N4 - Collooney to Castlebaldwin [open to traffic]

marno21 · 10-04-2019 10:53am

The first 2.5km on the Sligo side is an online widening/upgrade which includes the construction of a parallel road to facilitate access

veryangryman · 10-04-2019 11:30am

marno21 wrote: »

The first 2.5km on the Sligo side is an online widening/upgrade which includes the construction of a parallel road to facilitate access

The access road hardly needs 2 years of stop/go though. Just seems like poor inefficient engineering.

The unmarked cop at Castlebaldwin will be redundant if the stop/go is near him.

marno21 · 14-04-2019 1:34pm

Some nice shots of early works on this scheme courtesy Sligo County Council

https://twitter.com/sligococo/status/1116696235799457792

steeler j · 15-04-2019 7:00pm

marno21 wrote: »

Some nice shots of early works on this scheme courtesy Sligo County Council

https://twitter.com/sligococo/status/1116696235799457792

nice photos

marno21 · 28-06-2019 11:23pm

Blasting now underway 4km north of Castlebaldwin for 8 months

https://twitter.com/sligococo/status/1142108211526426624

Geogregor · 04-07-2019 4:06pm

Same news but one more photo:
https://www.oceanfm.ie/2019/07/04/blasting-works-start-on-route-of-new-n4-route-between-collooney-and-castlebaldwin/

marno21 · 11-08-2019 4:23am

N4 scheme website set up: https://www.n4realignment.ie/

Q1 Newsletter: https://www.n4realignment.ie/media/1538/n4-newsletter-q1-2019-rev1.pdf

marno21 · 11-08-2019 1:07pm

Also, a flythrough over the most northern part of the scheme: https://vimeo.com/337560892

marno21 · 23-08-2019 7:56pm

Pics of site prep May 2019:

June 2019 earthworks:

All credit to Roadbridge @ www.n4realignment.ie

This is scheduled for a Q4 2021 opening. Seems a long way off (even with the required online upgrade at the northern end) for a basic 14km 2+2 scheme with no major structures.

Donegal Storm · 24-08-2019 12:18am

Nice, haven't been down the N4 in a while and wasn't aware it was so advanced, good progress being made

marno21 · 25-08-2019 11:31pm

Earthworks drone footage from early July.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIKKOWo0R4Y

road_high · 29-08-2019 9:47pm

Delighted to see this death trap go. What standard road will it be? DC standard but same as motorway? Or lesser?

marno21 · 29-08-2019 10:17pm

road_high wrote: »

Delighted to see this death trap go. What standard road will it be? DC standard but same as motorway? Or lesser?

Type 2 Dual Carriageway aka 2+2. Two lanes each way with no hard shoulder.

road_high · 29-08-2019 11:08pm

marno21 wrote: »

Type 2 Dual Carriageway aka 2+2. Two lanes each way with no hard shoulder.

Pity they didn’t just Motorway it to hell- think the traffic figures are pretty high anyway here

Donegal Storm · 30-08-2019 12:42am

The 2+2 section around Roosky is perfectly adequate (apart from annoying roundabouts) and usually half empty, motorway would be nice but even basic 2+2 should future proof it for the foreseeable

marno21 · 30-08-2019 12:49am

road_high wrote: »

Pity they didn’t just Motorway it to hell- think the traffic figures are pretty high anyway here

AADT at the southern terminus is 7k. 2+2 is absolutely plenty. 2+2 has a capacity of ~20k remember

shanec1928 · 05-09-2019 8:08pm

marno21 wrote: »

All credit to Roadbridge @ www.n4realignment.ie

This is scheduled for a Q4 2021 opening. Seems a long way off (even with the required online upgrade at the northern end) for a basic 14km 2+2 scheme with no major structures.

What are the chances of it been done early. They seem to be making ferocious progress. Still flat out 18.30 tonight.

road_high · 07-09-2019 11:35pm

marno21 wrote: »

AADT at the southern terminus is 7k. 2+2 is absolutely plenty. 2+2 has a capacity of ~20k remember

Didnt realise the traffic levels were that low. Assumed it was higher. Love a bit of blue signage where possible!

marno21 · 08-09-2019 10:50am

road_high wrote: »

Didnt realise the traffic levels were that low. Assumed it was higher. Love a bit of blue signage where possible!

Indeed, there is a sharp drop off south of Castlebaldwin until Carrick where it begins to pick up again towards Dublin.

Looking like the only chance of motorway grade road on the N4 will be Mullingar-Longford, and that's yet to be finalised.

road_high · 08-09-2019 12:27pm

Motorway definitely needed to beyond Longford and probably Carrick but already some upgrades between Newtown and Carrick done which couldn’t be incorporated

serfboard · 08-09-2019 1:37pm

marno21 wrote: »

Indeed, there is a sharp drop off south of Castlebaldwin until Carrick where it begins to pick up again towards Dublin.

Not that much though. The AADT between Carrick and Longford is only 7.7K.

road_high · 08-09-2019 1:55pm

serfboard wrote: »

Not that much though. The AADT between Carrick and Longford is only 7.7K.

Any data around Carrick? Data seems a bit spartan around the N4

serfboard · 08-09-2019 2:10pm

road_high wrote: »

Any data around Carrick? Data seems a bit spartan around the N4

Indeed. The only counters that you’ll see on the TII site (https://www.tii.ie/roads-tolling/operations-and-maintenance/traffic-count-data/) are the aforementioned ones just south of Castlebaldwin (7K), and between Carrick and Longford (7.7K), although in fairness, they are probably all that’s needed for long-distance planning on this stretch of the N4.

Donegal Storm · 08-09-2019 8:10pm

From my own experience on the N4 traffic only really gets noticeably heavy once the N5 merges in Longford, from Colooney to Longford is fairly quiet. There're plenty more pressing schemes that should be prioritised over dualing the rest of Longford - Colooney (Carrick bypass aside)

marno21 · 08-10-2019 8:15pm

N4 newsletter Q2 2019 (April-August):

https://www.n4realignment.ie/newsletters/q2-newsletter/

marno21 · 08-10-2019 8:17pm

N4 earthworks July 2019:

marno21 · 08-10-2019 8:19pm

Earthworks August 2019 part 1:

marno21 · 08-10-2019 8:20pm

Earthworks August 2019 part 2

marno21 · 08-10-2019 8:22pm

Earthworks September 2019 part 1

marno21 · 08-10-2019 8:23pm

Earthworks September 2019 part 2

marno21 · 08-10-2019 8:25pm

Earthworks September 2019 part 3

All credit to Roadbridge @ www.n4realignment.ie for the fantastic snaps.

road_high · 08-10-2019 8:29pm

Looks like decent progress. Rarely use this road but will be great to see this notorious accident black spot go

shanec1928 · 19-12-2019 9:54pm

Bridge over the main road where the bad bend used be mostly up. I’d be shocked if it didn’t open early. The way progress seems to be going

marno21 · 20-12-2019 2:36am

shanec1928 wrote: »

Bridge over the main road where the bad bend used be mostly up. I’d be shocked if it didn’t open early. The way progress seems to be going

Late Q2/early Q3 2021 according to Sligo Council. Programmed date when construction commenced was Q4.

veryangryman · 01-01-2020 4:23pm

Southbound from collooney, there seems to be construction going on both sides of the current road. Can anyone fill in what this is? Access route?

serfboard · 02-01-2020 12:41am

veryangryman wrote: »

Southbound from collooney, there seems to be construction going on both sides of the current road. Can anyone fill in what this is? Access route?

Yes, there are a lot of access roads being built as part of this scheme. Very usefully shown on OpenStreetMap.

marno21 · 03-01-2020 12:03pm

veryangryman wrote: »

Southbound from collooney, there seems to be construction going on both sides of the current road. Can anyone fill in what this is? Access route?

The existing N4 is being used for the 2+2 with properties and minor roads being facilitated with access routes and realignment of the minor routes. It’s over a distance of 2.5km, but very efficient use of land.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the southern offline section was complete well in advance of this northern 2.5km due to the additional complexity involved. The southern part seems to be racing ahead with the beam lifts on the overbridge over the existing N4 at Ardloy complete already

veryangryman · 07-01-2020 4:59pm

Is the Roundabout at N17 junction staying? Actually same for the Collooney Roundabout? Will we get freeflow, maybe wishful thinking

dakar · 07-01-2020 6:39pm

veryangryman wrote: »

Is the Roundabout at N17 junction staying? Actually same for the Collooney Roundabout? Will we get freeflow, maybe wishful thinking

Both are staying.

shanec1928 · 15-01-2020 7:36am

Hopefully won’t be any delays from this

https://m.independent.ie/regionals/sligochampion/news/prehistoric-sites-found-along-new-n4-route-36019955.html?fbclid=IwAR2qoNAgQom_RJ52oBPH3pjSGeZQ1uD7ZYxTKXr0Oh-c53eVUF7wcg4sI3E

ryanch09 · 15-01-2020 4:59pm

shanec1928 wrote: »

Hopefully won’t be any delays from this

https://m.independent.ie/regionals/sligochampion/news/prehistoric-sites-found-along-new-n4-route-36019955.html?fbclid=IwAR2qoNAgQom_RJ52oBPH3pjSGeZQ1uD7ZYxTKXr0Oh-c53eVUF7wcg4sI3E

That article was written in August 2017

shanec1928 · 16-01-2020 10:47pm

ryanch09 wrote: »

That article was written in August 2017

Had seen it shared elsewhere. No date when viewing on mobile. That’s good so.

Reuben1210 · 24-01-2020 5:24pm

They haven't updated the website with photos or updates since September which is a shame

VR6 · 25-01-2020 6:42pm

I agree. In fact i emailed them a couple of weeks ago to inquire when they plan to publish the next newsletter but I have not had any reply to date.

VR6 · 31-01-2020 12:15pm

Latest Newsletter on the project has just been uploaded on the N4 re-alignment project (https://www.n4realignment.ie/newsletters )

I nearly fell off my chair !

Better late than never....

road_high · 31-01-2020 8:00pm

Will it really take to July 2021 or do people think they’ll get it open sooner? Another woeful stretch heading for the history books- great to see. Often you see on these upgrades the accident rate drops off significantly on the old adjoining existing route as they excavate around (More light and removal of banks) and put in traffic management etc

VR6 · 02-02-2020 1:12pm

Not a lot of info in the latest newsletter tbh, and very tiny pics. Difficult to read in places due to the blue background (why ?!).

M17 We need you on this thread !

marno21 · 02-02-2020 2:18pm

road_high wrote: »

Will it really take to July 2021 or do people think they’ll get it open sooner? Another woeful stretch heading for the history books- great to see. Often you see on these upgrades the accident rate drops off significantly on the old adjoining existing route as they excavate around (More light and removal of banks) and put in traffic management etc

Difficult to say at this stage but the planned completion date at the start of construction was Q4 2021 so they’re already 3-5 months ahead of schedule

marno21 · 07-02-2020 2:25am

Latest pics December 2019

marno21 · 07-02-2020 2:27am

Pics Dec 19 Part 2

N4 - Collooney to Castlebaldwin [open to traffic]

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