M50 upgrade - Phase II

Had to be done that way as there was nowhere to put the traffic if they'd started rebuilding from the outside in!

Carawaystick

Deleted User wrote: »

Had to be done that way as there was nowhere to put the traffic if they'd started rebuilding from the outside in!

I think you misunderstand, there are 3 lanes from Tallaght towards Ballymount, the onslip from the N81 becomes a driving lane, there is no need to merge.
When I said the opposite side of the Motorway I meant the northbound side.

celticbest

Why if they opened the 3rd Lane( what will be lane 1 when complete), for Ikea opening could they not leave this open?

It all seems a bit silly to me as there was still a large amount of room behind the cones for construction vehicle's to move around as this is one of the widest stretches along the whole of the m50.

celticbest

celticbest wrote: »

Why if they opened the 3rd Lane( what will be lane 1 when complete), for Ikea opening could they not leave this open?

It all seems a bit silly to me as there was still a large amount of room behind the cones for construction vehicle's to move around as this is one of the widest stretches along the whole of the m50.

I'm guessing that they decided to retain an "emergency" lane for the whole section of works.

Carawaystick

The full width of the M50 from M1 to Ballymun has it's wearing course down, apart from the B'mun junction, and most of the way from the 'Mun to Finglas has the 4 lanes' wearing course down as of yesterday afternoon. Thre are also the entire width of the sections through these junctions with the full wearing course(3lanes + HS)
These sections look like they will be complete after lining and cateyeing in about a week. There was also serious landscaping work going on to finish the embankments, looking like they only need seeding.

This contrasts with the 3 lane section from Finglas to Blanch, where there is still a lot of work needed to finish the Aux lane and HS.

Going eastbound from Finglas to the M1, I can't remember if the progress was as complete, but there was wearing course through the junctions.

celticbest

Just saw this morning that the 3 lanes + auxiliary lane are now marked on the M50 Southbound from the M1 to Junction to the Ballymun junction and all finishing works on the verge seem to be complete lets hope this means that this stretch will now soon be open.

cargo

Yeah saw the markings as well this morning but noticed also that the guardrail inside the hardshoulder is not erected yet so a little bit still to be done here and this section just as you join from the M1 direction heading to Ballymun is elevated so can't see them opening it until it's done. In fact it's still missing in a lot of the stretches that look almost complete.

Going North onto the M1 yesterday evening the filter slip for the M1/Airport had been lenghtened a good bit even further back towards Ballymun helping further with this hold-up.

Anyone got any more "opening" dates for here yet?

sk8board

Was along the M50 last night (Sunday) at 11pm and there was a lot of work going on Nthbound from the blanchardstown off-ramp all the way to the M1, and it was down to a single lane.

Looked like road-marking to me.

this morning, going Sthbound I noticed all the markings are now down on both sides, and the side railings are almost finished, something theys tarted about 10 days ago.

Also, the markings and railings were just about finished on the new Finglas lane that required a widening of the existing bridge.

surely its only a few weeks away now to open Finglas - M1, or will theyw ait for the Blanch part before opening it all ...

Carawaystick

a view of the M50 from the N2 northbound at Finglas

Carawaystick

And from the other side looking towards the city, those "tunnels" have a new extension.

There seems to be a lot of work to be done to fill in the sections between the bridges, I presume it can be done and settle quicker than the bridge section will take. Is this where the work is planned to run til the end of next year? The work for the slips for the left turn movements have a long way to go too, Same at Ballymun and same from the M50N to M50W at the M1 junction. I'd have thought getting a lot of traffic out of the way would make the work easier...

sk8board

Just a quick update on the Nth bound sections from blanch to M1

all the road markings are now down, bar a small bit right at the M50-M1 off-ramp.

this evening they were putting the last of the lane writing in place on each of the 4 lanes: 'M2', 'M50', 'M50', 'M50' between blanch and finglas and its already in place at ballymun.

I know its been asked a thousand times, but does anyone have any dates for opening it up? I don't see much left; the landscaping is all but done, and the barriers are just about in place.

sk8board

sk8board wrote: »

Just a quick update on the Nth bound sections from blanch to M1

all the road markings are now down, bar a small bit right at the M50-M1 off-ramp.

this evening they were putting the last of the lane writing in place on each of the 4 lanes: 'M2', 'M50', 'M50', 'M50' between blanch and finglas and its already in place at ballymun.

I know its been asked a thousand times, but does anyone have any dates for opening it up? I don't see much left; the landscaping is all but done, and the barriers are just about in place.

When I went along there yesterday, I noticed that there are several gaps in the topcoat at the junctions where the slip lanes merge/demerge with the mainline that still need to be finished.

They appear to be finishing one or two of those each night.
Hopefully it'll open the end of this week (just lane one) in time for the school reopening. The hard shoulder is far from complete in several places.

whosedaddy?

I'm also hoping this is a push to get it done before schools are back.

I'd say the N2 bridge (the temp outside crashbarrier) needs more work. but maybeone of these nights...

Fingers crossed, but given the track record, I'm not overly optimistic.

oddiot

Any thoughts on what the M50/M1 northbound merge will be like once they open the third and fourth lanes? There's a good deal of congestion between Finglas/N2 and the M1 during the day, so once the M50 capacity effectively doubles overnight, will there be long tailbacks at the M1 northbound free-flow merge?

oddiot

oddiot wrote: »

Any thoughts on what the M50/M1 northbound merge will be like once they open the third and fourth lanes? There's a good deal of congestion between Finglas/N2 and the M1 during the day, so once the M50 capacity effectively doubles overnight, will there be long tailbacks at the M1 northbound free-flow merge?

Quite likely! as traffic will fly along the motorway right up to past the Ballymun junction and then squeeze into one lane.

At least the remaining traffic wil be (mostly) unhindered going to the roundabout, some traffic may stay on till the roundabout and turn left.

cargo

Deleted User wrote: »

............, some traffic may stay on till the roundabout and turn left.

sssshh don't tell them

celticbest

whosedaddy? wrote: »

I'm also hoping this is a push to get it done before schools are back.

I'd say the N2 bridge (the temp outside crashbarrier) needs more work. but maybeone of these nights...

Fingers crossed, but given the track record, I'm not overly optimistic.

Yeah, please, please, please let at least one extra lane be opened next Monday morning!

The traffic have been much heavier this week and I can only imagine what it will be like next week if no extra lanes are open.

Tailback has been back to the old toll the last 2 nights going northbound more less all the way through to the M1. This just seems to be traffic returning after everyone is back from there summer holidays and now with all schools back on Monday what will it be like??

Carawaystick

There were covered up permanent speed limit signs up between Ballymun and the M1 today both ways. And there is paint marking out 5 lanes heasing east to the M1/M50 junction. One lane, aux markings, 2 lanes and more aux markings and 2 more lanes.

I'd say they should have made an extra lane on the M1N to the airport junction, to reduce the need to merge immediately coming onto the M1 mainline. Having two lanes for the Airport the full way to the junction would improve things. Similarily from the Airport to M1N onramp to the Holywell exit, an aux lane here would also reduce merging.

I've attached a pic of the N3 junction. It's the new bridge for the offramp on the M50S to N3.
The old Onslip N3-M50N is completely gone, you can see the whole way across the M50 to the location of the pic when getting onto the M50N at this junction.

oddiot

There's plenty of activity each night now, so fingers crossed for some lane openings in the short term. The official website seems to be updated daily with detail of lane closures: http://m50.ie/index.php?page=daily-traffic

cargo

The signs for the additional lanes joining the motorway went up yesterday from the M1 junction heading South/East past Ballymun. You can see these as you travel along the main carriageway to indicate there are an 2 additional lanes about to join the motorway. These are not covered up like the new speed signs.

I suspect they must be getting ready for some openings this weekend. However there is still tidying up to be done in spots like a small section of barrier missing here and there etc

Further along:
The section south of Ballymount heading to Tallaght got a few layers of tar in the past 2 weeks as well. This section looked relatively untouched but they just landed in and started surfacing so I imagine they hadn't a lot of services etc to move. They were always 1 or 2 guys tipping away in the trees at the side of this but it looked very much behind but hopefully now it'll get moving and open south to Talaght soon too. Although the Tallaght offslip hasn't had any upgrade done to it yet. I presume it's getting another lane off?

Redsoxfan

cargo wrote: »

Further along:
The section south of Ballymount heading to Tallaght got a few layers of tar in the past 2 weeks as well. This section looked relatively untouched but they just landed in and started surfacing so I imagine they hadn't a lot of services etc to move. They were always 1 or 2 guys tipping away in the trees at the side of this but it looked very much behind but hopefully now it'll get moving and open south to Talaght soon too. Although the Tallaght offslip hasn't had any upgrade done to it yet. I presume it's getting another lane off?

Yeah, I am wondering about this myself-I guess they could extend the current lane alignment at Ballymount down as far as the N81 slip, but there still appears to be a bit of work to do on the northbound side. Still quite a lot of work to do from Tallaght-Sandyford as far as I can see. Looks like Sandyford-Leopardstown is on the brink of being ready.

Redsoxfan

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.

I'm disappointed that another lane wasn't opened each way on the northern section! The road appears sufficiently complete to open?

ipodrocker

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm disappointed that another lane wasn't opened each way on the northern section! The road appears sufficiently complete to open?

how much of the northern section is complete with the 3rd lane?

Carawaystick

The whole way from Ballymun to the M1 has 4 lanes ready, The whole way from the M1 to Ballymun has 3 lanes and 4 from where the merging at the junction finishes.
From Ballymun to Finglas has 4 lanes finished. from Finglas back needs a bit of work at the onramp merging,

The Armco needs finishing in the sections I mentioned, but the 3rd lane could open.

There are 100km/h signs up from the Finglas to N3 section both ways.
And plenty of inaccurate signs showing final lane merging diagrams while all the lanes aren't there yet.

cargo

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.

Simillarly Ballymun to Finglas. They were even washing the lanes this am and all machinery looked to be gone so I thought great there'll be new lanes here tomorrow am. But then halfway along to Finglas there's a digger making a big hole at the side of the road (presumably for a gantry base) and a few workers putting in steel etc. Then when you hit Finglas, again, there's nowhere for the new lanes to go!! It seems to be the case for all the bits that are coming in at present. (M1 South past the airport has new lanes but they are digging away beside them and there'e stone & soil stored all over the place)

Yes they have major progress on all the new lanes but i think the structure work will hold back the opening of most of them. Hope I'm wrong but I keep seeing things that will need to be sorted (and there not the 3am sort of things) before we get the benifit of the new lanes.

Surely the erecting of the new signs will prove me wrong???? They would have kept them covered would they not if they didn't expect some new lanes very soon?

There has to be someone who knows someone who knows someone who supplies T-bags to the foreman who can tell us when some of the new changes will come into effect?

rameire

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.

southbound
they have to mark the hard shoulder, also they have to put in some barriers, they have marked along the road where these will go in, so id give it a couple of weeks.
also along the stretch from dundrum to leopardstown 13 to 14 they have started to paint the lines on the road, and the line painter was there this morning so looks like they will do more tonight.

whosedaddy?

there where new gantries before blanch. ready to be put in place. They will not open any third lane untill all that steelwork is in place. once the lanes are open, they have nowhere to park and prepare them.

Likewise for Ballymount -Tallagh and Dundrum - Sandyford.

The on-/ offslip alignments still need work too. N3 to M50S, N2 to M50S , donno Ballymun.

I was just hoping that they would just open the third lane (lane 1) between junctions, like between Blanch and Finglas is now.

Doing this would avoid bunching at the junctions that's happening now, the workers (& emergency crews) would still have the Aux lane to use. Now looks like all or nothing!

cargo

Deleted User wrote: »

I was just hoping that they would just open the third lane (lane 1) between junctions, like between Blanch and Finglas is now.

Doing this would avoid bunching at the junctions that's happening now, the workers (& emergency crews) would still have the Aux lane to use. Now looks like all or nothing!

I think the problem, as I mentioned above, is that the lanes are terminating at a stop so you would have a new lane (or 2) along the mainline but then a the next junction everyone would have to merge down into 2 lanes again making the bunching even worse. Hopefully there will be a little work done quickly to seemlessly take these new lanes off at the junctions while they continue to work away at the junctions themselves.

Take the Airport turnoff for example. They don't seem to be adding a new lane onto the off-slip as normal and just taking the new mainline lane off onto it, it looks like the new lanes here will be rearranged with the eisting ones and some will go up and over the new flyover. So we'll probably have to wait until it's ready for traffic. (hopefully not)