M50 upgrade - Phase II

celticbest

"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"

MGT

Do you have any idea how long it will be before the 2 lanes are operational again from the M50 NB TO THE M1 NB?

M50 Traffic MGT

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

celticbest wrote: »

Do you have any idea how long it will be before the 2 lanes are operational again from the M50 NB TO THE M1 NB?

End of October I think

M50 Traffic MGT

All,

Tonight we will implement a new layout on the M1 NB from the Port Tunnel to the M1/M50 Interchange. This involves reducing the running lanes from 3 to 2 for a period of 2 weeks. Traffic in the tunnel will be encouraged to use lane 2 as once out of the tunnel, the traffic from Whitehall will have to merge with lane 1 of the tunnel and also the Coolock NB On Ramp. Once the new lanes are constructed, traffic will then be diverted into the median and the procedure will be repeated along the verge.

On Thursday night we will erect gantry's on the M1 SB from the Airport to the M1/M50 Interchange. There are currently parked on trailers in the verge. This will involve rolling blocks (20km/h) to give a gap in traffic to lift the gantry's. Delays will be kept to a minimun, 5-10 minutes.

Also on Thursday night at 2am we will be taking down 2 sets of 3 cables that cross both the M50 and N2. This will envolve a full closure on both roads for the ESB to cut the cables. Once they are pulled clear, traffic will be allowed run again. The ESB will take a maximum of 10 minutes for each cable.

The N3 SB Off Ramp has also been extended further towards Finglas for stacking room, but as there are unfinished works in the verge it cannot be extended any further until later this week

M50 D&C Traffic Management

rameire

seen as your on here m50.
just a quick note on temporary surface that needs a bit of maintenance.
under the tallaght junction southbound, where the two lanes move to the left by one lane and then back again to the right just after the junction, the surface ramp from new layers to old layers are getting bad again and the holes need to be filled. its quite dangerous for motorcyclists.

also just wondering if you have a time frame for this slight detour to be removed, as they dont seem to work much at that area, and its really annoying.

rameire

a note for everyone else,
saw a truck pulled into the hard shoulder southbound between Dundrum and Leopardstown at around 5.15 this evening.
it had about 8 H supports for signage to go across the road.

testarossa40

M50 Traffic MGT wrote: »

All,

Tonight we will implement a new layout on the M1 NB from the Port Tunnel to the M1/M50 Interchange. This involves reducing the running lanes from 3 to 2 for a period of 2 weeks. Traffic in the tunnel will be encouraged to use lane 2 as once out of the tunnel, the traffic from Whitehall will have to merge with lane 1 of the tunnel and also the Coolock NB On Ramp. Once the new lanes are constructed, traffic will then be diverted into the median and the procedure will be repeated along the verge.

On Thursday night we will erect gantry's on the M1 SB from the Airport to the M1/M50 Interchange. There are currently parked on trailers in the verge. This will involve rolling blocks (20km/h) to give a gap in traffic to lift the gantry's. Delays will be kept to a minimun, 5-10 minutes.

Also on Thursday night at 2am we will be taking down 2 sets of 3 cables that cross both the M50 and N2. This will envolve a full closure on both roads for the ESB to cut the cables. Once they are pulled clear, traffic will be allowed run again. The ESB will take a maximum of 10 minutes for each cable.

The N3 SB Off Ramp has also been extended further towards Finglas for stacking room, but as there are unfinished works in the verge it cannot be extended any further until later this week

M50 D&C Traffic Management

I could never overstate how thoroughly hacked off I am at the disruption and slow-to-no progress southbound from Ballymount/Tallaght through Firhouse and on to Dundrum/Sandyford etc. I've lost much of my time here in the mornings and yes, a 3rd lane was recently opened between Ballymount & Tallaght but it has made NO, ZILCH, ZERO difference to the constant congestion and painfully slow travel time in that area in the mornings so long as the ridiculous bottleneck situation remains at Firhouse on-ramp & beyond.

It is clear to me this section of the project had & continues to have lowest priority from the planners to the extent that work started in other sections AFTER J7-14 was initially disrupted has since been completed! This despite the clearly vital connection this route provides from the Dublin urban area to the many corporate & multinational services employers along the Dundrum, Sandyford, Leopardstown, & Cherrywood etc corridor.

Seems to me flat-pack money talks louder than the knowledge economy... :mad:

Carawaystick

testarossa40 wrote: »

It is clear to me this section of the project had & continues to have lowest priority from the planners to the extent that work started in other sections AFTER J7-14 was initially disrupted has since been completed! This despite the clearly vital connection this route provides from the Dublin urban area to the many corporate & multinational services employers along the Dundrum, Sandyford, Leopardstown, & Cherrywood etc corridor.

Seems to me flat-pack money talks louder than the knowledge economy... :mad:

The Northern section of the M50 serves 3 national primary Motorway routes: M1,M2 and soon to be M3. and aother National primary route, the N32.
The southern section only has 2, and only one of these is a Motorway. the M1 and N31.

Why wouldn't the most important (and Busiest) part of the route be finished first?

whosedaddy?

testarossa40 wrote: »

I could never overstate how thoroughly hacked off I am at the disruption and slow-to-no progress southbound from Ballymount/Tallaght through Firhouse and on to Dundrum/Sandyford etc. I've lost much of my time here in the mornings and yes, a 3rd lane was recently opened between Ballymount & Tallaght but it has made NO, ZILCH, ZERO difference to the constant congestion and painfully slow travel time in that area in the mornings so long as the ridiculous bottleneck situation remains at Firhouse on-ramp & beyond.

It is clear to me this section of the project had & continues to have lowest priority from the planners to the extent that work started in other sections AFTER J7-14 was initially disrupted has since been completed! This despite the clearly vital connection this route provides from the Dublin urban area to the many corporate & multinational services employers along the Dundrum, Sandyford, Leopardstown, & Cherrywood etc corridor.

Seems to me flat-pack money talks louder than the knowledge economy... :mad:

The southern section was started a few months after the northbound section (busy M1, N32 IKEA, whatever reason) - of course they are behind. And yes, I'm stuck in the same tailback every morning.... but it is still a hell lot fast than it used to be before the whole upgrade started.

But I too am very curious what takes soo darn long to fix up that 15m mainline bridge at Tallagh... you've build the M50/M1 flyovers in the same amount of time...

the lady

I went to the airport to pick up the in-laws last night, first time I'd been there in a few months, it took 4 of us an hour to navigate from the airport to the M50 mostly because we made the mistake of following the signposts.
WTF?
God help any tourists in a hire car, hope the enjoy spending a holiday circling the airport. :-p

celticbest

Carawaystick wrote: »

The Northern section of the M50 serves 3 national primary Motorway routes: M1,M2 and soon to be M3. and aother National primary route, the N32.
The southern section only has 2, and only one of these is a Motorway. the M1 and N31.

Why wouldn't the most important (and Busiest) part of the route be finished first?

Yeah, lets not forget what is on the M1 -

The Port Tunnel, this enables ease of access for Lorries to distribute the majority of the countries supplies via the M50.

Dublin Airport, again the majority of Air passengers travel through here & most use the M50 to get there.

I'd say above is why the Northern end of the M50 is ahead of the Southern end, the northern end has more traffic to deal with and requires the extra lanes.

This is not to say that both ends could not have progressed at the same pace if the contractor was forced to carry out the contract in a shorter time frame.

Bluetonic

celticbest wrote: »

Yeah, lets not forget what is on the M1 -

The Port Tunnel, this enables ease of access for Lorries to distribute the majority of the countries supplies via the M50.

The Port Tunnel is not on the M1.

Davy

Bluetonic wrote: »

The Port Tunnel is not on the M1.

Its not on the southern section though it doesn't really matter

testarossa40

Carawaystick wrote: »

The Northern section of the M50 serves 3 national primary Motorway routes: M1,M2 and soon to be M3. and aother National primary route, the N32.
The southern section only has 2, and only one of these is a Motorway. the M1 and N31.

Why wouldn't the most important (and Busiest) part of the route be finished first?

celticbest wrote: »

Yeah, lets not forget what is on the M1 -

The Port Tunnel, this enables ease of access for Lorries to distribute the majority of the countries supplies via the M50.

Dublin Airport, again the majority of Air passengers travel through here & most use the M50 to get there.

I'd say above is why the Northern end of the M50 is ahead of the Southern end, the northern end has more traffic to deal with and requires the extra lanes.

This is not to say that both ends could not have progressed at the same pace if the contractor was forced to carry out the contract in a shorter time frame.

I'm not getting into a Northside vs. Southside debate or similar - believe me, I'm generally a big-picture kind of guy - but I feel I've had ENOUGH of all the unnecessary hassle and misery of the past couple of years. Yes I was being a bit facetious with my "flat-pack money" comment but the general sentiment remains in that once a decision was made to prioritse the Ballymun-Ikea stretch and now M50/M1 you could see the result. Where there was a will, there was a way.

Well I'm delighted for those of you benefiting from this, sincerely, but if the project was never going to give decent priority to the southbound lanes past Tallaght, and are continuing to significantly deprioritise this part of Phase I/II - imho - then why the hell did they elect to impose wholesale disruption when they did by removing the hard shoulders, constricting the lanes, reducing the speed limits, creating potholed chicanes, dumping the concrete barriers, cones, diggers, etc etc etc if they knew they were never going to reasonably finish what they started? And therein lies the nub of the issue - that they are not seriously finishing what they started more than long enough ago! The project management here is half-hearted at best - otherwise pants.

I may be wearing rose-tinted specs or whatever, but, I don't recall it being so bad BEFORE they reconfigured that stretch? Although I'd accept we were also deep in the throes of widening from Liffey Valley to Red Cow at that time...

whosedaddy? wrote: »

The southern section was started a few months after the northbound section (busy M1, N32 IKEA, whatever reason) - of course they are behind. And yes, I'm stuck in the same tailback every morning.... but it is still a hell lot fast than it used to be before the whole upgrade started.

But I too am very curious what takes soo darn long to fix up that 15m mainline bridge at Tallagh... you've build the M50/M1 flyovers in the same amount of time...

I may stand to be corrected on the timelines (I'm possibly probably lumping the old Red Cow works into the whole experience) but I think the delays have been consistently bad for over a year now - only marginally reduced over the hols. Don't forget how there's total chaos though when there's a breakdown or some muppet has tapped into the car in front or been tapped into from swerving into another lane without indicating. Or thinking. Or caring, etc etc:rolleyes:

ardmacha

The Northern section had a very wide central reservation and no bends, facilitating the work. The Southern section, which was basically cut from rock, is about the minimum width for the project, making the work more complex.

brandodub

ardmacha wrote: »

The Northern section had a very wide central reservation and no bends, facilitating the work. The Southern section, which was basically cut from rock, is about the minimum width for the project, making the work more complex.

Good point. However if you tie in other good points on this thread (i.e. if priorities have been planned and carried out) the northern stretch does include access to the State's two most important points of entry into it- the port and airport.IMO it wins hands down for priority upgrade.

mysterious

The Ballymun to M1 is five lanes? Is that what they are doing? It seems logical to make the cross section wide here as all the lanes merges a good bit as the new flyovers are motorway to motorway movements. It needs a good long running lane spirt to allow safer weaving.

towger

towger wrote: »

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

I was looking at this roundabout again, I have come to the conclusion that the lights on the N32 entry to the roundabout will be completely unnessary as the only vehicles coming round the roundabout at that point will be those that didn't read the signs!

On second thoughts, it'll be as busy as ever!!! :rolleyes:

Davy

New gantries in place now, cant be many left along the route left to do.

rameire

M50 just want to say thanks for getting someone to fill in the holes under the tallaght junction.
just to let you know my grass needs cutting.

celticbest

testarossa40 wrote: »

I'm not getting into a Northside vs. Southside debate :

It's got nothing to do with NS V SS, the reason the NS upgrade is ahead is because it's the end that gives access from more major National routes, Dublin Airport & the Port Tunnel, it's as simple as that.

Irish and Proud

mysterious wrote: »

The Ballymun to M1 is five lanes? Is that what they are doing? It seems logical to make the cross section wide here as all the lanes merges a good bit as the new flyovers are motorway to motorway movements. It needs a good long running lane spirt to allow safer weaving.

Would make sense, but I don't think you would get five lanes on the bridge over the R132 (old N1). They should consider a seperate deck for the Airport traffic so that on the current bridge (from the right), there is one lane for the N32, two lanes for the M50 DPT and City, one lane for the M1 North, and on the parallel bridge, one lane for the Airport - a seperate 4th lane should be provided on the M1 North towards the Airport. In fact, the M1 North should have (from right), two lanes for the M1 North, 2 weaving lanes for City/DPT to Airport traffic and M50 North to M1 North traffic, and the already mentioned seperate lane for M50 North to Airport traffic.

Regards!

Carawaystick

you can't really have 2 weaving lanes, though. Unless you mean a lane where cars start on the M1 mainline and the other where cars start on the M50->M1 slip.

M50 Traffic MGT

All,

There was a major accident this morning as you may know, on the M50 SB N2 off ramp. The ramp was closed from 7am to 4:30pm. We have uploaded pictures of the incident to show how big a job it was re-opening the slip and why it took so long

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42418614@N04/sets/72157622214232111/

Hopefully this closure did not cause too much disruption

M50 Traffic Management

Irish and Proud

Carawaystick wrote: »

you can't really have 2 weaving lanes, though. Unless you mean a lane where cars start on the M1 mainline and the other where cars start on the M50->M1 slip.

Yep, that's exactly what I mean - a kind of crossover box!

Regards!

ipodrocker

great information flowing in from M50, great to hear the correct updates.

keep them coming

drag0n79

Can anyone explain this:
When there were 2 lanes NB between Ballymun and the M1, there were no big holdups at the M1 exit. Now that there are 3 lanes, traffic is backed up bigtime in that new lane (evenings, and Sunday afternoon). Has anyone else noticed this? I would have thought that the extra lane should made things quicker.

I know this is temporary and the other 2 lanes will open in October, but just curious why this is happening.

Stark

drag0n79 wrote: »

I know this is temporary and the other 2 lanes will open in October, but just curious why this is happening.

Because they increased the capacity of the road leading to the junction without increasing the capacity of the junction itself?

Carawaystick

Stark wrote: »

Because they increased the capacity of the road leading to the junction without increasing the capacity of the junction itself?

Because they increased the capacity of the road leading to the junction and reduced the capacity of the junction, The slip used to have 2 lanes from just after the diverge, it's now only one lane and there are roadwork barriers on both sides now.

I think they made a mistake with the lanecount here, there should be two for the M50-M1N, two for the M50W-M50S and only one for the N32 up to the diverge; there are gonna be one, two and two instead.

drag0n79

Stark wrote: »

Because they increased the capacity of the road leading to the junction without increasing the capacity of the junction itself?

While the capacity of the road has increased, I doubt the traffic volume changed that much from one week (2 lanes) to the next week (3 lanes).

drag0n79

Carawaystick wrote: »

Because they increased the capacity of the road leading to the junction and reduced the capacity of the junction, The slip used to have 2 lanes from just after the diverge, it's now only one lane and there are roadwork barriers on both sides now.

It's been just 1 lane for a good while now. The only thing that changed recently was the extra lane from Ballymun to the M1 exit, and from that time onwards the traffic has been backed up most evenings.