Ennis Bypass

AlanD

Anyone know when it is opening? Was supposed to be towards the end of January, but has a date been set yet?

1huge1

there was a thread on this on the commuting and transport board a little over a week ago or so
i remember hearing late january too but your best off looking for that topic

1huge1

actually theres a thread of it also in the midwest boards

looks to be open tomorrow or friday

bazz26

Yes, I have heard that the main section from the Clare Inn to Barefield is opening this Friday.

The final section will not open until late summer at the earliest.

No definitive date on the offical website though:
http://www.ennisbypass.ie/ennisbypass/www/

rok

(also in the Mid West thread)

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Cullen to open new Ennis bypass
Last Updated: 26/01/2007 06:18

Another of the country's traffic bottlenecks will be finally cleared today as the new Ennis bypass in Co Clare opens ahead of schedule.
The 14km dual carriageway will initially take 14,000 vehicles out of the town each day and this is expected to rise to 35,000 as traffic volumes keep increasing over the next 20 years.
Transport Minister Martin Cullen will open the road. The €120 million stretch of the N18 is part of the Western Road Corridor linking Tuam, Co Galway to Limerick City.
When work began in April 2004 it had been expected to take three years to complete.

cornbb

Woohoo! Its about feckin time. I drive from Galway to Limerick and back most weekends, this will be a very nice change.

ninty9er

Wohoo. I'm driving to Galway and back then on to Cork for the first time on Monday....how long should it take to get to Galway now???

Saruman

From limerick to Galway and then Back through Limerick to Cork??? Ouch!

Zapho

Its pretty sweet, they open it just one month before I move to Galway. How sweet is that, I'll be able to get back down to Limerick in no time.

matthiku

"Today was the long awaited opening of the Ennis Eastern Bypass. The Minister for Transport should have opened the new road at around 12:30, so I used my lunch break to take a look. But unfortunately, the delaying game was played again, and I had to return to my workplace without success.

The first delay in this saga goes back to the late eighties, but this is not to be covered here, also the next try to launch the bypass about 6 or 7 years ago. Then, heavily advertised by Clare County Council last year, the "first phase" of the bypass was due to be opened before Christmas 2006, but adverse weather conditions were blamed for the last delay of nearly 5 weeks. Which is nothing compared to the 20 years some people might have waited for it in downtown..."

read on in my blog:

http://spancelhill.blogspot.com/2007/01/opening-of-ennis-bypass.html

1huge1

^^ well done you reeled me in

bazz26

Used it the other night. At the moment it is only useful if you are heading towards Galway. You still have to take the Dromoland slip road as before if you need to go to Clarecastle, Ennis, Kilkee, Lahinch, etc. As someone else mentioned it's a pitty there are no proper approach signs to warn people of this. I saw someone on the hard shoulder try to reverse back to the slip road. :eek:

cornbb

Yeah but for anyone going to the aforementioned places through ennis there will be far less traffic now because the Galway traffic will be on the bypass.. Drove from Galway to Limerick and back yesterday, took about an hour and ten minutes each way. Sweet as a nut!

Liam Byrne

Cheers for the warning about getting off at Dromoland, guys; went to work last night and would've stayed on it only for ye - ye'r right about the lack of signs.

That said, it is primarily an "Ennis Bypass" to free us Ennis, so guess it made sense to do that first. Remember Limerick is still choked with through traffic because of the picemeal way they're doing that.

All the Ennis bypass needs is a few bigger signs for Ennis....

1huge1

bring on the shannon tunnel i guess
this is all part of the atlantic corridor (well now it is, i know the ennis bypass was proposed like 20 years ago)

ninty9er

I ended up not havin to do the driving cos my friend managed to wangle the car off his mam and drove from Sligo himself.........Wahey!!! My sanity is saved

echomadman

They've stuck up a few additional signs along the road up to the dromoland interchange this week.

rok

driving to Limerick on the Ennis Bypass last Friday at 4pm, near where the Tulla Exit will be I saw a Garda Squad car stopped in the "slow" lane with their blue lights flashing.

At first I thought they had pulled someone in for speeding - til I drove past and saw they were changing a woman's tyre.

She was pulled into the Hard shoulder but as it was the front drivers side tyre and the HardShoulder is so bloody narrow, she would have been hit by passing vehicles if she had tried to change it herself.
Pity I didnt take a picture of it.

Saw an article on front page of last weeks Limerick Independent highlighting the danger of the narrow Hard shoulder.

What muppet over saw this project?

hobie

What muppet over saw this project?

Mott MacDonald EPO Ltd.

Mott MacDonald EPO Consulting Engineers have been engaged by Gama Strabag Construction Ltd to execute the design work on the N18 Ennis Bypass Design and Build Project.

http://www.ennisbypass.ie/ennisbypass/www/index.asp?magpage=4&id=6