N18 - Limerick Tunnel & South Ring Road Phase II

topper75

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

one hell of a climb up onto the viaduct and one hell of a sharp bend at the top of it

I thought the same looking at it. Hopefully there is something we don't know!

lukejr

Any news on the expected opening date for the tunnel?

It was rumored to be May a while back, but I think this has been pushed to June. But has a date been set?

Chris_5339762

Not officially. I think the May one was semi idle-rumour. June or early July is my guess, looking at the last time I saw the scheme.

Deedsie

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Not officially. I think the May one was semi idle-rumour. June or early July is my guess, looking at the last time I saw the scheme.

I drive passed it everyday. It really is starting to take shape of a working road now. End of June start of july would be a reasonable assumption.

Bearing in mind i have never seen the inside of the tunnel.

fresca

does anyone know if the emergency services "day out" i.e. safety drills etc have occurred yet? please & thanks....

rainbowdash

fresca wrote: »

does anyone know if the emergency services "day out" i.e. safety drills etc have occurred yet? please & thanks....

AFAIK it has.

As regards an opening date there seems to be nothing really left at this stage. Hopefully they will just open it once its ready and not waste time waiting for Clowen or his ilk to get down.

fresca

Cool.
I seem to remember that mentioned somewhere much earlier in this thread a point was made that the emergency services had to perform a safety drill & that this was one of the last significant impediments to opening.

I suppose, to be fair, they have to know how they are going to approach a rescue in the tunnel, prior to opening...

rainbowdash wrote: »

AFAIK it has.

As regards an opening date there seems to be nothing really left at this stage. Hopefully they will just open it once its ready and not waste time waiting for Clowen or his ilk to get down.

Deedsie

rainbowdash wrote: »

AFAIK it has.

As regards an opening date there seems to be nothing really left at this stage. Hopefully they will just open it once its ready and not waste time waiting for Clowen or his ilk to get down.

If they have carried out the safety check on an unfinished road, I would be very surprised. It wouldnt exactly instill you with confidence? I thought that would be the last thing done. Next day An Taoiseach would be down for the grand opening?

emfifty

somewhere back on this thread i remember seeing the 21st of may for the safety test involving the emergency services? would only be a few weeks max after this takes place...

clon

Maybe July 1st is the opening of this scheme, check out speed limits for new road /tunnel and surronding areas, to kick in from 1st July 2010 on limerick county councils website. http://www.lcc.ie/NR/rdonlyres/F8877384-85AE-49AA-A67D-803B93F920D2/0/ByeLawsLSSRII2010.docAlso map showing what area'a the speed limits are applied to. http://www.lcc.ie/NR/rdonlyres/42E7A342-E3B7-45AE-8697-C2F747699DD4/0/RaheenDooradoyleRosbrienZones.pdf

E10sr

Anybody know why the new section of road from rossbrien via the tunnel to cratlomoyle has been classed and signposted as N18 and not M18?

Chris_5339762

No point having two sections of M18 with a gap in the middle. I think thats the official line on it anyway. Shannon - Limerick cant be motorway.

You'd end up with ~5km of M18, 20-30km of N18 and then the rest of the M18 further north.

irishdub14

Any new pics of the new road/tunnel?? Dying to see it!

bacon&cabbage

Direct route are holding an open day for the public on June 19th
Should be good.

http://www.live95fm.ie/news/news-item.aspx?arti_guid=8aa65f4b-0c74-4b58-8d68-af1f15e3101c

Goofy

Looks like Ennis bound traffic will be diverted onto the final layout soon. They have loads of cones on the half completed roundabout and they were burning off the temp road markings today.

Deedsie

Ya it's diverted now. Just drove passed it 5 minutes ago... Looks good, can see traffic problems tomorrow morning...

fresca

Deedsie wrote: »

Ya it's diverted now. Just drove passed it 5 minutes ago... Looks good, can see traffic problems tomorrow morning...

Hi Deedsie,
could you describe the new layout please?
will be passing through on sat.
thanks

Deedsie

Its hard to describe, Limerick to Ennis traffic travels along the final route now. We now travel under the new road, its a nice drive. Looks great. Its only one lane though. So when you come up to the roundabout you will have to get into the correct lane obviously. Hopefully they will have more room to finish off the road now. Cant wait till its done. I actually saw some fire brigade people at the clonmacken roundabout this morning. Possibly discussing the Emergency drill.

Also there have been new electric signs pylons put up on the clonmacken and Condell roads approaching the Clonmacken roundabout.

Wheelsonthebus

Deedsie wrote: »

Its hard to describe, Limerick to Ennis traffic travels along the final route now. We now travel under the new road, its a nice drive. Looks great. Its only one lane though. So when you come up to the roundabout you will have to get into the correct lane obviously. Hopefully they will have more room to finish off the road now. Cant wait till its done.

Cant help but feel this will cause traffic problems. 2 lanes down to one.

Look at all the problems with merging when the road was under construction.

topper75

Wheelsonthebus wrote: »

Cant help but feel this will cause traffic problems. 2 lanes down to one.

Look at all the problems with merging when the road was under construction.

They expect a huge proportion of that merge traffic to soon be coming out of the shunnel and then down off the embankment (this now being the DCW), not coming from the Coonagh roundabout as it used to do. One lane makes sense. Limerick ain't NY.

Wheelsonthebus

topper75 wrote: »

They expect a huge proportion of that merge traffic to soon be coming out of the shunnel and then down off the embankment (this now being the DCW), not coming from the Coonagh roundabout as it used to do. One lane makes sense. Limerick ain't NY.

Ya that's probably true, just thought it might have been more prudent to have two lanes as and maybe no roundabout at all as there's still a significant amount of traffic coming from the north of the city but then we'll see what happens.

So will it be possble to get onto the shannon road if you were to turn off at the Clonmacken roundabout?

sonyair

may newsletter

http://www.limericktunnel.com/Downloads/Spring2010.pdf

CerebralCortex

topper75 wrote: »

They expect a huge proportion of that merge traffic to soon be coming out of the shunnel and then down off the embankment (this now being the DCW), not coming from the Coonagh roundabout as it used to do. One lane makes sense. Limerick ain't NY.

Hopefully people coming from the south will have the cop on to use the tunnel. Considering that you'll be able to approach any part of the city using the bypass the junction there should be sufficient.

CerebralCortex

Wheelsonthebus wrote: »

So will it be possble to get onto the shannon road if you were to turn off at the Clonmacken roundabout?

To get to the tunnel yes to come from Galway no.

Tech3

sonyair wrote: »

may newsletter

http://www.limericktunnel.com/Downloads/Spring2010.pdf

One of the photos also confirms this is going to open as N18 rather than N7. I have to say the scheme is looking fantastic and surely it should open not too long after the open day?

Wheelsonthebus

CerebralCortex wrote: »

To get to the tunnel yes to come from Galway no.

So in other words there's no connection between the clonmacken roundabout and the new roundabout that will be at cratloemoyle?

So the exit at the clonmacken roundabout is purely to bring you into the tunnel and over to the cement factory?

topper75

I am not sure what Cerebralcortex is saying there. Mind you, the roundabout question was vague. What do you mean turn off Clonmacken r'about - which exit from which direction did you mean?

All the old access is uninterrupted both into and around the city. The tunnel and associated works just give you more options (if you are willing to pay the toll;)).

Wheelsonthebus

topper75 wrote: »

I am not sure what Cerebralcortex is saying there. Mind you, the roundabout question was vague. What do you mean turn off Clonmacken r'about - which exit from which direction did you mean?

All the old access is uninterrupted both into and around the city. The tunnel and associated works just give you more options (if you are willing to pay the toll;)).

Not that vague- the new exit that they are building on the clonmacken roundabout.

Mc Love

Would it have been too hard to implement the same interchange as the Dock road at the Rosbrien interchange?

Tech3

Mc Love wrote: »

Would it have been too hard to implement the same interchange as the Dock road at the Rosbrien interchange?

Yes it would because there is a motorway linking onto the mainline not a single carriageway road.