N1 / M50 / Port Tunnel Chaos this morning (2007-03-21)

Ste.phen

Anyone know what happened with this?

Version I heard from 98FM was
- Southbound tunnel closed for 'technical fault'
- Crash near the tunnel entrance (wasn't mentioned but I assume the north end)
- N1 / Swords road severely backed up

My girlfriend texted saying she was stuck on a bus for 40 mins between Swords Rd / Shanowen Road and the Collins Ave / Swords Road junction

Bluetonic

Bound to be problems as this is the first time southbound has been closed during rush hour. They opened the cordon 2 hours too late to be honest, I'm sure they'll realise this and improve response time next time out.

Dublin - A crash on the M1 southbound at the entrance to the Port tunnel has brought traffic to a standstill View Map
Updated: 21/03/2007 08:47:42

The Port Tunnel is closed to southbound traffic due to a technical malfunction. The Dublin HGV cordon has been lifted for inbound traffic only. Traffic is barely moving on the M1 southbound from the airport through to the M1/M50 Roundabout, onto the Swords Rd, to Drumcondra, through to the Dorset St/Gardiner St junction

Dublin - The Malahide Rd is backed up to Clarehall View Map
Updated: 21/03/2007 09:05:58

Extremely heavy too on the N32 approaching the M5

Personally whilst it was closed and extremely busy at 7.30am this morning at the northern portal and the N1 to Collins Av, it wasn't difficult at all to use an alternative. Car users need to be more aware.

Wishbone Ash

Southbound bore reopened.

seamus

How can you have a "technical fault" on a road? It's not a LUAS. Lift barriers (do they exist?) - let traffic through - fix problem. Simple.

Bluetonic

seamus wrote:

How can you have a "technical fault" on a road? It's not a LUAS. Lift barriers (do they exist?) - let traffic through - fix problem. Simple.

There could be a number of safety issues, air filtering not work, no electricity to tunnel, no water to tunnel etc.., Your notion of lifting the barriers is simplistic and irrelevant.

Wishbone Ash

seamus wrote:

How can you have a "technical fault" on a road?

It could have been a malfunction of:

*Electronic information signage
*Fire Fighting Equipment/Services
*Emergency Stations
*CCTV
*Loudspeaker System
*FM Radio Break-in Service
*Emergency Telephones

It is a bit simplistic to refer to it as a 'road'.

Ste.phen

Sylvester Stallone wasnt on site in case of water ingress

grahamo

Has the Port Tunnel contributed anything positive to Dublin traffic? I only ever read about f*** ups and problems involving it. Has the traffic along the quays or around the city centre improved since the tunnel opened? I know the M50 southbound from the M1 is now a disaster due to all the trucks piling onto the M50.

Wishbone Ash

grahamo wrote:

Has the Port Tunnel contributed anything positive to Dublin traffic? I only ever read about f*** ups and problems involving it

You only hear about the bad days. 95% of the time it works well.

It's a bit like football referees - you only hear of the bad decisions they make!

seamus

I stand corrected. Damn my lack of civil engineering experience.
The fact that the northbound lane stayed open pointed to me that it was a simple fault, such as signage going down, or barriers failing.

I think it's a bit short-sighted to not actually mention what the problem is though. "Failure of fire prevention systems" would generate less annoyance and frustration than the simple "technical fault".

Ste.phen

Someone mentioned to me elsewhere that it was a fault with a 'height sensor'?

Whatever happened to just using a big bar? "if you hit this bar, going into the tunnel isn't a good idea"

Wishbone Ash

Igy wrote:

Someone mentioned to me elsewhere that it was a fault with a 'height sensor'?

Interesting point Igy. I know that the Lynch tunnel in Cork has advance height sensors. If you approach in a truck which is too high, you will auotmatically be diverted away from it by electronic signage. I'm not sure if the DPT have that. I've never noticed. Anyone?

Drax

Was wondering what the story was with this... They have traffic lights before the tunnel but also on the N1 slip road to Whitehall - these were red. Every so often it would flash amber once and 1 vehicle would go through. I came up to are light. People were going mad beeping their horns etc! In the end a truck beside me broke the light followed by a stream of cars... They guy behind was losing the rag so in the end I went - road was completely clear all the way ... strange. I noticed that the tunnel workers were closing a lane also on the southbound entrance. Once thing that caught my attention was that the big mesage boards near the the airport flashing a giant red X with a "tunnel closed" message but then on one of the gantries just before the entrance with the smaller green arrows/red X's was showing "tunnel open"..... I guess it all teething problems. I must take a spin through it soon.

Wishbone Ash

Drax wrote:

They have traffic lights before the tunnel but also on the N1 slip road to Whitehall - these were red

I had presumed that the red lights outside the tunnel may have been to stop all traffic in the area to allow emergency vehicles to enter/exit the tunnel and in the case of the northbound lights, to stop non-tunnel traffic to allow a speedy exit of vehicles from the tunnel in case of fire etc.

woodyg

the issue was with the height sensor not working which was a danger to truck users so they had to close it. link http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0321/traffic.html
If a truck that was to big tried to get in there would have been hell to pay.

seamus

woodyg wrote:

the issue was with the height sensor not working which was a danger to truck users so they had to close it. link http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0321/traffic.html
If a truck that was to big tried to get in there would have been hell to pay.

Sounds reasonable to me. Why didn't they just say that?

Wishbone Ash

woodyg wrote:

the issue was with the height sensor not working which was a danger to truck users so they had to close it. link http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0321/traffic.html
If a truck that was to big tried to get in there would have been hell to pay.

From my reading of it, the height sensor did what it was supposed to do (at 6.20am). It activated the red lights to stop an overheight truck from entering. However it appears that the computer (staff?) could not reset the system to go back to normal for another 2.5 hours.

markpb

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Interesting point Igy. I know that the Lynch tunnel in Cork has advance height sensors. If you approach in a truck which is too high, you will auotmatically be diverted away from it by electronic signage. I'm not sure if the DPT have that. I've never noticed. Anyone?

They do and loads of them. I think they extend back about 2 miles before the northern entrance to the tunnel. If they're triggered, the signs approaching the tunnel will change and apparently there's a more forceful method to stop trucks if they get too close.

BrianD

markpb wrote:

They do and loads of them. I think they extend back about 2 miles before the northern entrance to the tunnel. If they're triggered, the signs approaching the tunnel will change and apparently there's a more forceful method to stop trucks if they get too close.

Is the HGV driving community aware of this system? Given that most majority seem to be oblivious to road signage (in the believe that it's inaccurate in the first place) would they pay attention to a big flashing VMS?

BTW whoever puts up the messages on the VMS must have a limited command of the English language. On one occasion when the northbound bore was closed the following message was displayed "Tunnel Blocked" "Use Other Road"

johnnyrotten

The traffic was manic there this morning. There was a Garda on a bike "Traffic Corps" sitting in the northbound lane of the N1 . He was there to ensure that no-one did a U-Turn on the N1 back up towards Santry. He would have been better down at the Collins Ave junction trying to get things moving.
I asked a mate of mine ,who is a Garda, why they can't open the bus lanes to all traffic when this happens. He said that this would delatys buses. The problem this morning was that the buses were delayed for over a hour in a gridlock.

F**KING MADNESS

markpb

johnnyrotten wrote:

I asked a mate of mine ,who is a Garda, why they can't open the bus lanes to all traffic when this happens. He said that this would delatys buses. The problem this morning was that the buses were delayed for over a hour in a gridlock.

Your mate is quite right. Whats the point in holding up the hundreds of people on buses so a smaller number of people in cars can move a few feet further on? Bad as my journey was this morning, most of the delays were caused by people blocking the start of the bus lane, rendering the entire bus lane useless.

Victor

BrianD wrote:

Is the HGV driving community aware of this system? Given that most majority seem to be oblivious to road signage (in the believe that it's inaccurate in the first place) would they pay attention to a big flashing VMS?

They will when the metal barrier comes down.