Road Works in Letterkenny

Cee-Jay-Cee · 28-05-2019 9:12am #1

I'm sure anyone who has been anywhere near the town over the last few weeks is aware of the utter chaos the road works in 3 different locations in the town is causing each day.

I cant understand why it was not contractually insisted that the works were carried out at night. Its only dark for 6 hours at night and so there is plenty of daylight for worker in that time.

When similar works were carried out on the High Road earlier this year, it was all done at night so why isn't the current work being done at night?

The town during business hours is completely gridlocked in all directions, businesses are suffering and then at weekends when there is no work, the town is deserted as people are sick to death of the problems during the week and are deserting the town. I drove around last Saturday afternoon and it was like a bank holiday, next to nothing on the roads and the car parks at shopping centres largely empty.

Most if not all of the companies carrying out the work are from NI/UK where similar work has to be done at night to cause as little disruption as possible, why isn't that something we insist on here?????

I have taken to going to Ballybofey to do weekly shopping as the thought of having to go anywhere near Letterkenny unless absolutely necessary just isn't worth it.

muffler · 28-05-2019 7:16pm

I was in the town a couple of times over the last week and even though it late morning on both occasion the traffic was terrible. Thankfully I wasnt driving earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon.

Donegal Storm · 28-05-2019 9:48pm

The Pearse Road works are an absolute mess, was down there over the weekend and traffic was backed up all the way to the roundabout by the Radisson. Haven't been near Port/Ramelton Roads but hear them mentioned on national traffic reports every evening so assume its even worse around there

And the Circular Road works seem to have ground to a halt over the past month as well, they hit solid rock and seem to be making next to no progress so expect that to overrun by quite a bit :rolleyes:

buckfasterer · 29-05-2019 12:02pm

I can understand the night work not being done in Glencar due to the houses around but there's no excuses for the rest of the roads not being done at night. It was an hour for the traffic to get from the Clanree to the Polestar one evening last week.

cosanostra · 29-05-2019 5:10pm

Anyone know what it's like around 8am I have to travel through the town and on to Dublin around that time tomorrow morning just wondering will I need to give myself extra time

Cee-Jay-Cee · 29-05-2019 5:32pm

cosanostra wrote: »

Anyone know what it's like around 8am I have to travel through the town and on to Dublin around that time tomorrow morning just wondering will I need to give myself extra time

It’s fine at 8am and you’ll have no problems, between 8:30 and 9am is when it starts to clog but only coming into town from Derry/Ballybofey side and partially from Ramelton direction but all other routes are fairly free moving at that time

Donegal Storm · 29-05-2019 6:06pm

Pretty much every road in the town gridlocked again this evening, at least the schools will be finished up in a few weeks...

Nats9314 · 29-05-2019 7:12pm

It's a shambles....an hour to get from just past arena 7 to the old town....fun times

muffler · 29-05-2019 7:35pm

Nats9314 wrote: »

It's a shambles....an hour to get from just past arena 7 to the old town....fun times

Thats madness. Doesnt affect me but if it did Id be contacting the crowd that were running around for the last few weeks knocking on peoples doors looking for everyone to help them by way of a vote. Payback time.

Tigerpants · 30-05-2019 12:09am

muffler wrote: »

Thats madness. Doesnt affect me but if it did Id be contacting the crowd that were running around for the last few weeks knocking on peoples doors looking for everyone to help them by way of a vote. Payback time.

Where is Donal Coyle's bridge? During his campaign it sounded like DHL were delivering it in soon

malinheader · 30-05-2019 10:57am

Just a word from the other side. From experience the lads working on the roads would prefer for the work to be carried out at night, less abuse and easier to get the work done. Somehow this does not seem sensible to the powers that be,maybe it's a money thing or just a don't care thing. Another thing that should be definitely implemented is no work to be carried out before 9.30 and after 4 PM.but sadly they don't seem to care.

henke · 30-05-2019 11:21am

It's a complete farce really. Also, these roads should be properly resurfaced when these jobs are finished. The roads are just been patched up as they go. For the main town in the County it's a bad situation.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 30-05-2019 1:42pm

malinheader wrote: »

Just a word from the other side. From experience the lads working on the roads would prefer for the work to be carried out at night, less abuse and easier to get the work done. Somehow this does not seem sensible to the powers that be,maybe it's a money thing or just a don't care thing. Another thing that should be definitely implemented is no work to be carried out before 9.30 and after 4 PM.but sadly they don't seem to care.

I understand that and in no way are blaming the contractors or workers for this mess, this is 100% the fault of Irish Water/Donegal CoCo and it probably does boil down to cost (as everything does in public contracts) but they are doing real harm to the town as a result of it.

Tigerpants wrote: »

Where is Donal Coyle's bridge? During his campaign it sounded like DHL were delivering it in soon

Donal Coyle ran on the anti-TenT project ticket and if he is successful and has the project shelved then he can kiss goodbye to ever getting funding to build a bridge and relief road over the swilly as it wont happen in his lifetime. He should think carefully on what he wants as he could go from hero to villain very quickly however as he appears to the be the only councillor that is against it, then I doubt very much if he can convince all the rest of them to vote against it with him.

Maldesu · 30-05-2019 2:35pm

Should anyone be in LK today, the traffic lights on the main street are dead and have been since this AM.

muffler · 30-05-2019 4:01pm

Maldesu wrote: »

Should anyone be in LK today, the traffic lights on the main street are dead and have been since this AM.

I drove down the High Road on to Upper Main Street around 11:30 this morning and the lights are indeed out of order at the junction. I had a few minutes of a wait before I got to the lights and then some nice woman let me out into the flow of traffic so no real hold ups as such.

I left Stranorlar around 10:30, went up to the hospital via Ballyraine, down to the shopping centre, back up to the hospital, down the High Road to the Courtyard, out on to Pearse Road and then over to the Polestar roundabout and there was no real traffic problems.

In saying all that Im assuming it was probably mad an hour or 2 earlier and will probably be worse from now (4 PM) until 6 or later

Maldesu · 30-05-2019 10:33pm

Lights are fix again fyi

alchemist33 · 01-06-2019 6:06pm

henke wrote: »

It's a complete farce really. Also, these roads should be properly resurfaced when these jobs are finished. The roads are just been patched up as they go. For the main town in the County it's a bad situation.

The road from Glencar down to the hospital is a patchwork quilt of different surfaces joined by scar tissue. I hope there's a proper resurfacing job at the end of it all

Cee-Jay-Cee · 01-06-2019 8:36pm

alchemist33 wrote: »

The road from Glencar down to the hospital is a patchwork quilt of different surfaces joined by scar tissue. I hope there's a proper resurfacing job at the end of it all

I’m guessing they won’t. They done the same type work on the High Rd and New Line road and simply tarred the patch they dug up so they’re similar to circular road however the High Rd is actually better than it was as it was an absolute disgrace before the work started.

muffler · 01-06-2019 9:18pm

alchemist33 wrote: »

to the hospital is a patchwork quilt of different surfaces joined by scar tissue.

I see what you done there

02-06-2019 11:36am

henke wrote: »

It's a complete farce really. Also, these roads should be properly resurfaced when these jobs are finished. The roads are just been patched up as they go. For the main town in the County it's a bad situation.

That seems to be the case anywhere pipes are laid. It's not too bad whwn the surface is left reasonably level - it's when there's a sudden dip, that you can't see until it's too late to react! Not good for the poor car -it's a bonus for the mechanics, though!

Donegal Storm · 03-06-2019 10:49pm

The job they've done on Circular Road between the hospital and Simpsons is awful, there's one manhole in particular that must be a good 50mm below the finish road level and they've just sloped the tarmac down into it instead of raising the manhole cover

IP freely · 04-06-2019 6:52pm

If the work was to be carried out at nighttime it would make no difference to the traffic situation.

The excavations would be open when they are not working meaning the same traffic restrictions would be in place day or night.

Its a nightmare situation, spare a though too for the businesses along that stretch of road. I'm aware that Charlies Cafe had to close a few days early due to them cutting off the water supply with no notice.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 04-06-2019 7:27pm

IP freely wrote: »

If the work was to be carried out at nighttime it would make no difference to the traffic situation.

The excavations would be open when they are not working meaning the same traffic restrictions would be in place day or night.

Its a nightmare situation, spare a though too for the businesses along that stretch of road. I'm aware that Charlies Cafe had to close a few days early due to them cutting off the water supply with no notice.

No, apparently not as what they did on the High road was they worked in short sections each night, at 7pm they closed a short section of the road and dug the trench, laid the pipe, refilled the trench and tarred over the top and had the road open to traffic by 7am the following morning.

IP freely · 04-06-2019 8:15pm

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

No, apparently not as what they did on the High road was they worked in short sections each night, at 7pm they closed a short section of the road and dug the trench, laid the pipe, refilled the trench and tarred over the top and had the road open to traffic by 7am the following morning.

What they done on high road was replaced pipes, what they are doing on Pearse road and circular road is installing new pipes. Completely different jobs and its not feasible to cover over every night.

Have you seen the size of what looked like steel girders being driven into the ground on pearse road, they were huge.

Nollog · 19-06-2019 9:41pm

We're loving the work Irish Water are doing on Pearse Road, we can finally walk across the road safely.

What are the chances of a footpath or maybe a pedestrian crossing?
Nil? Probably.

21-06-2019 7:31pm

/\/ollog wrote: »

We're loving the work Irish Water are doing on Pearse Road, we can finally walk across the road safely.

What are the chances of a footpath or maybe a pedestrian crossing?
Nil? Probably.

There is a pedestrian crossing on that road by Charlies Cafe .. ?

Nollog · 21-06-2019 8:47pm

salonfire wrote: »

There is a pedestrian crossing on that road by Charlies Cafe .. ?

Unfortunately that's along a road without a footpath with cars parked on the side of the road, at the other side of where people live.

JoannieG · 25-06-2019 8:13pm

/\/ollog wrote: »

Unfortunately that's along a road without a footpath with cars parked on the side of the road, at the other side of where people live.

There are pedestrian lights at the junctions of Pearse Rd/Oliver Plunkett and Pearse Rd/Rosemount with footpaths on both sides of the road.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 25-06-2019 8:40pm

/\/ollog wrote: »

Unfortunately that's along a road without a footpath with cars parked on the side of the road, at the other side of where people live.

Not sure your thinking on the same place. There is very little parking anywhere on Pearse Road except for opposite the community centre and in front of the Station house hotel.

There are footpaths on both sides of the pearse road from the Station House Hotel as far as the Station roundabout.

There is a pedestrian crossing at the bottom of Oliver Plunkett to take you over to Charlie’s Cafe/EBS etc

IP freely · 25-06-2019 10:12pm

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Not sure your thinking on the same place. There is very little parking anywhere on Pearse Road except for opposite the community centre and in front of the Station house hotel.

There are footpaths on both sides of the pearse road from the Station House Hotel as far as the Station roundabout.

There is a pedestrian crossing at the bottom of Oliver Plunkett to take you over to Charlie’s Cafe/EBS etc

Getting a bit off track here, but there no footpath on the "town side" of the road for quite a bit. From the auto factors until you pass the units that Gary Cooney owns with lots of traffic movements in and out of the premises.

Nollog · 29-06-2019 12:14am

IP freely wrote: »

Getting a bit off track here, but there no footpath on the "town side" of the road for quite a bit. From the auto factors until you pass the units that Gary Cooney owns with lots of traffic movements in and out of the premises.

And two car wide parking on the station house "footpath".

Donegal Storm · 29-06-2019 1:04am

Provision for pedestrians has always been an after thought in Letterkenny, the cycle lanes on Pearse Road are also a joke.

With competent planning the new retail parks could have been integrated as an extension of the traditional town centre but instead we've ended up with a totally car dependant area even though it's a 5 minute walk from the Main Street

malinheader · 29-06-2019 4:05pm

A friend of mine was telling me recently that he had a conversation at a wedding with a student studying in a university in England. In a class one day the road system in and out of Letterkenny was used as an example of what you should not do around a major town. I can't verify this myself but I wouldn't doubt it either.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 29-06-2019 4:18pm

Donegal Storm wrote: »

Provision for pedestrians has always been an after thought in Letterkenny, the cycle lanes on Pearse Road are also a joke.

With competent planning the new retail parks could have been integrated as an extension of the traditional town centre but instead we've ended up with a totally car dependant area even though it's a 5 minute walk from the Main Street

The carparks at Forte retail park (New Dunnes/Smyths etc) and over at Argos/TK Maxx etc are the absolute worst design ever. Who ever signed off on them should be dragged down there every weekend and publicly flogged for such incompetence.

Donegal Storm · 04-07-2019 11:39pm

Noticed a sign today going down by St Eunans that they're now digging up that road as well starting on Monday, the joys...

Donegal Storm · 25-07-2019 7:41pm

Been looking forward to the Circular Road works finishing up all month with it being on my drive to work but Glencar/College Road now being closed means traffic is worse than ever, the entire length of the road has been jammed at rush hour all week :rolleyes:

alchemist33 · 25-07-2019 8:20pm

Don't know if it's related, but the Gardai directing traffic at the Polestar roundabout in the evenings are doing my head in. I'm guesing they're meant to be getting traffic out of town easier, but they're blocking traffic coming in. From the polestar to dry arch was backed up today, like a Friday on a Northern bank holiday weekend.

buckfasterer · 26-07-2019 12:01pm

alchemist33 wrote: »

Don't know if it's related, but the Gardai directing traffic at the Polestar roundabout in the evenings are doing my head in. I'm guesing they're meant to be getting traffic out of town easier, but they're blocking traffic coming in. From the polestar to dry arch was backed up today, like a Friday on a Northern bank holiday weekend.

Sure it's good dry weather, got to give them something to do outside. They wont be out come winter!

Edit: back to the dry arch again this evening coming into town

Donegal Storm · 31-08-2019 12:47pm

Hospital roundabout going to be shut 7pm - 7am this week. Presumably the St Eunans road is reopening as otherwise I'm going to be trapped in the middle :pac:

CastorTroy · 31-08-2019 1:06pm

Would be going via Killylastin and Windyhall, I would say. Though that road is reopened now anyway. I'd be thinking more of how much time it adds in the case of an emergency.

Donegal Storm · 12-11-2019 12:07am

More good news!

http://www.highlandradio.com/2019/11/11/could-four-lanes-scheme-result-in-two-years-of-gridlock-for-letterkenny/

Road Works in Letterkenny

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