Ennis Bypass

Chris_533976

Rumours have been spread that the eastern bypass, the part of the scheme that will take traffic out of the town, is to open before Christmas.

Its official now.

In Ennis today the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern T.D. announced that the new 14km N18 Ennis Bypass would be officially opened on December 14th this year signifying “another major landmark in the Government’s commitment to a modern, time-saving, and safe road network in Clare and throughout the West of Ireland.”

http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/index.asp?locID=404&docID=2884

The western parts of the scheme open later on, but 99% of people just want to know about this.

At least Ennis will be easy to pass, let the traffic jam move to the Crusheen railway S-Bend bridge :rolleyes: Why they never decided to extend by 2km and bypass Crusheen I'll never know.

Anyone known when Crusheen - Gort is due to start construction??? And then Gort - Oranmore?

jank

I travelled from Cork to Galway on Thursday and back again on the Friday.

**** me but the road is terrible! At least there are plans there to upgrade it in parts. The sooner the better. It just shows you that investment in roads should have happened long long ago.

nordydan

The delay in building the Mallow-Croom section of the Cork-Galway route is inexcusable. I believe Gort-Oranmore will not finish until after Ballinasloe Oranmore in 2010

In an aside, would anyone have the details of what type of junction will occur where the N20 and the Limerick Ring Road Phase 1 (N7) and Phase 2 (N18) will meet??

jank

Thats the thing with this Atlantic corridor.

They say they will do it but no timetable is after being drafted for doing it.

corktina

nordydan wrote:

The delay in building the Mallow-Croom section of the Cork-Galway route is inexcusable. I believe Gort-Oranmore will not finish until after Ballinasloe Oranmore in 2010

In an aside, would anyone have the details of what type of junction will occur where the N20 and the Limerick Ring Road Phase 1 (N7) and Phase 2 (N18) will meet??

the N20 and the N7 already meet of course and there is plenty of land taken to allow for a major interchange...and it is needed ...it is ridiculous that City traffic backs up on to the bypass and impedes the Dublin bound traffic at the interchange....

PhilipFromBosco

nordydan wrote:

The delay in building the Mallow-Croom section of the Cork-Galway route is inexcusable. I believe Gort-Oranmore will not finish until after Ballinasloe Oranmore in 2010

In an aside, would anyone have the details of what type of junction will occur where the N20 and the Limerick Ring Road Phase 1 (N7) and Phase 2 (N18) will meet??

I wonder will it be some version of this

corktina

no it wont because you also have the road into the city......so I imagine that there will be a flyover with a roundabout under it or over it.....

spacetweek

The N18 Ennis Bypass was supposed to open yesterday (21st), but has been put back to January.

The opening of Section 1 N18 Eastern Bypass – Dromoland to Barefield has been postponed until January.
It has now been confirmed that the first section of the N18 Eastern Bypass - Dromoland to Barefield will not be opened to traffic prior to Christmas.
It is now anticipated that this section of the new bypass will open to traffic in mid to late January 2007, the exact date yet to be confirmed.

Wishbone Ash

Some more discussion here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055026331

Chris_533976

Damn it

Not a delay per se, they originally planned to open it in April 07, but thanks to nice weather last summer they got ahead and siad they could open it before Christmas 06. Unfortunatly they got hit with the rain and it'll now be Jan 07. Still ahead of schedule anyway I guess.

Drove by it a few days ago, tie-ins at the northern end still have a fair bit of work to do, tie in at the south looks more or less done (it was foggy). The signposting of the roundabouts at the southern end is the worst I've ever seen though..... three arms of the roundabout pointing within 45 degrees.... only one of them labelled Ennis.... so you dont know which of the three they ACTUALLY MEAN....

Means I'll have to play through the chaos at least once more on my way back up to Galway

Zoney

Chris_533976 wrote:

The signposting of the roundabouts at the southern end is the worst I've ever seen though.....

You're not kidding. Some of the signs heading south appear to be from the earlier layout (where one proceeded under the bridge) and seem to show two lanes heading south. This is very dangerous, as one is now sent up the slip road with opposing traffic coming down also. Having proceeded to Ennis from Limerick for the first time in months, we had no idea what the new layout was on the return journey - and had had no idea on the outward journey either that the Dromoland west northbound slip was now two way. It was less clear too due to it being night-time.

All rather hairy - I pity any tourists... not to mention occasional visitors to Ennis.

1huge1

Sorry not entirely up to date on the situation

is it planned that there will be a dc all the way to galway from limerick? we already have all the way to ennis

Ham'nd'egger

1huge1 wrote:

Sorry not entirely up to date on the situation

is it planned that there will be a dc all the way to galway from limerick? we already have all the way to ennis

Try Donegal to Cork, man! It's government policy to have a high class road from Letterkenny and Derry to Cork and the Ennis stretch is just part of it.

nordydan

Hamndegger wrote:

Try Donegal to Cork, man! It's government policy to have a high class road from Letterkenny and Derry to Cork and the Ennis stretch is just part of it.

I think of the overall route, only Cork-Tuam and Cooloney-Bundoran are planned as DC. The other parts will still be high quality road though.

1huge1

oh yes i know of the atlantic corridor alright but was unaware as to how much of it would be dc
though nordydan just cleared that up
thanks

thats a lot more dc than i expected

Chris_533976

Crusheen - Gort and Gort - Oranmore are the two schemes to finish Limerick - Galway DC.

Gort - Oranmore will tie in with the Galway - Ballinasloe scheme for the N6 to Dublin.

Dont expect either Limerick - Galway scheme to start anytime soon tho, not till the interurbans are done. Probobly wont be started till 2010. Plus its silly to build Gort - Oranmore until the Galway - Ballinasloe scheme is done, as they join. Would be a DC to nowhere

Victor

nordydan wrote:

I think of the overall route, only Cork-Tuam and Cooloney-Bundoran are planned as DC. The other parts will still be high quality road though.

Do you have a source for this?

Zoney

Victor wrote:

Do you have a source for this?

Try the the NRA website. As far as I know, there are no plans to upgrade the N20 between the N21 junction and south of Croom (wide two lane), or Mallow to Cork (wide two lane and retrofitted 2+1, short bit of dual carriageway and then standard four lane urban road). I think the problem with Mallow to Cork is that it isn't so long (early 1990s?) since the extensive wide two lane road was built (although I think according to the original Roads for the 1980s plan published in the late 1970s, it was planned as DC before the country went to pot).

It's unknown when the N18 north of Ennis dual carriageway will be constructed, but there is an official Gort-Crusheen website here and a PDF map of Oranmore (actually near Athenry)-Gort here.

No public *online* map of the N17 Tuam to Oranmore (actually, really near Athenry on new N6) but you can see the proposed N6 future junctions with N18 and N17 near Athenry on the official N6 Galway-East Ballinasloe website here.

Anyways - there's plenty of references for most proposed road projects in the State; a bit of research on the NRA website, council sites and Google will fill in most details. Also asking the authorities for information can provide details of schemes where they aren't online (there are maps for some of the proposed schemes that exist but aren't online).

Chris_533976

Cork - Galway will eventually all be DC. (EVENTUALLY being the operative word). Theres also plans for Galway - Tuam DC. Dunno about the other section.

Edit: Posting at same time

Croom bypass is GSJ single carriageway. I dont think it would be too hard to upgrade it to DC. Its certainly wide enough to just carve it down the middle and make a smaller hard shoulder. Bridges are wide enough too I think.

Zoney

Chris_533976 wrote:

Cork - Galway will eventually all be DC. (EVENTUALLY being the operative word). Theres also plans for Galway - Tuam DC. Dunno about the other section.

Edit: Posting at same time

Croom bypass is GSJ single carriageway. I dont think it would be too hard to upgrade it to DC. Its certainly wide enough to just carve it down the middle and make a smaller hard shoulder. Bridges are wide enough too I think.

Aye - but I think "eventually" might be a long time indeed. Even the sections that have concrete DC plans (the ones on the NRA planned projects page) may not start until after the "inter urban" routes are done (2010). "Inter urban" - as if that only applies between Dublin and the other cities, rather than Galway-Limerick-Cork, Limerick-Waterford and Cork-Waterford!

It's not about the practicalities of upgrading the likes of the Croom bypass - it's about the politics of it. We're lucky enough that the Nenagh bypass is being dualled on the N7. If the Croom-Mallow project is built (again this may well be post-2010; if we still have money then) then perhaps the Croom bypass might similarly to Nenagh bypass be upgraded (to avoid having two lane section of grade-separated road sandwiched between two DCs).

Victor

Zoney wrote:

Try the the NRA website.

Ah, I thought you had something authoritive.

I think the problem with Mallow to Cork is that it isn't so long (early 1990s?) since the extensive wide two lane road was built (although I think according to the original Roads for the 1980s plan published in the late 1970s, it was planned as DC before the country went to pot).

It started about 1982 and was built in about 5 phases (in the county section) up to about 1996. The Mallow bypass is mixed quality dual carriageway (one roundabout and two grade-separated interchanges, with a narrow median) and the Blarney-Cork section is poor HQDC standard.

Chris_533976

Add to that that the Mallow bypass has a 50kmh speed limit which is outrageous

Plus there are parts in absolute ****. In fairness, Cork - Mallow is ok, bit of DC and wide S2, and Croom - Limerick is fine, same again. But Mallow - Croom is in a shocking state, especially where it goes past the quarry. And Charleville needs a layer of tar, urgenty.

afatbollix

why does it have to be dc??? why cant it be motorways???

Victor

Chris_533976 wrote:

Add to that that the Mallow bypass has a 50kmh speed limit which is outrageous

Not funny, quite a few people have been killed there.

corktina

Victor wrote:

Not funny, quite a few people have been killed there.

not on the 50k section I think...it is indeed outrageous for that straight section of road not to be at least 80k, for some of it's length....the only junction has slip roads and they manage quite well in other countries to negotiate these at 70 MPH.....

nordydan

Zoney wrote:

Aye - but I think "eventually" might be a long time indeed. Even the sections that have concrete DC plans (the ones on the NRA planned projects page) may not start until after the "inter urban" routes are done (2010). "Inter urban" - as if that only applies between Dublin and the other cities, rather than Galway-Limerick-Cork, Limerick-Waterford and Cork-Waterford!

It's not about the practicalities of upgrading the likes of the Croom bypass - it's about the politics of it. We're lucky enough that the Nenagh bypass is being dualled on the N7. If the Croom-Mallow project is built (again this may well be post-2010; if we still have money then) then perhaps the Croom bypass might similarly to Nenagh bypass be upgraded (to avoid having two lane section of grade-separated road sandwiched between two DCs).

Sorry I did mean eventually, ie 2015+. There are plans for DC between the end of the cork blarney Dc and the new N20 rath luirc/croom etc road, Cork CC confirmed this. Obviously from the N20/N21 interchange to Tuam and Sligo-bundoran are already well into the planning stages. The section between Croom and the N20/N21 would almost certainly form part of a future N20 upgrade

1huge1

anto-t wrote:

why does it have to be dc??? why cant it be motorways???

ha now theres a question that will set people off

they have a habit of staying around dublin for some reason
there's not much difference between dc and motorway besides the speed limit and they have said that they will be upgrading a lot of the dc's to motorway status which is good
(especially the limerick south dc road and the limerick to nenage n7)
^^ i know those arent the right names

so it being upgranded to motoroway is not totally out of the question

mysterious

1huge1 wrote:

so it being upgranded to motoroway is not totally out of the question

Well if your talking about the Ennis bypass being upgraded, It won 't, It's standard DC, which means it will be designed differerntly than a full blown motorway. I.e it will have steeper curves, lower speed limits and can have LILOs on it... It's a pity this isn't a motorway, as traffic levels surely demand it IMO. Or it could be just great to have called it the M18:)

My bets are on! The N7/M7 Limerick - Nenagh route being renamed M7 in at least 10 years and others too. Anyway Tractors should kicked off it. Now I'd leave it there as It could just all boil up here again:D

Chris_533976

Right now I dont think most people are too bothered about it not being motorway Just get the damn thing opened and get Crusheen - Gort and Gort - Oranmore built..... (2010, I know )

Chris_533976

No Im not here to say "OMGX0RS ITS OPEN", but I went through Ennis today on my way up to Galway and took a few pics out the car window. Its almost ready to go by the looks of it, just line painting, a bit of tidyup, and a bit of work on the northern tie in to do. Couple of weeks max.

Approach from the south -







This is a seperate tie-in from a junction on the mainline, in the middle of Ennis. This isnt part of the mainline scheme, so is nowhere near done.



Near the northern tie-in. Can see the track of the mainline.





Looking back onto the mainline at the northern tie in. Signs are up and all.



Bit of work still to do here. (+ the bale of hay)



Now for a little whinge. I really do think they should have extended this scheme by a few km to bypass Crusheen, as the roads there are very narrow and its gonna be a bit dodgy ending a 100km DC and coming onto this.



And 100km traffic coming into this railway bridge is bound to cause jams.



At least Ennis (almost) has a bypass now, but rather than wait till probobly 2010 for Crusheen - Gort to start, it would have been a bit better I think to bypass Crusheen in the same scheme as Ennis, as it will cause problems in the meantime.