M50 upgrade - Phase II

dublinhead

Redsoxfan wrote: »

The road markings are now painted on the stretch from Ballymount to Tallaght, looks like it could open this week?

Traffic now bad enough again in the mornings this week southbound at Ballymount.

From http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/

From 7am tomorrow (3rd), three lanes will be open on the M50 southbound from J10 Ballymount to J11 Tallaght. This should help ease delays during peak times

whosedaddy?

dublinhead wrote: »

From http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/

From 7am tomorrow (3rd), three lanes will be open on the M50 southbound from J10 Ballymount to J11 Tallaght. This should help ease delays during peak times

IMHO all it will do is push the bottleneck further south and encourage more ppl to sliplane surf.

I hope I'm wrong.

cargo

whosedaddy? wrote: »

IMHO all it will do is push the bottleneck further south and encourage more ppl to sliplane surf.

I hope I'm wrong.

I was down further yesterday and they already have 3 lanes South of Tallaght (can't remember how far though)

I dont care though, I come off at Tallaght

Stark

There's a long merge lane between Tallaght and Firhouse (that no-one seems to be able to use without crashing into someone). I think this might relieve some of the bottleneck pressure. At Ballymount, you have 3 lanes merging into 2 at around the same point as traffic is trying to merge from the Ballymount slip.

whosedaddy?

I think the short uphill merge after firehouse will be the new hotspot.
you can exit at tallagh (bypassing possible tailbacks) on the inside lane, go onto the tallagh firhouse merging lane and rejoin m50 after firhouse. hope this won't get too popular.

Bluetonic

This ties in here as the M1 at the M50 is being upgraded as part of the M50 works.

Tunnel tolls will not be reduced

TOLL CHARGES in the Dublin Port Tunnel can not be lowered as part of the emergency measures to assist displaced northern line rail commuters because it is against public policy to encourage car commuters to use the Port Tunnel, it has emerged.

Some 20,000 commuter journeys per day, divided evenly in terms of journeys into and out of the city centre, are being replaced on an emergency basis by road-based public transport, following the collapse of the Broadmeadow railway viaduct at the end of last month.

The National Roads Authority (NRA) said that it had suspended its timetable for works on the airport M1/M50 junction to facilitate the road transport effort to get commuters in and out of the city centre from the northern suburbs.

But a new traffic committee involving representatives from An Garda Síochána, Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, Dublin City and Fingal local authorities, as well as the NRA, has decided that toll charges for private cars – which are as high as €24 per day – must remain in place.

NRA spokesman Sean O’Neill said the traffic committee had overseen the mobilisation of commuters by Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and private operators and included a special service between Drogheda station and Dublin city centre which utilised the Dublin Port Tunnel.

Mr O’Neill said the committee believed the mobilisation was going well and it would not be possible to distinguish between genuinely affected commuters and those from the northern suburbs who would “get into bad habits” by bringing their cars into the city centre through the tunnel.

This is despite an assertion from Labour Party Transport Spokesman Tommy Broughan that “a number of Balbriggan-based commuters have informed me that it is extremely difficult to get home to Balbriggan during off-peak times”.

Mr Broughan called on the Department of Transport to sanction an additional route for buses through the Dublin Port Tunnel to help efforts.

The refusal to reduce the toll from the peak charge of €12 per single journey to €3 will disappoint Labour Senator Brendan Ryan, who called for the move, arguing that many rail commuters are using their cars instead of the additional services that have been put in place.

“The €3 charge I am suggesting is not a new charge but is the charge that currently applies at weekends and after 10pm,” said Mr Ryan.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/motors/2009/0902/1224253656897.html

sk8board

whosedaddy? wrote: »

IMHO all it will do is push the bottleneck further south and encourage more ppl to sliplane surf.

I hope I'm wrong.

the sliplane surfing is a pain in my ass as I join the M50 in the evening at the Ballymount junct, and theres always a queue from all outbound roads to the small roundabout at the ind estate cause of all the sliplane surfers coming down to the round-about, all around and back up again. And they have the right of way too!

hopefully that is no more now that the 3 lanes are open for a bit further down the m50

Carawaystick

cargo wrote: »

I've been thinking for the past few weeks that all these extra Northern end lanes are just about to open but I had a good look yesterday evening heading home northbound and again Southbound this am. It's not as good and finished as i thought. Yes they have the lane markings down / signs up but none of them are complete all the way from one intersection to the other.

If you look at Ballymun to M1 the "new" lanes just come to a finish at the junction. There's no new off slips or mainline lanes to accomodate them. They haven't even really started on the new slips or realignment up and over for the M1 interchange. There was only one worker working on the Northern overbridge as you come down the M1 this am.

There's definitely room to open the third lane from Ballymun to the M1. At the M1/n32/M50 junction you have 1 lane slipping left to the M1N and 2 go on to the RAB.

Coming the other way, there is definitely room for the 3rd lane to be open, and for it to diverge to the Ballymun offslip. same thing at Finglas.

I had a good look on Saturday as I drove along at the speed limit.....

Redsoxfan

So this morning the 3rd lane from Ballymount to Tallaght was open-the auxiliary lane is marked out, but there are no barriers installed yet. Gantries have been erected, but no signs yet. No bottleneck at Ballymount, and not much busier at Firhouse, but I was on the road around 30 mins earlier than normal this morning.

cormthechippy

was on the M50 a cupla days ago heading back to donegal and noticed they have the new N3 signage up... it couldn`t help notice that Ballyshannon was missing from it... any idea why? it`s a replica of the old sign...cavan, navan and blanch signed. thought sham town had to be mentioned because it was the terminal town..

KevR

Anyone know why they haven't considered charging everyone that uses the M50 since it went barrier free rather than just charging people who happen to pass by one particular point?

Charge everyone but only charge each person once per-day regardless of number of journeys. Surely that would be a lot fairer. As it is now, some people are paying to use it twice everyday on their commute while others aren't paying at all because they're not passing the toll point.
If someone uses the M50 (above ground section) and then uses the Port Tunnel, the cost of the above ground toll is knocked off the PT toll price and if someone uses the PT, they don't pay for the above ground section that day.

This has probably been discussed before but I was just thinking about it today and am wondering what others think?

L1011

You wouldn't be suggesting that if you lived in Dublin! A lot of the recent additions to the south suburbs have been built in such a way that the M50 is the main road; and the road network off the M50 has generally not been built up to cope with the massive traffic flows that would ensue if all journeys were charged.

Also, it seems Irish people accept tolls more if they're "for" something expensive - a big bridge or a tunnel. M1, N25, M8 Blackwater Viaduct, etc....

Redsoxfan

Anyone else come across the cyclist holding up traffic between Sandyford and Firhouse this evening? Never seen or heard of it until I came across this thread a few days ago. I hope it's not the beginning of a trend.

In recent months, I've seen cyclists, horses (loose) horses (riden) tractors & pedestrians on the M50, all I need for the full set is to see a clown directing traffic (Guatamala city, a street entertainer directed traffic after a lorry tipped over in the street - and was stripped bare (the lorry ) within 30 seconds by onlookers).

Carawaystick

There's 3 running lanes open now from the M1 all the way to the N81

celticbest

Carawaystick wrote: »

There's 3 running lanes open now from the M1 all the way to the N81

Yeah, saw the three lanes open this morning, let's hope that this makes a big improvement to the traffic flow in the evening rush hour.

M50 Traffic MGT

All,

Unfortunately we have only come across this thread recently. As you are aware there are now 3 lanes running from the M1/M50 Interchange to the N81 Tallaght slips NB & SB. The M1 Interchange will be fully operational by the end of October. As there are night works ongoing we will be able to advertise these closures on this thread, hopefully giving everybody a heads up before they get stuck in traffic. There will be works ongoing on the M1 SB for the next week or so until it is finished and tonight we will be starting on the M1 NB from inside the tunnel to the M1/M50 Interchange from 22:00 to 05:30. This will mean reducing the existing situation of 3 lanes down to 2, i.e. traffic on the hard shoulder & lane 1, giving us the other 2 lanes to work on and then switch traffic over. If you have any questions you can post them here and we would be happy to reply

M50 D&C Traffic Management

The Dark Knight

M50 Traffic MGT wrote: »

All,

Unfortunately we have only come across this thread recently. As you are aware there are now 3 lanes running from the M1/M50 Interchange to the N81 Tallaght slips NB & SB. The M1 Interchange will be fully operational by the end of October. As there are night works ongoing we will be able to advertise these closures on this thread, hopefully giving everybody a heads up before they get stuck in traffic. There will be works ongoing on the M1 SB for the next week or so until it is finished and tonight we will be starting on the M1 NB from inside the tunnel to the M1/M50 Interchange from 22:00 to 05:30. This will mean reducing the existing situation of 3 lanes down to 2, i.e. traffic on the hard shoulder & lane 1, giving us the other 2 lanes to work on and then switch traffic over. If you have any questions you can post them here and we would be happy to reply

M50 D&C Traffic Management

Hi,
Great to have the information "straight from the horses mouth". Welcome to the thread!! I think this will really help us all as we negotiate the final few months of the works.
Congratulation on a good job so far on traffic management.... I think it's fair to say that we all though it would be much worse.

Now get ready for the moan from us armature road designers

You mention the M50/M1 junction being fully operational by end of Oct. I have one major worry on this.
I was travelling on the M50 NB yesterday and noticed a huge tailback in Lane 1 heading towards the Airport, while lanes 2 & 3 were relatively empty. Obviously cars were getting in lane early for the M1 NB exit.
I believe this could be an issue for this junction. At the moment lane 2 & 3 will be N33 traffic, I think this should be switched to Lane 3 only. This would help traffic get into the appropriate Lane as early as possible. My lane layout would be:

Aux Lane - Airport/M1 NB
Lane 1 - Airport/M1 NB
Lane 2 - M50 (Port Tunnel Bound) (...ie M1 SB)
Lane 3 - N33 EB

I believe this would serve to distribute the traffic much better across the Motorway after the Ballymun exit.

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight wrote: »

Hi,
Great to have the information "straight from the horses mouth". Welcome to the thread!! I think this will really help us all as we negotiate the final few months of the works.
Congratulation on a good job so far on traffic management.... I think it's fair to say that we all though it would be much worse.

Now get ready for the moan from us armature road designers

You mention the M50/M1 junction being fully operational by end of Oct. I have one major worry on this.
I was travelling on the M50 NB yesterday and noticed a huge tailback in Lane 1 heading towards the Airport, while lanes 2 & 3 were relatively empty. Obviously cars were getting in lane early for the M1 NB exit.
I believe this could be an issue for this junction. At the moment lane 2 & 3 will be N33 traffic, I think this should be switched to Lane 3 only. This would help traffic get into the appropriate Lane as early as possible. My lane layout would be:

Aux Lane - Airport/M1 NB
Lane 1 - Airport/M1 NB
Lane 2 - M50 (Port Tunnel Bound) (...ie M1 SB)
Lane 3 - N33 EB

I believe this would serve to distribute the traffic much better across the Motorway after the Ballymun exit.

From what I can see, there will be five lanes just after the Ballymun junction, giving motorists more options to pick a lane.

The Dark Knight

Deleted User wrote: »

From what I can see, there will be five lanes just after the Ballymun junction, giving motorists more options to pick a lane.

I though the "5th lane" didn't appear until a few hundred metres before the M1 Junction.... but you may be correct....I couldn't see it properly yesterday.
Regardless, I think the N33 only needs Lane 3, with most traffic heading either towards the M1(NB) or The M50 (City/Port Tunnel Bound).

M50 Traffic MGT

At the M1 Interchange NB on the M50,

Auxiliary Lane: Airport/M1 NB (Goes to 2 lanes before M1)
Lane 1: Port Tunnel/M1 SB
Lane 2: Port Tunnel/M1 NB
Lane 3: N32 EB
Lane 4: N32 EB

Unfortunately due to construction works on the free-flow to the M1 NB space is limited to 1 lane as we need to tie-in the road surface with the new structure. This is why there is only 1 lane dedicated to the M1 NB. This evening, traffic appears to be as busy as usual, even though there is an extra lane. The queue for the M1 NB still starts back at Ballymun. Once completed, the existing M1/M50 Roundabout will still be operational as it is at the moment, only with a few lane reductions. It will still be signalised, whereas the free-flows will not

oddiot

Well this evening, the third lane southbound freed up the usual congestion between M1 and Blanchardstown, with the exception of a little spillover from the M50 south to N3 off-ramp into lane 1. Hopefully this will be less of an issue when they open more or all of the aux lane back towards Finglas.

I will point out though that Irish road users are slow to adapt to change. At one point there was several hundred meters between me and the next car in front in lane 1 and also to the next car behind. I would imagine this is because people don't realise it's a full through lane just yet - so give it a week to settle.

Northbound still looks a little slow between Ballymun and the M1.

The Dark Knight

M50 Traffic MGT wrote: »

At the M1 Interchange NB on the M50,

Auxiliary Lane: Airport/M1 NB (Goes to 2 lanes before M1)
Lane 1: Port Tunnel/M1 SB
Lane 2: Port Tunnel/M1 NB
Lane 3: N32 EB
Lane 4: N32 EB

Unfortunately due to construction works on the free-flow to the M1 NB space is limited to 1 lane as we need to tie-in the road surface with the new structure. This is why there is only 1 lane dedicated to the M1 NB. This evening, traffic appears to be as busy as usual, even though there is an extra lane. The queue for the M1 NB still starts back at Ballymun. Once completed, the existing M1/M50 Roundabout will still be operational as it is at the moment, only with a few lane reductions. It will still be signalised, whereas the free-flows will not

Thanks for the details above.
I believe it confirms my point. If we take the M50 NB Just after the Ballymun interchange we will have:
Aux Lane: Airport/M1 NB
Lane 1: Port Tunnel/M1 SB
Lane 2: Port Tunnel/M1 NB
Lane 3: N32 EB
Lane 4: N32 EB

This gives 2 Lanes dedicated for N32 and only 1 Lane for the M1NB & Airport. (Although this becomes 2 before the Junction).

I think it should be:
Aux Lane: Airport/M1 NB
Lane 1: Airport/M1 NB
Lane 2: Port Tunnel/M1 NB
Lane 3: Port Tunnel/M1 NB
Lane 4: N32 EB (Becoming 2 lanes after M1 Exit)

Based on the M1NB/Airport vs. N32 demand, I think this would be a more balanced line allocation, and reduce lane crossings required.
Looking at the artist impression above, I don't see any major constraints with this lane allocation.

The three lanes for the M1 (Aux, 1 & 2) will divide up again into four lanes, two Nb & 2 SB. I think it would be better if lane one split into two rather than the aux lane.
There is currently only one lane which will be three when works are complete, to me the design looks good.

It's easy to see congestion when it's all funnelled into two lanes and then into one lane NB.

towger

So, M50 to N32 will still have traffic lights ? please NO !!!

Chris_533976

If there isnt a slip from M50 clockwise to N32 its just daft. Theres bags of room there and theres a nice field to put a slip road in.

Edit: Lets face is its M32 officially so there would be no redesignation ****

towger

towger wrote: »

So, M50 to N32 will still have traffic lights ? please NO !!!

Down to money, as usual!

Hopefully the sequence will be modified as the traffic load will be much lighter from the M50, as in the M/N32 traffic will be favoured instead of that from the M50.

bg07

Deleted User wrote: »

Down to money, as usual!

Hopefully the sequence will be modified as the traffic load will be much lighter from the M50, as in the M/N32 traffic will be favoured instead of that from the M50.

Would traffic volumes be low enough for a normal unsignalled roundabout? Although Irish do seem to have trouble have trouble with such a complex concept as a large roundabout without traffic lights.

bg07

bg07 wrote: »

Would traffic volumes be low enough for a normal unsignalled roundabout?

I see no reason why not!

bg07 wrote: »

Although Irish do seem to have trouble have trouble with such a complex concept as a large roundabout without traffic lights.

Except this one

Geogregor

Wow you got messages straight from "the source"
I like when people responsible for projects communicate on this sort of forums.
On Polish sub-forum of Skyscrapercity we got extra pictures with dedication for forumers from project management.