M18 - Gort to Crusheen

medoc

Chris_533976 wrote: »

There isnt a Barefield north junction though. The bridge thats being built at Barefield will link the old N18 (pre bypass that goes through Barefield) with the current N18, and the mainline will continue north to Crusheen. There is no junction, just a bridge.

Only junctions on this scheme are Crusheen and Gort. And they very sensibly decided to built a full GSJ at Gort now, as it avoids a messy tie in. Only a roundabout was initially proposed, to be upgraded to a full GSJ as part of the Gort - Oranmore scheme.

Thanks for the information, although I think its a pity not to have done something with that LILO.

Chris_533976

I'm in two minds about that LILO. Its for Barefield, and is probably only used by a few cars per day. If I had been planning the N18, no way would Barefield get a junction.

medoc

Chris_533976 wrote: »

I'm in two minds about that LILO. Its for Barefield, and is probably only used by a few cars per day. If I had been planning the N18, no way would Barefield get a junction.

Would it be a problem to close it completely and use the Crusheen one

Victor

Moved to Infrastructure.

glineli

How do people think they will finish the overpass for the old n18 road to barefield while working on the new M18? Do they need to finish the M18 first and direct traffic on a new section of that or what?

BluntGuy

glineli wrote: »

How do people think they will finish the overpass for the old n18 road to barefield while working on the new M18? Do they need to finish the M18 first and direct traffic on a new section of that or what?

I reckon they'll finish the overpass and direct traffic onto that, it seldom works the other way 'round. But I'm not familiar enough with the scheme to answer that definitively.

Nath

glineli wrote: »

How do people think they will finish the overpass for the old n18 road to barefield while working on the new M18? Do they need to finish the M18 first and direct traffic on a new section of that or what?

Good question, the interactive map for the scheme at

http://www.galway.ie/roads/n18_new/index.html

show the realignment of the existing N18 for the Cragard overbridge.

They may divert traffic onto this realignment while completing the connection to the overbridge, but I suspect they will open the new M18 section and complete the overbridge tie-in afterwards.

Chris_533976

I reckon they'll build the bridge, send everyone off at the Barefield junction, go through Barefield, over the new bridge onto the current N18 and the tie-in will be a piece of cake.

Nath

Chris_533976 wrote: »

I reckon they'll build the bridge, send everyone off at the Barefield junction, go through Barefield, over the new bridge onto the current N18 and the tie-in will be a piece of cake.

Not quite as simple as that unfortunately, as they need create the ramp onto the overbridge across the existing N18.
The picture below shows how close the existing N18 runs alongside the overbridge.

glineli

good pic Nath. Yeah it will be interesting. I noticed they have a very big clearing to the left of the bridge as you go northbounds, maybe that will be used

Tech3

I went up towards Larhardan overbridge today and also had a look at the Crusheen interchange. Incredible is the only thing I can say about the progress.

Cragard Overbridge


Lahardan Overbridge


Crusheen Interchange


Bearnafusin underpass has started since I looked at this last, still alot of cut and fill required around that general area. I was on a long trek so that is all I saw of the scheme.

?Cee?view

Apologies if the answer is in the thread, but I just couldn't find it.

• Estimated opening date for Oranmore to Gort

• and Estimated opening date from Gort to Crusheen?

• Also, when these open, will there by dual-carriageway the whole way from Galway to Shannon Airport?

Thanks to you all for keeping us updated on road developments. You've no idea how useful it is to be able to check up on things here. The NRA should be paying ye for the information service ye are providing, but you'd probably have to tender and they'd drag that out for years

Thanks

Tech3

churchview wrote: »

Apologies if the answer is in the thread, but I just couldn't find it.

• Estimated opening date for Oranmore to Gort

• and Estimated opening date from Gort to Crusheen?

• Also, when these open, will there by dual-carriageway the whole way from Galway to Shannon Airport?

Thanks to you all for keeping us updated on road developments. You've no idea how useful it is to be able to check up on things here. The NRA should be paying ye for the information service ye are providing, but you'd probably have to tender and they'd drag that out for years

Thanks

Oranmore to Gort is now bundled into one PPP including the M17 Oranmore to Tuam and the Tuam bypass. This might go to construction Q4 2010. It wont be tolled either.

My estimated finish for Gort-Crusheen is August 2010.

Galway to Shannon will be motorway standard when Oranmore to Gort is finished via the M6.

?Cee?view

Thanks Tech2,

So realistically it could be 2012 until Oranmore to Gort is built?

Nath

glineli wrote: »

good pic Nath. Yeah it will be interesting. I noticed they have a very big clearing to the left of the bridge as you go northbounds, maybe that will be used

Here is a map of the scheme where it ties in with the Ennis bypass, the bottom right hand corner shows where the Cragard overbridge intersects with the M18.

The scheme brochure at http://www.galway.ie/roads/n18_new/N18.pdf has a better map of this section, my PDF to JPG software truncated the bit we are interested in!!

Nath

tech2 wrote: »

I went up towards Larhardan overbridge today and also had a look at the Crusheen interchange. Incredible is the only thing I can say about the progress.

Bearnafusin underpass has started since I looked at this last, still alot of cut and fill required around that general area. I was on a long trek so that is all I saw of the scheme.

Great pics tech2, they are flying it along there alright. Aug 2010 opening sounds about right, it will be great to finally have that hell of a section between Gort-Crusheen bypassed.

Amtmann

Tech2, any sign of CBM down yet? Mitchelstown to Fermoy was getting its first CBM around now.

Tech3

Furet wrote: »

Tech2, any sign of CBM down yet? Mitchelstown to Fermoy was getting its first CBM around now.

I havnt seen the section between the R460 to the Gort interchange in a while. That is the most advanced area where CBM is likely to be first layed. All in all the progress from all around the scheme is now on level where before the Gort side was the most focused section.

Tech3

churchview wrote: »

Thanks Tech2,

So realistically it could be 2012 until Oranmore to Gort is built?

I would say 2013 if not 2014. It is going to be one hell of a road having motorway running from Shannon to Tuam. We can dream anyway

Chris_533976

Start date is Q4 2010 provided -

1) Government can afford the CPOs for the M17 section and the Tuam bypass section of the PPP contract (unlikely as they've already cut the M20 due to this) FWIW Gort to Oranmore is already bought and fenced.

2) The PPP company can secure €700million in funding. Unlikely due to banks in general and Irelands collapsing credit rating for loans.

3) Nothing else slows it down (also unlikely).

I'd be surprised if this gets started anytime soon It wont be too bad though as its only 20km. Ardrahan etc may get a bit worse though, however, the traffic will be somewhat filtered at the Gort junction roundabouts.

gunbarrel

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Start date is Q4 2010 provided -


2) The PPP company can secure €700million in funding. Unlikely due to banks in general and Irelands collapsing credit rating for loans.

Anyone who uses that term knows very little about what is going on in the financial world. Irelands credit rating was downgraded. That is a long way from "collapsing" especially as Ireland previously had an outstanding rating. A downgrade means it is more expensive to borrow the money. It does not mean that you cannot. If our credit rating was collapsing, then nobody would be willing to loan us money.

You might be right about the road not getting built but you can make the point without being a drama queen.

Chris_533976

Put it this way though, its gone down at least twice and may very well go down again. With the state of the banks and the economy I cant see it levelling out or going up anytime soon.

ForiegnNational

gunbarrel wrote: »

Anyone who uses that term knows very little about what is going on in the financial world. Ireland's credit rating was downgraded. That is a long way from "collapsing" especially as Ireland previously had an outstanding rating. A downgrade means it is more expensive to borrow the money. It does not mean that you cannot. If our credit rating was collapsing, then nobody would be willing to loan us money.

PPP is good money for lenders. Even with Ireland's downgraded Credit Rating at AA, this is still very good on the international market.

Don't be fooled, there is still money washing around out in the global market. International investors can still see, even with Nama and all of the internal bickering, that Ireland still provides a highly reputable country to lend money too for infrastructure projects.

There are a lot of burnt fingers from first off dot com, telecoms, property and associated bubbles where investors are seeking guaranteed investment returns. Ireland, ironic as it seems, is still a good bet to invest in (we are not Zimbabwe, no matter what if feels like here in the trenches)!

P.S. I am definitely no poster boy for FF (F**kup-Friendly) or any other political party. The views expressed here are those of somebody working in investments and finance (no I'm not a "Merchant Banker" or rhyming slang to that)

Carawaystick

churchview wrote: »

• Estimated opening date for Oranmore to Gort

There's not gonna be any Oranmore to Gort Scheme, It'll go from a place called Rathmorrissey.
click on the map rectangle second from the left
http://www.galwaycoco.ie/roads/n6_bsloe/map/index.html

or look at
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.442264,-7.624512&spn=4.097141,11.37085&z=7

You can see the M6 under construction at the top of the Satellite image.

spacetweek

churchview wrote: »

Thanks Tech2,

So realistically it could be 2012 until Oranmore to Gort is built?

Based on the dates given in the PPP documents, it will be at least July 2013. We'll have to see how things go in December's budget, amongst other things.

gunbarrel

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Put it this way though, its gone down at least twice and may very well go down again. With the state of the banks and the economy I cant see it levelling out or going up anytime soon.

Btw, apologies if my post read like an attack on you yesterday. I was busy and was not very careful with my wording.

The point about the credit rating is that despite the downgrading, we still have a very good credit rating and would not find it difficult to borrow money though it would be a little more expensive.

Chris_533976

No probs

Yeah I really hope this scheme goes ahead too as its the 'tester' for the new PPP model. If this starts, then the other three (and even the M20) may go ahead. If this doesnt go ahead, forget any road building in Ireland for the next 10 years.

Amtmann

Chris_533976 wrote: »

If this doesnt go ahead, forget any road building in Ireland for the next 10 years.

What the hell would we talk about then?

Carawaystick

Furet wrote: »

What the hell would we talk about then?

O/T
Isn't that why you've expanded the topics on here

Tech3

tech2 wrote: »

Milltown to about 1km south of it need to be resurfaced badly.

Funnily enough this was resurfaced a few days ago by loose chippings similar to the N21 near Newcastle West, it show how little we have to repair national roads never mind the regional ones.