N9 Carlow Bypass-when will it open?

inarut

inarut wrote: »

Just heard in the last hour from reliable sources that the Carlow bypass will be finally opened to traffic on Thursday afternoon next, May 29th.

You heard it here first!

It will also be officially opened at 4.30 pm on Thursday next.

ShayK1

patrickc wrote: »

excellent, lets see how castledermot holds up ....

+1

road_high

Hard to believe in two days time Carlow bottlekneck will be confined to history books at last

aynon

i think its goin to bottleneck more, just for spite of that comment

inarut

Guess we'll have to look at the traffic on Barrack St/Dublin Road on Friday afternoon to see if our new roadway will "unbottleneck" the town.
Many a Friday i recall the 45 minute camel ride from the Dublin Road roundabout to Shamrock square on the college run slow coach.

aynon

the reall people you have to feel sorry for is the bus and truck drivers. i remember working for JJ's a short while back, when if they had back to back shifts(which they usually have, journey up, 1 hour break, back, thats the treory), they barely had time to have a smoke at the airport, and they'd have to hit the road back, and i;d be on the phone annoying them every 2 mins.....
roll on the the by-pass!

patrickc

is anyone going to the opening tomorrow?

ShayK1

patrickc wrote: »

is anyone going to the opening tomorrow?

No, I'll still be in dublin at 4:30pm. Heard on the radio that it'll be accessable from 6pm this evening (and I don't get this part) from the Rathcrogue interchange.

Is it ONLY accessible at rathcrogue or did the news reader mess up?

patrickc

ShayK1 wrote: »

No, I'll still be in dublin at 4:30pm. Heard on the radio that it'll be accessable from 6pm this evening (and I don't get this part) from the Rathcrogue interchange.

Is it ONLY accessible at rathcrogue or did the news reader mess up?

I heard the 6 bit too, but didn't hear anything about the rathcrouge bit, surely they have to open it all..

patrickc

Carlow bypass arrives for motorists

The Minister for Transport will today open a €216 million bypass of Carlow town.
The 18.5km dual-carriageway will eventually form a central piece of the new Dublin to Waterford highway, due for completion in 2010.
The Carlow bypass leaves the existing N9 at Powerstown, near the Carlow-Kildare border, and travels in a southeasterly direction passing east of Paletine, Co Carlow, turning south to cross the N80 at Rathcrogue and turning southwest to rejoin the N9 at Prumplestown, Co Kildare.
Today’s opening ceremony takes place at the Rathcrogue interchange at 3.30pm, and the road is to open immediately afterwards.
Work is now taking place on two linking sections of the N9 to the north and south of the Carlow bypass. The 28km Kilcullen to Carlow stretch is due to open in late 2010, and the section south of the Carlow bypass, from Prumplestown to Knocktopher, Co Kilkenny, is also scheduled to open in late 2010.




cermony at rathcrouge interchange...




powerstown near the carlow kildare border???

fricatus

inarut wrote: »

Guess we'll have to look at the traffic on Barrack St/Dublin Road on Friday afternoon to see if our new roadway will "unbottleneck" the town.

I'm sure the bypass will help ease the traffic in Carlow to a certain extent, but the purpose of removing a bottleneck is more to benefit through traffic (between Waterford/KK and Dublin) rather than to unclog the town that's bypassed.

Carlow is a fairly lively spot commercially, so I would imagine there'll still be plenty of local traffic left!

Great news either way.

cargo

Have a look at this article posted today. Is it just me (not from carlow but know it's general areas) or has this author got the ends of the bypass completely mixed up? He describes it heading from North (Dublin) to South (Waterford) but mentions the townslands in the opposite order?

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0529/breaking5.htm

Carlow bypass arrives for motorists

The Minister for Transport will today open a €216 million bypass of Carlow town.

The 18.5km dual-carriageway will eventually form a central piece of the new Dublin to Waterford highway, due for completion in 2010.

The Carlow bypass leaves the existing N9 at Powerstown, near the Carlow-KilKENNY border, and travels in a southeasterly direction passing east of Paletine, Co Carlow, turning south to cross the N80 at Rathcrogue and turning southwest to rejoin the N9 at Prumplestown, Co Kildare.

Today’s opening ceremony takes place at the Rathcrogue interchange at 3.30pm, and the road is to open immediately afterwards.

Work is now taking place on two linking sections of the N9 to the north and south of the Carlow bypass. The 28km Kilcullen to Carlow stretch is due to open in late 2010, and the section south of the Carlow bypass, from Prumplestown to Knocktopher, Co Kilkenny, is also scheduled to open in late 2010.

ShayK1

cargo wrote: »

has this author got the ends of the bypass completely mixed up?

Yes

ShayK1

patrickc wrote: »

Carlow bypass arrives for motorists

The Minister for Transport will today open a €216 million bypass of Carlow town.
The 18.5km dual-carriageway will eventually form a central piece of the new Dublin to Waterford highway, due for completion in 2010.
The Carlow bypass leaves the existing N9 at Powerstown, near the Carlow-Kildare border, and travels in a southeasterly direction passing east of Paletine, Co Carlow, turning south to cross the N80 at Rathcrogue and turning southwest to rejoin the N9 at Prumplestown, Co Kildare.
Today’s opening ceremony takes place at the Rathcrogue interchange at 3.30pm, and the road is to open immediately afterwards.
Work is now taking place on two linking sections of the N9 to the north and south of the Carlow bypass. The 28km Kilcullen to Carlow stretch is due to open in late 2010, and the section south of the Carlow bypass, from Prumplestown to Knocktopher, Co Kilkenny, is also scheduled to open in late 2010.




cermony at rathcrouge interchange...




powerstown near the carlow kildare border???

ah ha.... so the news reader just mis-interpreted the information. The ceremony is at Rathcrogue but the full by-pass will be open.... I might even take a spin down it on the way home :-) Its out of the way but.... might do it anyway and come back in the wexford road

bottletops

So its time for a reminder for the rest of us heading on into Carlow this evening.....

The roads from the junctions in Castle D (North End) and the dump (South End) into Carlow town will now be 80Kmph as the road will no longer be the N9 but will become the R448. Hence it will get the 80k treatment... what a joke, but its that time of the month when the guards need to hit their targets so don't be surprised to see them out "barrel fish shooting"!!!

wheres me jumpa

Oh, no doubt we will have a picture of some politician pointing at the new signs on the paper next week, saying "Boo-urns"

Bards

according to Ascon the project is valued at €75m (http://www.ascon.ie/live/ascon/aproject_details.asp?id=148&section1=1&sub_section=1) but according to RTE the project is costed at €216m (http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0529/bypass.html) so someone is telling porkies



EDIT:

Here's the press release to be released later

The Carlow Bypass was officially opened today (Thursday 29th May 2008) by the Minister for Transport Mr. Noel Dempsey T.D.

The €216.5m bypass is the first section of the N9 Dublin to Waterford major inter-urban route to open to traffic. Work on the entire route is on schedule to open in 2010.

The new 18.5km bypass stretches from Prumplestown, south of Castledermot in County Kildare, passes to the east and south of Carlow Town as far as Powerstown.

The scheme, which commenced construction in July 2006, took 22 months to complete.

Performing the official opening Minister Dempsey said,
"The opening of the Carlow bypass today is very welcome news for the people of Carlow town and county. This new bypass will remove through traffic of over 9,000 vehicles a day from Carlow streets and will give the town back to locals. This new route around the town for all those whose business is elsewhere along the N9 will deliver journey time-savings of up to 30 minutes in peak time traffic. By delivering this bypass in time and on budget Government is achieving three important targets – removing through traffic, improving access to and from towns and villages in the area and, most importantly, improving road safety."

Connectivity within the region will be greatly enhanced by the Carlow Bypass because the scheme provides three new junctions; at Powerstown in Carlow to cater for N9 Waterford/Kilkenny traffic, at the Rathcrogue junction on the N80 to provide a crucial link between the N9 and the strategic N80 cross country national secondary route which runs from Wexford to Moate in County Westmeath and at Prumplestown in Kildare on the N9 to allow south bound traffic bypass Carlow Town.

Mr.Peter Malone, Chairman of the National Roads Authority commented at the official opening cermony,

“The opening of the Carlow Bypass marks the first stage of the N9 Dublin to Waterford major inter- urban to be completed and is indicative of the standard of national road that will serve the southeast into the future. The benefits of the Carlow Bypass locally will be immediate reducing travel times and congestion. On a national scale the new bypass will substantially improve access to the southeast region and will facilitate the safe and efficient movement of people and goods between the gateway city of Waterford and the hub towns of Kilkenny and Wexford identified in the National Spatial Strategy.

The Dublin to Waterford corridor is on target for completion to motorway standard by 2010 and this super- highway will enrich the business and social texture of the south and east region bringing communities closer and enhancing tourist potential while contributing to our economic competitiveness. High quality infrastructure also plays an important role in ensuring the diffusion of growth throughout the regions of Ireland and underpins the realisation of successful economic and social cohesion. The national road dimension of the Government’s Transport 21 Plan is on target and will deliver a key element in underpinning Ireland’s competitiveness.”


Kildare County Council managed the project on behalf of the National Roads Authority working in conjunction with Carlow County Council and the contractor Ascon Ltd.

The Carlow Bypass was funded by the Irish Government 2007 -2013 and part financed by the European Union.

sk8board

Bards wrote: »

Performing the official opening Minister Dempsey said,
"The opening of the .....

you gotta love the quotation released to the press before its even spoken

testicle

Bards wrote: »

according to Ascon the project is valued at €75m (http://www.ascon.ie/live/ascon/aproject_details.asp?id=148&section1=1&sub_section=1) but according to RTE the project is costed at €216m (http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0529/bypass.html) so someone is telling porkies

Cost of Land....

sk8board

So who's the first person to post after taking a spin on it?

Bards

testicle wrote: »

Cost of Land....

I just can't comprehend that the land costs would be nearly 3 times the cost of building the road. I thought that the land acquisition cost were in the order of 10% to 20% for most road schemes

road_high

The cost of Planning and Designing the road etc must cost a fortune. All those possible routes and reports, EIA statements, all cost a lot ever before a sod was turned on the road itself.

Bards

mfitzy wrote: »

The cost of Planning and Designing the road etc must cost a fortune. All those possible routes and reports, EIA statements, all cost a lot ever before a sod was turned on the road itself.

you may be right... just took a look at the PPP for the Waterford city Bypass and quote from the NRA website PPP section

" that the cost of land, preliminary studies/design necessary to identify the route, preparation of the statutory documents (Motorway scheme and Environmental Impact Statement), advance ground investigation, initial archaeological testing and resolution, and supervision of its construction will amount to approximately €160m."

ShayK1

sk8board wrote: »

So who's the first person to post after taking a spin on it?

It MIGHT be me at 6pm .... MAYBE....

patrickc

ShayK1 wrote: »

It MIGHT be me at 6pm .... MAYBE....

it wont be me until i get home and take out the second car after 9, it's much faster must test the road properly:pac:

ShayK1

The plan was to get on at castledermot and come off at rathcrogue and come into carlow on the wexford road but when passing at 17:10 the castledermot on ramp wasn't open.. but the off ramp was.

And again the 2fm news reader said "The road will be fully open at 6pm FROM the rathcrogue interchange?" Anyone else hear that??

testicle

sk8board wrote: »

So who's the first person to post after taking a spin on it?

smee!

inarut

Was on at 6.30 pm if anyone was on before that I reckon I was the first! Great road- long overdue and badly needed. Took me 8 mins to drive from the Dump (South End) to Castledermot (North End) at an average speed of 120 km/h.

D.L.R.

But is it officially a motorway? 120 limit?

patrickc

bottletops wrote: »

So its time for a reminder for the rest of us heading on into Carlow this evening.....

The roads from the junctions in Castle D (North End) and the dump (South End) into Carlow town will now be 80Kmph as the road will no longer be the N9 but will become the R448. Hence it will get the 80k treatment... what a joke, but its that time of the month when the guards need to hit their targets so don't be surprised to see them out "barrel fish shooting"!!!

they has something pulled in castled when i was coming home, dont know if from speeding or not

D.L.R. wrote: »

But is it officially a motorway? 120 limit?

no 100kph:mad: just off it, did from halfway back to castled, didnt notice any garda ramps either