in the form of a single carriageway to the tie-in to the Clane Road , R407 (2km approximately) These works involve two crossings of the River Liffey, one of the Grand Canal and a Railway underbridge and minor mammal and drainage structures. The Railway bridge is to be progressed outwith the scope of these services.

Deadline is May 13.

Schadenfreudia

marno21 wrote: »

Tender has gone out for this project:

Deadline is May 13.

Big project when you read that summary - what is the estimated cost?

RichardoKhan

Pity the dont take the opportunity to take the Motorway spec up to the Co Dublin border whilst they are on with things.....

Middle Man

RichardoKhan wrote: »

Pity the dont take the opportunity to take the Motorway spec up to the Co Dublin border whilst they are on with things.....

That's a separate scheme - M7 Naas to Red Cow. I think the tender for the design went out recently and the brief is something along the lines of...

1. Rebuild Junctions 5 & 6
2. Eliminate private access to mainline
3. Upgrade existing mainline from J1 to J9

marno21

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

Big project when you read that summary - what is the estimated cost?

€75 million according to the tender.

pad199207

after reading all of that, I will give it 10-20 years for it to be done, since its Ireland 25 years

prunudo

Shame that while they're doing this they're not re designing the m7/m9 junction into a proper junction to allow north to south journeys. Never understand why these junctions (m6/m4 the same) are built to facilitate Dublin bound traffic.

Sam Russell

Surely such traffic (depending where they start from) use the N80 - Portlaoise to Carlow.

[Deleted User]

jvan wrote: »

Shame that while they're doing this they're not re designing the m7/m9 junction into a proper junction to allow north to south journeys. Never understand why these junctions (m6/m4 the same) are built to facilitate Dublin bound traffic.

On the M6/M4 there are junctions just west of the merge to allow traffic to "hairpin" back if needed, otherwise traffic will use the N52 between Mullingar & Kilbeggan.

I don't know about "hairpinning" the M7/M9 though.

prunudo

[Deleted User] wrote: »

On the M6/M4 there are junctions just west of the merge to allow traffic to "hairpin" back if needed, otherwise traffic will use the N52 between Mullingar & Kilbeggan.

I don't know about "hairpinning" the M7/M9 though.

Ah right, I just remember missing the galway road, obviously missed those junctions. Maybe they weren't well sign posted.
The only option to double back at the m7/m9 is to turn off early and go through kilcullen.
I know theres always an alternative route but if you're not familiar with the area I would have thought it be better to have a proper junction rather than diverting traffic onto 80kmph regional roads through towns and villages.

medoc

Sam Russell wrote: »

Surely such traffic (depending where they start from) use the N80 - Portlaoise to Carlow.

True but surely as its a motorway network for safer long distance travel people should be encouraged to use them for as much of their journeys as possible. M9 north to M7 west is easy and relatively cheap to do. The other direction not quiet but not hugely much more expensive than the overbridges been installed for motorway services. It's not a major priority but a nice opertunity to do it in addition to the above project.

Schadenfreudia

Middle Man wrote: »

That's a separate scheme - M7 Naas to Red Cow. I think the tender for the design went out recently and the brief is something along the lines of...

1. Rebuild Junctions 5 & 6
2. Eliminate private access to mainline
3. Upgrade existing mainline from J1 to J9

Why J5 & 6?

J3 (Citywest) is much busier and is worse in terms of merge/demerge.

L1011

J3 is to motorway standards, 5 and 6 are not - although we have similarly crap junctions on other motorways it doesn't excuse it.

other LILOs like at the end of Rathcoole, Kingswood etc outbound will likely be closed up also.

Expect to see that garden centre in an old petrol station CPOed and moved/closed and similar for other abutting businesses. The online petrol stations may get a redesignation as the 1994 definition of motorway services.

Schadenfreudia

L1011 wrote: »

The online petrol stations may get a redesignation as the 1994 definition of motorway services.

No harm if something was done to stop the trucks parking in the muck in the vicinity of those stations!

Grotty doesn't even begin to describe the set-up.