N18 - Limerick Tunnel & South Ring Road Phase II

Sponge Bob

Wild Bill wrote: »

OK - but why doesn't the motorway continue from the M20 junction through the tunnel till the new road meets the N18 dual carriageway?

Jeez Bill. The tunnel has an 80kph limit like I explained earlier in this thread !! 80kph on a Motorway , Jeez !!

Deedsie

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

As for Limerick - Bunratty?? Not really any point fixing it any time soon. I reckon it never will be fixed. Traffic levels and need really dont deserve new works.

I hope and suspect you are wrong. They are working constantly and seem confident they have a working solution. We've been told october, so no point saying it will never open untill we have hard facts.

Sorry drink taken, I thought that said Birdhill not Bunratty

Stark

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Jeez Bill. The tunnel has an 80kph limit like I explained earlier in this thread !! 80kph on a Motorway , Jeez !!

Well the Dublin port tunnel has an 80km/hr limit and that's motorway. They'll probably want to keep pedestrians and cyclists out of there anyway so the motorway restrictions would help on that count. I'm not sure what the legal status is of the "no pedestrians or cyclists" signs on the N25 Jack Lynch tunnel in Cork.

The most important thing though is that the blue looks prettier on the map. :pac:

Empire o de Sun

Motorway doesn't necessarily mean 120 km/h

it can have 80 km/h, or 100 km/h, like most of the M50

Chris_5339762

Wild Bill wrote: »

OK - but why doesn't the motorway continue from the M20 junction through the tunnel till the new road meets the N18 dual carriageway?

AFAIK then you'll end up with only 4 or 5km of M18. I think its a poor decision and the tunnel should have been M7 to the western side of Limerick.

Empire o de Sun

They should have just given the N20,18 and 17 the same number up the whole way anyway. and maybe include the N15

Zoney

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

AFAIK then you'll end up with only 4 or 5km of M18. I think its a poor decision and the tunnel should have been M7 to the western side of Limerick.

I agree with this. The R445 (old N7) now extends to the end of the old Ennis Road/end of SRR and when it was N7, it extended to the northwest of the city at Ivan's Cross, so it is hardly surprising that the original plans for SRR phase 2 referred to it as N7 Limerick Tunnel. I think they should have stuck to that, albeit made it M7.

Coolcappa

Can anyone tell me if there is a cheaper way of using the Tunnel. I travel to work daily and thought that I might be able to buy a tag that reduced the 1.80 fee in some form? Having to use it twice daily five times per week should surely mean a discount? or probably not!!!

phog

Coolcappa wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if there is a cheaper way of using the Tunnel. I travel to work daily and thought that I might be able to buy a tag that reduced the 1.80 fee in some form? Having to use it twice daily five times per week should surely mean a discount? or probably not!!!

I'm not sure that there is, I thought the toll tags allowed for a discount but that's seems to be for the M50 only. I would have thought that regular users would get some discount for their custom but it looks like that they will be hit hardest.

Wild Bill

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Jeez Bill. The tunnel has an 80kph limit like I explained earlier in this thread !! 80kph on a Motorway , Jeez !!

Dublin Port tunnel is part of the M1 motorway; speed limit 80kph. Such restrictions in tunnels are not uncommon on motorways across Europe. :cool:

OK - I see this point has already been made above;

Yes the M7 should continue through the tunnel till it meets the (older) N18.

But I like the idea of calling the whole Cork to Sligo road the M/N 17 (mainly 'cos they wrote a song about it).

Amtmann

Coolcappa wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if there is a cheaper way of using the Tunnel. I travel to work daily and thought that I might be able to buy a tag that reduced the 1.80 fee in some form? Having to use it twice daily five times per week should surely mean a discount? or probably not!!!

Direct route operate the M8 Fermoy Bypass and if you get a tag from them there there is something like a 10% discount rate per trip. The same might apply for the Tunnel.

jwcurtin

Will the Eflow video registration work on the limerick tunnel? And also any other toll? Sorry just confused!:D

mackerski

Wild Bill wrote: »

Dublin Port tunnel is part of the M1 motorway; speed limit 80kph.

Actually it's part of the M50

L1011

jwcurtin wrote: »

Will the Eflow video registration work on the limerick tunnel? And also any other toll? Sorry just confused!:D

No. No.

Alfagtamini

quick question, what are the rectangle cut outs on the road towards the tunnel every 500m or so. they look the same as the weight sensors that they use to lift barriers in car parks. are they counting traffic?

John Lynch Ph.D

mackerski wrote: »

Actually it's part of the M50

WRONG its the M1

L1011

John Lynch Ph.D wrote: »

WRONG its the M1

Bzzzt. Wrong.

The Port Tunnel is the M50. Always has been. The section of M1 between it and the M50 was redesignated to M50.

A ten second search gets the NRA junction map showing this:


http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:97YIygswm3IJ:www.nra.ie/RepositoryforPublicationsInfo/file,17001,en.pdf+m50+junction+maps&hl=en&gl=ie&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShoP_00TL_kzi6I3Z-4VjD5dihb5xub9J6w_4CmQNTA_WwaQgT9460Tz6abnKdelgSXL-S737C2jkw_XsQ5RDOHrtYM0M5OwafHoLQ3dPrBU_jEkfZuqypn7gAQPzuUafxkP-7V&sig=AHIEtbTritpcLRRf-VW6U3jia1HWhpcJAw

Seeing as the NRA own, maintain and classify the roads I suspect they know what they are!

Next time, maybe don't be so cocksure in correcting someone angrily when you are, in fact, wrong.

medelina

phog wrote: »

I agree, I was in one lane yesterday, car drove up dropped in 1.80 into the basket, barrier stays down, no one there to help, cars back log, other lane with the basket blocks up too, everyone had to reverse out to join the queue for the cashiers but at the same time trying to avoid cars speeding along joining the queues, it was crazy and scary, why didn't the control room make the decison to open the barriers and let that group of cars through, sure safety should be their priority.

I've been through it once or twice a day since it opened and it's pot luck with the no change lanes. I threw in 1.80 today and as the money is going down - the sign just goes to lane open and the barrier stays down with the red light on. no coins rejected either. an operator answers the the intercom and then opens it for me. other times I've seen it swallow without registering 10c coins.

I don't understand in 2010 why after the lessons of the M50 we are building barriered tolls but if we are, at least get them working correctly - it's not as if it's new technology. Anyway, I'm going to sign up for tolltag - how are they working now? I know there was a few problems at the start

Zoney

medelina wrote: »

I don't understand in 2010 why after the lessons of the M50 we are building barriered tolls

Because the M50 scheme is *expensive* - a lot of the toll money collected just goes to administering the scheme. Now of course if they insist on tolling the M50, barriers aren't really an option, but obviously with the Limerick tunnel there is no real obstacle to having barriers and barrier-free tolling isn't something that either the operator or customers need to fork out for.

Deedsie

Are etoll toll tags working yet?

blackwarrior

Deedsie wrote: »

Are etoll toll tags working yet?

I thought they were, at least the barrier lifts, but my daughter in the back seat told me I was being charged €3.20 for my car !!!

As the barrier lifts, I have no choice but to proceed and take my luck on contacting the NRA (is it?) for a refund.

PS - the tags are Easy Pass - sorry

Deedsie

blackwarrior wrote: »

I thought they were, at least the barrier lifts, but my daughter in the back seat told me I was being charged €3.20 for my car !!!

As the barrier lifts, I have no choice but to proceed and take my luck on contacting the NRA (is it?) for a refund.

PS - the tags are Easy Pass - sorry

Are you 100% sure about that? It says on tolltag.ie that it will work on the Limerick T?

knipex

CerebralCortex wrote: »

I never said that part of the N18 had to be a motorway. I just think its ridiculously stupid having private residences with entrances on to an interurban route.

What advantage would it be to CPO these homes ? What benefit would it be to the owners or the commuters ? What kind of value for money would it provide ? Would there be a return on investment ?

Answer those questions and then ask yourself where could that money be spent providing a better value for money ?

Then it becomes pretty obvious why it not being done.

Its a nice to have but in the current climate I would prefer to see money spent where it provides maximum benefit.

You are correct though no planning permission should be granted along that route.

knipex

Deedsie wrote: »

Are you 100% sure about that? It says on tolltag.ie that it will work on the Limerick T?

They are all supposed to work and to be fair most do but there are some issues with cars being detected as vans and in some cases not reading tags.

medelina

Zoney wrote: »

Because the M50 scheme is *expensive* - a lot of the toll money collected just goes to administering the scheme. Now of course if they insist on tolling the M50, barriers aren't really an option, but obviously with the Limerick tunnel there is no real obstacle to having barriers and barrier-free tolling isn't something that either the operator or customers need to fork out for.

That is true. I don’t know the details of it why it is so expensive, because once the camera recognition is working ok (I know there’s some issues with it), it seems like it should be pretty simple to operate. If even the government can run a successful website like motortax.ie, then I can’t see why private companies can’t run some kind of efficient and cost effective billing / administration system. Anyway, you would think that they could add cameras in Limerick and piggy back on top of the M50 infrastructure for the backend support and administration.

If I’m wrong and it very complicated and expensive, then I agree the volume of traffic is not there to make it worthwhile

D'Peoples Voice

medelina wrote: »

That is true. I don’t know the details of it why it is so expensive, because once the camera recognition is working ok (I know there’s some issues with it), it seems like it should be pretty simple to operate. If even the government can run a successful website like motortax.ie, then I can’t see why private companies can’t run some kind of efficient and cost effective billing / administration system. Anyway, you would think that they could add cameras in Limerick and piggy back on top of the M50 infrastructure for the backend support and administration.

If I’m wrong and it very complicated and expensive, then I agree the volume of traffic is not there to make it worthwhile

You're forgetting that large sections of our community, especially in the Mid-West region (Rathkeale?) would be of the "travelling" nature, there is absolutely no chance of ever getting them to pay without barriers, hence rather than fleece the honest individual going through the barrier to make up for the shortfall, they have a barrier for everyone!
....and if traffic gets very heavy, they can just lift the barrier.

L1011

medelina wrote: »

Anyway, you would think that they could add cameras in Limerick and piggy back on top of the M50 infrastructure for the backend support and administration.

Extra load on the support/admin = nearly the same cost increase, plus the hassle of ownership (BetEireFlow for the NRA vs. DirectRoute) would make this a non-runner.

AlanD

I have a toll tag and on the East bound express lane, the gates ain't opening for me. Am I driving too fast? It makes me divert to the regular lanes.

Amtmann

Okay it seems there are major issues with the Shannon Tunnel toll. Has anyone emailed Direct Route about this and received a reply yet?

knipex

Furet wrote: »

Okay it seems there are major issues with the Shannon Tunnel toll. Has anyone emailed Direct Route about this and received a reply yet?

Spoke to them on the phone the second day after opening.

They did admit to their being "some" issues with a "minority" of tag users but put it down to teething issues.

When I asked when the issue would be resolved they said there wasn't an issue