N4 road works at Newcastle Rd junction/Lucan

JHMEG

A major upgrade of the N4 from Leixlip to the M50 is underway at moment, upgrading most of it to 3 lanes both ways.

What I'm curious about is this on the NRA's website, and specifically the text:
"full grade separated interchange at Newcastle Road;"

Anyone know what exactly is a "full grade separated interchange". Does it mean under and over, and no more traffic lights at that damn junction?

ciarsd

JHMEG wrote: »

Anyone know what exactly is a "full grade separated interchange". Does it mean under and over, and no more traffic lights at that damn junction?

Yup it does.

The N4 will run low at the Newcastle junction and the road from Superquinn down to the village will be elevated over it.

unkel

JHMEG wrote: »

no more traffic lights at that damn junction?

I believe so. About bloody time too

ciarsd

Proposed junction layout

There is more over in Commuting and Transport

Ice_Box

Another drawing attached

r3nu4l

The work is ongoing right now and it's looking great I was home last week and was amazed to see that they are finally sorting that junction out.

Mind you, it now means that the residents of Hillcrest are going to find it even more difficult to turn right towards superquinn when exiting Hillcrest, even with the junction box where it is!

Pherekydes

Also over in Dublin county west

JHMEG

Wow, that's super. Along with the spaghetti interchanges the M50, N4/M4 and N7/M7 are actually becoming usable at peak times.

TheBazman

They'd want to get the finger out and do something similar at Newlands Cross. I know they have plans but it wont be completed until either 2010 or 2011. They havent decided who will go under and who will go over yet afaik.

L1011

Newlands plans are on the SDCC website, the N7 is going over... starting this year, NRA funding agreed.

prospect

TheBazman wrote: »

They'd want to get the finger out and do something similar at Newlands Cross. I know they have plans but it wont be completed until either 2010 or 2011. They havent decided who will go under and who will go over yet afaik.

TBH, most mornings, since the revised RCR layout at XMas, Newlands cross has been fine.
My commute from Junction 7 has reduced by approx 20 mins, with a few exceptions, like this morning.

Supersize

JHMEG wrote: »

A major upgrade of the N4 from Leixlip to the M50 is underway at moment, upgrading most of it to 3 lanes both ways.

What I'm curious about is this on the NRA's website, and specifically the text:
"full grade separated interchange at Newcastle Road;"

Anyone know what exactly is a "full grade separated interchange". Does it mean under and over, and no more traffic lights at that damn junction?

What about city-bound traffic when all this is finished?

Has everyone forgotten the Palmerstown traffic lights?

The lights at Heuston station?

The jams are far from over i fear...

Winger_PL

Supersize wrote: »

What about city-bound traffic when all this is finished?

Has everyone forgotten the Palmerstown traffic lights?

The lights at Heuston station?

The jams are far from over i fear...

Not everyone goes towards the city centre, I say at least 60% of traffic exists to Liffey Valley / M50. Once the Newcastle lights are eliminated, it'll save _everyone_ (including people heading to the city centre) around 20 mins inbound in the mornings and another 20 outbound in the afternoons.
That's 40 mins more of a life every weekday. I guess a lot of people will be happier with that...

Does anyone know when the underpass is scheduled to open? They are nearly ready to lay the final asphalt layers (if they didn't do it already) and paint the lines, but the bridge must be open at the same time and there's still quite a lot of work on it.

My own guess is beginning of December.

Seth Brundle

I could have sworn that I saw cats eyes in the underpass tarmac this morning! I may have been wrong as it was morning time and I was still half asleep!

Holsten

It looks pretty much finished to me..

Today I saw around 5 Concrete mixers on each side and cleaning trucks going down the road.

caesar

I'll be glad to see the back of those traffic lights. I used to head west late on a Friday or early on a Saturday becuase I couldnt stick the traffic on a Friday evening. I got stuck on approach to those traffic lights one Friday......never again.

Seth Brundle

I got a better look at it this morning and I was incorrect about them laying cats eyes as there are none there. I did notice some stretches of tarmac almost under the bridge that seemed unfinished so I'd say that there is a bit to go yet!

Heroditas

I join the N4 at Woodies heading into town every morning. It's amazing how the N4 has changed in the last while. There used to be horrendous queues heading onto the M50 northbound and then lanes heading into town were ok.
The opposite has been the case in recent weeks and I've found myself nipping up the M50 to head to work.

Now that the Newcastle junction lights will be gone within the next while, that bottleneck will be removed and I wonder if that will cause longer backlogs from the Palmerstown lights due to the fact that there will be nothing slowing down traffic until it gets to there. Traffic will have a clear run all the way into the Palmerstown lights and then will start to back up from there.

Hmmmmm, I might have to use a different route to get into work.

Cionád

Heroditas wrote: »

Now that the Newcastle junction lights will be gone within the next while, that bottleneck will be removed and I wonder if that will cause longer backlogs from the Palmerstown lights due to the fact that there will be nothing slowing down traffic until it gets to there. Traffic will have a clear run all the way into the Palmerstown lights and then will start to back up from there.

Yea I reckon so, and this might in turn back up traffic past the M50 and disturb that traffic too...

HarcourtGreen

Cionád wrote: »

Yea I reckon so, and this might in turn back up traffic past the M50 and disturb that traffic too...

There are now signs up indicating that the U turn @ newcastle junction will be closed on 28th. This must mean they are about to finish off the surfacing at those 2 points which is good news. However, the sign I saw only said "diversion via lexlip overbridge"... that would seem to be directed at traffic coming from newcastle direction going to the city. As for traffic coming from the west on the N4 wanting to turn right onto the newcastle road, i did not see where that diversion will be. I presume it will be up to the Lucan overbridge at woodies which will be a total nightmare!.

karlx5

JHMEG wrote: »

A major upgrade of the N4 from Leixlip to the M50 is underway at moment, upgrading most of it to 3 lanes both ways.

What I'm curious about is this on the NRA's website, and specifically the text:
"full grade separated interchange at Newcastle Road;"

Anyone know what exactly is a "full grade separated interchange". Does it mean under and over, and no more traffic lights at that damn junction?

yes yes yes at long last

Seth Brundle

Well the underpass opened today. I heard about it on Dub City FM on the way home and was looking forward to zooming along it but typically the volumne of traffic meant that I was lucky to get the car into second gear!

r3nu4l

kbannon wrote: »

Well the underpass opened today. I heard about it on Dub City FM on the way home and was looking forward to zooming along it but typically the volumne of traffic meant that I was lucky to get the car into second gear!

Was that because they haven't taken all the barriers down yet and have a reduced speed limit...or just because of the volume of traffic?

stifz

Not bad coming into town but going home every evening..

Its take 40 mins to get from mount st. to pearse st..

Then traffic comes to a stand still at the spa hotel slip.. is this just diverted traffic?

And i have to agree with an earlier post - it just pushes the bottle next further down.. hueston station for example. 2 lanes merging and theres always one muppet who wants to get infront.. Seriously... what goes through their heads?

I saw 2 vans one morning who just kept going side by side until the hit each other. both got out and started to shout abuse at each other??

spacetweek

Just wondering if anyone has a completion date for this? I've heard everything from February to September. I'm thinking not February anyway judging from the amount of work left to do. The SDCC page says February (18 months from September 2007).

Seth Brundle

The NRA are saying Q3 2009 (for the M50 to Leixlip stretch)
http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/SouthDublinCountyCouncil/N4LeixliptoM50Junction/SchemeName,15415,en.html