N5 - Westport to Turlough [open to traffic]

The main purpose of a barrier is to keep an accident on its own carriageway. At 120km/h (and higher) you either need a metal barrier with a large safe area behind, or a concrete “Jersey Barrier” (named after New Jersey which was the first US Dept. of Transportation to use them on highways). The concrete barrier is not as safe as a metal barrier with runoff area behind because it can bounce or flip the vehicle back onto the carriageway and cause a secondary accident, but it requires a lot less space and it meets the most important goal of not causing a head-on collision on the opposite carriageway.

Wire was used on 2+2s because there wasn't a lot of space for the median, and two back-to-back Armco-style barriers would have been very expensive, and would require a wider median strip. Since then, however, there’s a new type of higher-strength barrier that can use the same space as a wire fence, is just as effective, and is much easier to repair after an impact: once a wire rope snaps, you have to replace about a kilometre of it at a time, as opposed to around 20 metres of steel cordon at the site of impact.

There was some presentation on the 2+2 road type from TII that mentioned that all future 2+2's will use these new metal central barriers, but I suppose the wire could still be used for projects under construction that had already ordered them.

A concrete barrier is not considered for this road type. The steel wire was the standard for this road until recently, it is now the steel barrier as seen on this road.

Speed limit will be 100km/h which is what the road type is designed for.

Barleyhill in particular looks a long long way from completion

N60 junction finally approaching completion, but no sign of the median barrier just yet. Pics from Jack Walsh drone photography.

Passed over that N60 bridge recently and, as it was dark, I couldn't see the works that were happening and was wondering why it was still down to one lane.

Those drone pictures have answered that question - thanks to Jack Walsh for taking them, and thank you for posting them here.

Nice new pics of the N59 section of the project from Jack Walsh drone photography. This is progressing well - but the Westport relief road is still lagging well behind.

I heard the same rumour in the barber's in Westport this week so hopefully it's true!

There has been good progress in several locations since I last checked out the project about 2 months ago.

Firstly, the median barrier works are continuing, the barrier is now in place from the Turlough road almost to the N60 junction. Below is the view from the Keelogues Road overbridge, looking south to the N60 and north to the N5.

The second major bit of progress is that a 1km stretch of new local road has opened parallel to the northern side of the new N5. This has allowed the old Annagh Road to be closed where it crosses the new N5. Access is currently via the underpass at Claggernagh East but will eventually be via another underpass in Annagh, shown in the first pic below.

The overbridge at Drumneen has finally opened to traffic and work is underway to finish the pavement on the mainline here. Below is the new bridge and the view east and west. The last pic is the biggest cutting on the entire scheme, about 30 metres deep.

Great new pics of the road crossing the Lough Lannagh area from Jack Walsh.

Castlebar bypass may open before Christmas

It says that the Westport to Newport is now open? Is that the case? Always hated those bends.

Any signage appearing yet?

I was finally up around Castlebar & Westport during daylight for first time in a few weeks. The progress is astonishing. Particularly along Barleyhill, much further advanced then I had imagined it would be.

One observation though, there is a lot of expectation in Castlebar that the north part from Turlough to current N5 roundabout will be open by Christmas. However the central railing is still not complete under the N84 Ballinrobe road. Looking at photos posted here the central reservation started back in late September. With about another 1/3 to be done to existing N5 it would seem unlikely to be completed by Christmas.