N2-N3 link road

JayeL · 29-10-2008 7:56pm #1

Does anyone know what the situation is with the N2-N3 link road? Last I heard (in May), Fingal County Council had approved it and it was going out to tender with a view to starting in September. No sign yet, which is a pity.

It's an important link, which will be able to take traffic from the M50 straight into the east Blanch, Ballycoolin and Tyrellstown areas without having to trawl up the N3 and through Corduff.

From what I've read, it'll go from junction 2 of the N2 to somewhere around Hollystown, diverging into two routes - one to the N3 near Mulhuddart and another to the dual-carriageway near the second phase of Blanchardstown Corporate Park.

It's a great idea that could eventually incorporate another route from junction 2 of the N2 to the airport, giving Blanch (as well as Ashbourne/Ratoath) a direct link to the airport, relieving the M50 of traffic between J6 and J3/4 and making the old N2 (R135) even more redundant (probably for the best, down from 100 to 60km/h limit).

spacetweek · 19-11-2008 9:18pm

No info, but I'm also anxious to see this proceed. Ballycoolin/Damastown traffic could access the area via the N2 instead of the overloaded N3.

Irish and Proud · 04-03-2012 7:51pm

I was driving through the M2 Cherryhound Interchange today and noticed that work was well underway on the N2-N3 link towards Blanchardstown - very surprised as there was virtually no talk of it - seriously wasn't expecting to see much there TBH. There's some information (20/07/2011) regarding same on Leo Varadkar's site.

Wonder if anyone can dig out the latest plans for the scheme?

Many Thanks!

Plowman · 04-03-2012 8:43pm

This post has been deleted.

spacetweek · 05-03-2012 12:05pm

Really amazed this started back in September 2011 and none of us noticed!

Cionád · 05-03-2012 3:20pm

Can't find any maps for this, did find an old document from 2007 though:

"N4-N3-N2 Link Route: From the N4 Leixlip Interchange directly north to cross the
River Liffey east of Leixlip Village, linking to the existing Ongar Road at Hansfield
west of Blanchardstown, to cross the N3 at an upgraded interchange at
Castaheany. The section from the N3 to the N2 will pass via Damastown and
Tyrellstown to the N2 Cherryhound interchange. Various sections of this route
have received planning approval and are proceeding to construction, while other
sections, such as the N4 link from Hansfield are at conceptual stage only"

5MB pdf: http://www.nra.ie/Publications/DownloadableDocumentation/PublicPrivatePartnership/file,16142,en.pdf

Extending this to the N4 would be excellent for toll skipping

Irish and Proud · 05-03-2012 3:57pm

Cionád wrote: »

Can't find any maps for this, did find an old document from 2007 though:

"N4-N3-N2 Link Route: From the N4 Leixlip Interchange directly north to cross the
River Liffey east of Leixlip Village, linking to the existing Ongar Road at Hansfield
west of Blanchardstown, to cross the N3 at an upgraded interchange at
Castaheany. The section from the N3 to the N2 will pass via Damastown and
Tyrellstown to the N2 Cherryhound interchange. Various sections of this route
have received planning approval and are proceeding to construction, while other
sections, such as the N4 link from Hansfield are at conceptual stage only"

5MB pdf: http://www.nra.ie/Publications/DownloadableDocumentation/PublicPrivatePartnership/file,16142,en.pdf

Extending this to the N4 would be excellent for toll skipping

Don't get your hopes up - I've no doubt that if that bridge is ever built, it will be done so via the PPP mechanism and you know what that means for the motorists using it.

Wild Bill · 07-03-2012 6:43pm

I wandered in to some of this work by accident last weekend - was completely unaware of it - it seems a huge project!

You'd imagine with so little going on around the country they'd be giving it some space on the NRA website?

A map? Anything!

Irish and Proud · 07-03-2012 7:06pm

Wild Bill wrote: »

I wandered in to some of this work by accident last weekend - was completely unaware of it - it seems a huge project!

You'd imagine with so little going on around the country they'd be giving it some space on the NRA website?

A map? Anything!

It's nothing to do with the NRA - it's a new Regional Road project by Fingal CC and is likely IMO to be classified as the R121 for now. However, I'm very surprised that there's seemingly nothing about it on Fingal CC's website - even in the Roads section. In fact, it was Leo Varadkers site that tipped me off in the first place before seeking physical evidence at Cherryhound the other day - I seriously did not expect to see much as there wasn't much talk of it. I don't know where I can find a scheme plan though.

Carawaystick · 08-03-2012 12:14am

Is cherry hound the junction with the big roundabout, near Tyrrelstown? out past the Kilshane cross?

Where does the road finish? is it near the plaza hotel in Tyrrelstown or more east?

To be honest, the roads leading to Kilshane cross are desperate and it was madness this route wasn't built when the N2 DC was built.

Irish and Proud · 08-03-2012 12:44am

Carawaystick wrote: »

Is cherry hound the junction with the big roundabout, near Tyrrelstown? out past the Kilshane cross?

Where does the road finish? is it near the plaza hotel in Tyrrelstown or more east?

To be honest, the roads leading to Kilshane cross are desperate and it was madness this route wasn't built when the N2 DC was built.

The Cherryhound Interchange is Jct 2 on the M2 - there's a very large rotary on the lower level and this is where the road will start - from there, it will proceed Southwest before eventually forking to link up with both the Plaza Hotel in Tyrrelstown and the Corduff Road Dual Carriageway near Ballycoolin. Here's a layout of the Tyrrelstown section from Cllr. Kieran Dennison's (FG) website (20/07/2011) and there's information also posted on the local Community Voice website.

Regards!

Cionád · 08-03-2012 10:23am

Is this (roughly) what we're looking at?

Irish and Proud · 08-03-2012 1:58pm

Cionád wrote: »

Is this (roughly) what we're looking at?

That would be the basic idea of what's to happen there!

Wild Bill · 08-03-2012 8:26pm

But where is the existing section at Tyrellstown that they are turning into a dual-carriageway?

(I know this 'cos I saw it!)

Wild Bill · 08-03-2012 8:35pm

The total cost of the project is €24 million but some €15 million will be recovered from levies imposed on land owners and developers.

There are developers with money in Fingal? :eek:

The Department of Transport has made the €6 million available to Fingal County Council on condition that it’s spent this year. The funding is being diverted from another road project which has stalled. The landowners have already transferred the lands to the council free of charge.

All this from Kieran Dennison's website.

Not only are there developers with €millions still around north of Blanchardstown but there are farmers who donate land for free!

That must be where those rainbows end :cool:

Irish and Proud · 08-03-2012 9:21pm

Wild Bill wrote: »

But where is the existing section at Tyrellstown that they are turning into a dual-carriageway?

(I know this 'cos I saw it!)

It's the section of R121 to the left of the map - below where the Western fork is shown to tie-in. The estate shown there is part of Tyrellstown while the 'P' symbols mark the locations of both Superquinn and the Plaza Hotel (either side of the R121).

JupiterKid · 08-03-2012 9:34pm

Good to see this needed road project proceeding. What is the spec of this link? DC, 2+2, S2 or S4?

It would make sense for it to be a dual carriageway.

Irish and Proud · 08-03-2012 9:46pm

JupiterKid wrote: »

Good to see this needed road project proceeding. What is the spec of this link? DC, 2+2, S2 or S4?

It would make sense for it to be a dual carriageway.

AFAIK, the new roads in question will be of Dual Carriageway standard with at-grade roundabout junctions.

medoc · 08-03-2012 9:51pm

Will this road eventually link up with the outer ring road

L1011 · 08-03-2012 10:33pm

medoc wrote: »

Will this road eventually link up with the outer ring road

Overall plan is to, but it'll either be after they get rid of tolls on the M50 or quite likely be tolled itself on that section...

The Lucan section of the ORR is horribly below spec to serve as an outer ring as it stands so they really do need to ensure it wouldn't get used as a toll-dodge route.

Irish and Proud · 08-03-2012 10:41pm

medoc wrote: »

Will this road eventually link up with the outer ring road

It's supposed to - AFAIK the current idea is to build a route linking Clonee (Co Meath) with Weston (near Lucan) and then continue it around by Adamstown so as to link back into the R136 Outer Ring Road. There is a route outline (between Hansfield and Weston) shown on Sheet 13 (PDF File - 12.0MB) of the Fingal Development Plan 2011-2017. Looking in the other direction, the new Fingal Development Plan has made provision for a new road network that would see a series of routes from the East of Cherryhound, around the Airport by St Margarets and on to the North of Swords. Regarding the N2-N3 Link itself, please see Sheet 12 (PDF File - 7.5MB) of the Fingal Development Plan 2011-2017 for an outline of the route.

Regards!

Carawaystick · 08-03-2012 11:06pm

Google maps shows a bit more road built than OSM
http://maps.google.com/?ll=53.425747,-6.36147&spn=0.018616,0.045447&t=h&z=15
at the plaza hotel in Tyrellstown

Was out today

Took a few phone snaps, seems to be slip/freeflow for the left turn movements

Carawaystick · 08-03-2012 11:08pm

the slip from the link road to the M2N

Is there a tidier way to post attachments?

cargo · 09-03-2012 9:36am

I could never understand why there was no direct access to M2N from the back of the Blanchardstown Business Parks and you were made to go through that rat run via Kilshane Cross. This is why!! :-)

Irish and Proud · 11-03-2012 1:38am

The 2 main forks of the N2-N3 Link Road are now plotted on OpenStreetMap! The trunk part remains omitted though.

Wild Bill · 12-03-2012 9:55pm

MYOB wrote: »

The Lucan section of the ORR is horribly below spec to serve as an outer ring as it stands so they really do need to ensure it wouldn't get used as a toll-dodge route.

Indeed.

It was very deliberately reduced in spec (by the anti-roads brigade) to prevent it becoming an alternative to the M50 if I recall.

They wanted it to serve merely as a service road; - they similarly crippled the spec between the N11 (Kingswood) and Tallaght. :mad:

IrlJidel · 13-03-2012 3:05pm

Irish and Proud wrote: »

The 2 main forks of the N2-N3 Link Road are now plotted on OpenStreetMap! The trunk part remains omitted though.

Here's a link to a site to show google and OSM (and some other other map sites) side by side:

http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/?mt0=googlemap&mt1=mapnik&lon=-6.36147&lat=53.425747&zoom=16

Carawaystick · 14-03-2012 9:34pm

Some more images
first where the new road crosses the L3080 to Finglas from Bay lane on Google maps

Second the opposite direction from same spot; towards M2

Third is the roundabout near the closed down pub whose name escapes me right now ( a womans name)
A spur goes there.

Last at the end of the road at Tyrellstown

Irish and Proud · 14-03-2012 11:03pm

Carawaystick wrote: »

Some more images
first where the new road crosses the L3080 to Finglas from Bay lane on Google maps

Second the opposite direction from same spot; towards M2

Third is the roundabout near the closed down pub whose name escapes me right now ( a womans name)
A spur goes there.

Last at the end of the road at Tyrellstown

Great pics mate!

I think the name of the pub was Dolly's - I remember my uncle taking me there.

Carawaystick · 15-03-2012 12:00am

Dolly Heffernans

in separate news
There's also work going on on the R135 ( old N2) at Ward cross, I think making it into a Roundabout.

spacetweek · 26-04-2012 10:41pm

Photos I took today.

The point where the two forks of the road join as they head north. Facing southwest.

Facing south.

Facing north.

The roundabout at the southeastern end of the scheme. Facing west.

Cherryhound Roundabout facing south.

Tyrellstown Roundabout at the southwestern end of the scheme. Facing north.

Facing south, this section is being dualled

cargo · 30-04-2012 2:23pm

is it just me or is progress fairly slow on this? I would have expected a bit more to have been done since the last pics.

Maybe it's just the rain make the place look dull and there is more there than I'm assuming. I havent been up this way since it started so only going by the photos.

Edit:

Just had a look back at the earlier pics again and I'm probably not been fair to the contractors. I had thought the base layers were down in the earlier pics but it was only stripped earth in many places. Must be just the rain makes it look half derelict.

spacetweek · 01-05-2012 11:11am

cargo wrote: »

Just had a look back at the earlier pics again and I'm probably not been fair to the contractors. I had thought the base layers were down in the earlier pics but it was only stripped earth in many places. Must be just the rain makes it look half derelict.

In fact I would agree with you, it's been U/C for around 6-8 months now but there's still just stripped soil along most of the route. Maybe there's a lot of levelling to be done that we don't know about and since this is an offline build the blacktop won't take long.

Green Diesel · 26-11-2012 2:18pm

Anyone know when this will be finished? Any pics of current progress?

triple-M · 27-11-2012 12:14pm

anybody know if the section from the top of church road mulhuddart to the roundabout at tyrrelstown centre that is currently being dualled will include 2 lanes each way to all traffic or will it be one lane each way with bus lanes?

spacetweek · 27-11-2012 3:01pm

triple-M wrote: »

anybody know if the section from the top of church road mulhuddart to the roundabout at tyrrelstown centre that is currently being dualled will include 2 lanes each way to all traffic or will it be one lane each way with bus lanes?

AFAIK it will be dual no bus lanes.

cargo · 28-11-2012 8:42am

Any word on progress?

spacetweek · 28-11-2012 2:09pm

cargo wrote: »

Any word on progress?

Haven't been out that way since April, I hear progress is slow. It started in Sep 2011, could be a 2-year job so some way to go yet. Will see if I can check it out sometime.

andersat2 · 28-11-2012 2:15pm

seen this road from plane approaching dublin airport on sunday, looks that it's almost finished with some road markings already on it,
no signes of any bus lanes, so probably it is two traffic lanes both ways for all cars.

so i think it will be in service in few months

jack presley · 02-12-2012 11:13pm

cargo wrote: »

Any word on progress?

Slowest road build ever.

Carawaystick · 25-01-2013 2:58pm

jack presley wrote: »

Slowest road build ever.

Fingal co co just twittered that works at the tyrellstown rab would be delayed due to bad weather and continue until at least 8 Feb

triple-M · 17-03-2013 9:43pm

hi everyone,is part of this road now open? I was taking off from dublin airport and saw a road which I was pretty sure was the link road partially opened from the n2 junction up until where it splits with 1 section going to tyrrelstown and the other up to the industrial areas,the tyrrelstown section seemed to be still under construction

ThisRegard · 19-03-2013 12:36pm

There's a section opened that starts at the Texaco garage, don't know how much of it is open as I didn't actually drive up it, probably only as far as the Nissan garage and cutting out the old narrow road section

There's also a very small section open at the hotel at Tyrrelstown, about 1km or so, heading towards Hollystown.

Aquarius34 · 19-03-2013 12:48pm

Is there a map of the scheme?

jack presley · 19-03-2013 10:04pm

Unfortunately the section we're looking forward to most, i.e. the bit off the M2 itself isn't open yet. As said previously, a few small sections are open (near the hotel in Tyrellstown, by the ESB Station and towards the first roundabout you'll meet after coming off the M2) but still a bit to do yet.

spacetweek · 20-03-2013 12:29pm

This road is not programmed to be completed until September.

Irish Steve · 25-03-2013 2:03pm

Would make huge sense to continue east of the M/N2 and tie in with the St Margarets bypass, would make access to the airport from the N2 a lot easier and avoid the aggravation of the Kilshane cross road, and also facilitate the eventual building of the second runway at the airport, and possibly even facilitate extending the existing runway by using the road down through by DHL to connect to the N2, allowing the short piece across the end of 10 to be closed. That would significantly reduce the traffic through the Charlestown area for Swords if it could go out to J2 and pick up a decent road.

Probably too much to hope for in these times

spacetweek · 26-03-2013 2:02pm

Irish Steve wrote: »

Would make huge sense to continue east of the M/N2 and tie in with the St Margarets bypass, would make access to the airport from the N2 a lot easier and avoid the aggravation of the Kilshane cross road, and also facilitate the eventual building of the second runway at the airport, and possibly even facilitate extending the existing runway by using the road down through by DHL to connect to the N2, allowing the short piece across the end of 10 to be closed. That would significantly reduce the traffic through the Charlestown area for Swords if it could go out to J2 and pick up a decent road.

Probably too much to hope for in these times

All you've described above is planned and does in fact appear on Fingal Development Plans. However, it's unlikely to be built for many years due to the fact that the part across the Liffey is more important and in any case there's no funding available.

spacetweek · 10-04-2013 10:53am

Both Openstreetmap and Gmaps are showing part of this road open now.

The southeastern part connecting Corduff Rd/Kilshane Way up to Hollystown Golf Club is open. I noticed it from an airplane last weekend. Haven't had a chance to head out that way to see it from the ground though. According to OSM, they've taken the opportunity to close off the crappy little lane that connected the two big roundabouts.
Gmaps is showing the part at Tyrellstown open too but I don't think that's right as OSM is saying that part is still under construction.

ThisRegard · 11-04-2013 10:11am

Part of the old R121 from the roundabout at Tyrrelstown Town Centre to the next new roundabout has now been closed alright, one side of the carriageway is open for both directions, but you join the old road again before you get to the bends.

jack presley · 18-04-2013 7:00pm

According to a patrick Nulty newsletter, the road opens in full on May 17.

N2-N3 link road

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