M7 - Castletown to Nenagh

slinky2000

ah crap looks like I won't be travelling on this till after new years if it's the 20th

kiwipower

Ehhhh dont forget the Atlantic Corridor.
Gort - Tuam and on!

MYSTICA1

Article in Today's Irish Times .. Could be bad news !http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1209/1224285100995.html

Text:
Financial dispute threatens to delay opening of M7 motorway

TIM O'BRIEN
THE GOVERNMENT’S plan to have all new motorways between Dublin and the regional cities open by the end of the year is in doubt because of a dispute over the final section of the M7.

Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has been asked to intervene in the multi-party dispute that threatens to prevent the Castletown-Nenagh stretch of the M7 opening by December 31st.

The road is structurally finished. It is understood lines and markings are within days of completion, but no opening date has been agreed.
At the centre of the row is a claim for additional payments from contractor Bowen Somague Joint Venture. An award, believed to be in the region of €20 million, was made to the contractor following conciliation hearings, but this had been contested by Laois County Council, supported by the National Roads Authority.
The council and the roads authority now want the claim to go to full arbitration. The council, however, is required to pay the full conciliation award to the contractor in advance of the dispute moving to arbitration.
Laois County Council has said it is prepared to pay, but director of services for roads Gerry Gibson said the process provided for a bond from the contractor to ensure the money was not dissipated, should the council ultimately win. “The bond is a requirement and we have a duty to protect the public purse,” Mr Gibson said.
He added that the process of taking responsibility for the road also involved health and safety audits, among other formalities. These had not been completed and he said the speed with which these requirements were met was a matter for the contractor.
A statement on behalf of Bowen Somague said: “As far as the contractor is concerned, it will be physically possible to open the road by the end of the year. However, only Laois County Council can determine the actual opening date.”
Meanwhile, some subcontractors say they are awaiting payment for work on the €337 million 36km motorway. Local TD Noel Coonan (FG) said up to 25 sub-contractors and their suppliers were awaiting payment from various parties.
“It will have disastrous consequences for the economy if local suppliers cannot pay their creditors and are forced to close,” he said. Mr Coonan called on Mr Dempsey to intervene “as a matter of urgency”.
The Castletown-Nenagh stretch of the M7 links Borris-in-Ossory with Moneygall, Co Offaly. It is the final stretch of a road which began with the opening of the Naas bypass in 1983.
The government in the 2000- 2006 National Development Plan initially targeted completion of all the major inter-urban motorways between Dublin and the regional cities for 2006. This was later amended to 2010 in the National Development Plan 2007-2013.

keane2097

I don't see why a legal dispute about a payment would necessitate a fully finished road from being opened tbh.

shg101

keane2097 wrote: »

I don't see why a legal dispute about a payment would necessitate a fully finished road from being opened tbh.

Leverage

Deedsie

And as always, average Joe road user suffers over delayed payments. Just open the fuppin road...

b2dadizzle

I can't believe this road was started in 1983. It's unbelievable. Does this happen in other countries also? I'd say there's no hope of this opening before Christmas now. Definitely won't open in time to make my life a bit easier next week. I've to go from Carlow to Shannon on Sunday, then Shannon to Dublin on Tuesday and back, then back to Carlow on Friday. Looks like I'll have to see Moneygall and Toomevara another few times. I hate those places.

knipex

spacetweek wrote: »

Incredible. I've never in my whole life had a commute longer than 30 mins. I don't know how you people do it!

Longest commute (time wise) I ever had was in Dublin.

I used to live in Ranelagh and by job moved to Clonee.

Leave at the wrong time and it could take 2 hours.

andykells

Handover due late next week with opening the following Monday (20th)

JayeL

b2dadizzle wrote: »

I can't believe this road was started in 1983. It's unbelievable. Does this happen in other countries also?

I don't think the opening of the Naas bypass in 1983 was the conscious beginning of a Dublin-Limerick motorway. While the M50 sections were always opened with the eventual intention of creating a Dublin bypass (of course it took so long that Dublin sprawled outside it in the time it took to complete it), I think the N7 was never planned to be a point-to-point motorway until around 10 years ago. I'm open to correction on this, obviously.

JayeL

Back on topic, I think this road will open before Christmas. One morning of outrage before last Christmas got a penultimate section of the M9 open, a far more vital section of a more important motorway - completing all of the MIU projects - is way too big to leave sit idle.

ardmacha

I don't think the opening of the Naas bypass in 1983 was the conscious beginning of a Dublin-Limerick motorway. While the M50 sections were always opened with the eventual intention of creating a Dublin bypass (of course it took so long that Dublin sprawled outside it in the time it took to complete it), I think the N7 was never planned to be a point-to-point motorway until around 10 years ago. I'm open to correction on this, obviously.

The M7 was always intended to run to Porlaoise and of course form part of the N7.

blackwarrior

tech2 wrote: »

Excellent news, I'll update the thread title on expected opening date. Soon the last bit of the inter-urban network will be finished and we can drive between Limerick and Dublin by dual carriageway/motorway standard road. Last but not least!!

Sorry to be a damp squib, but what source has given the 20th December? The NRA can only open the road when the contractor hands it over. There is no sign of that yet. This road may not open until 2011.

Cookiemunster

blackwarrior wrote: »

Sorry to be a damp squib, but what source has given the 20th December? The NRA can only open the road when the contractor hands it over. There is no sign of that yet. This road may not open until 2011.

Apparently andykells is somehow involved in the construction. He kinda got the news about the road closures right last month so he might be kinda right here too

Tech3

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Ehhhhh, make that 2020 when Galway - Cork is finished :cool:

Sorry forgot to include the word "major". The last of the major inter urbans. Then we are back to the "normal" inter urbans !!!

blackwarrior wrote: »

Sorry to be a damp squib, but what source has given the 20th December? The NRA can only open the road when the contractor hands it over. There is no sign of that yet. This road may not open until 2011.

20th of December given by two posters. One of them had previously predicted that the Nenagh bypass will be closed to accomadate works for the tie in with the new scheme.

Lets not forget that we had the confirmation date(source) of the M18 Gort-Crusheen scheme way before it appeared on any NRA site or national newspaper.

andykells

blackwarrior wrote: »

Sorry to be a damp squib, but what source has given the 20th December? The NRA can only open the road when the contractor hands it over. There is no sign of that yet. This road may not open until 2011.

Handover is due next week which would allow them open then on the 20th. If contractor does not hand it over well yeah this then would be pushed but i doubt and am hopeful that will not happen.

b2dadizzle

A week too late for me, I'm afraid, but it's great news all the same. Cannot wait till the new year so I can travel from carlow to Shannon on motorway, with the exception of about 15 miles. Lets hope nothing happens in the meantime to delay the opening even further.

dergside

On a quick dash to Dublin and back this morning, there seemed to be little sign of activity around the tie in at Nenagh or the other points visible from the N7. Other than removing cones, gates at slip roads, etc., to my untrained eye there didn't seem to be much left to do bar a last road sweep.

Slightly off topic, but spotted the first pothole on the southbound Portlaois to Borris-on-Ossory stretch today, two or three miles south of the toll booths on the lefthand lane. Is this a record?

Hopefully they got a warranty with that section!!

no1beemerfan

dergside wrote: »

On a quick dash to Dublin and back this morning, there seemed to be little sign of activity around the tie in at Nenagh or the other points visible from the N7. Other than removing cones, gates at slip roads, etc., to my untrained eye there didn't seem to be much left to do bar a last road sweep.

Slightly off topic, but spotted the first pothole on the southbound Portlaois to Borris-on-Ossory stretch today, two or three miles south of the toll booths on the lefthand lane. Is this a record?

Hopefully they got a warranty with that section!!

There are a few pothholes (decent sized ones at that too) at the toll booth going north.

JupiterKid

no1beemerfan wrote: »

There are a few pothholes (decent sized ones at that too) at the toll booth going north.

That is shocking.:eek: On a spanking new section of motorway? The contractors must have done a very, very poor surfacing job.:(

Any other sections of recently opened motorway damaged due to the ice and snow I wonder?

blackwarrior

tech2 wrote: »

Sorry forgot to include the word "major". The last of the major inter urbans. Then we are back to the "normal" inter urbans !!!



20th of December given by two posters. One of them had previously predicted that the Nenagh bypass will be closed to accomadate works for the tie in with the new scheme.

Lets not forget that we had the confirmation date(source) of the M18 Gort-Crusheen scheme way before it appeared on any NRA site or national newspaper.

OK - I accept that, I just feel the contractor is not playing ball on this route.... let's see.

L1011

dergside wrote: »

Slightly off topic, but spotted the first pothole on the southbound Portlaois to Borris-on-Ossory stretch today, two or three miles south of the toll booths on the lefthand lane. Is this a record?

Hopefully they got a warranty with that section!!

Toll operator is liable for that, so warranty or not its irrelevant to the state. The construction contractors are part of the operating consortium anyway I think...

lukejr

I'll be driving to Dublin tomorrow during the daylight I'll take an extra good look at this section as I drive past and report back.

Hopefully that will be the last return trip I will have to make without full motorway.

Berty

I went up and down to Dublin airport from Limerick over the past two days and was dissapointed of course that it was not open. My SATNAV believes its open and throws off my navigation and ETA.

At Junction 20 today the roads were being cleaned and similar was happening at Junction ?? at the Nenagh end of the Section.

pinkfloyd34

if friday is the day that roads are usually open would that not mean the 17th is a possibility?

tinkerbell

Yes I would've thought they'd open on the 17th (Friday) rather than 20th (Monday)???

Joey Joe-Joe Jr

Had a quick look on the NRA site at the opening dates for schemes over the past 12 months and Friday does have more than it's share of openings, however, there's nothing to say that it can't open on any other day of the week.

Gort/Crusheen - Friday 12/11/10
Nenagh/Limerick (Bog Section) - Tuesday 28/09/10
Carlow/Knocktopher - Thursday 09/09/10
Limerick Tunnel - Tuesday 27/07/10
M3 - Friday 04/06/10
Port Laoise/Cullahill/Castletown - Friday 28/05/10
Waterford/Knocktopher - Monday 23/03/10
Kilcullen/Carlow - Monday 21/12/10
Galway/Ballinasloe - Friday 18/12/10

Amtmann

Joey Joe-Joe Jr wrote: »

Had a quick look on the NRA site at the opening dates for schemes over the past 12 months and Friday does have more than it's share of openings, however, there's nothing to say that it can't open on any other day of the week.

Gort/Crusheen - Friday 12/11/10
Nenagh/Limerick (Bog Section) - Tuesday 28/09/10
Carlow/Knocktopher - Thursday 09/09/10
Limerick Tunnel - Tuesday 27/07/10
M3 - Friday 04/06/10
Port Laoise/Cullahill/Castletown - Friday 28/05/10
Waterford/Knocktopher - Monday 23/03/10
Kilcullen/Carlow - Monday 21/12/10
Galway/Ballinasloe - Friday 18/12/10

Exactly. I don't know why so many people seem to assume that Fridays = road opening days.

L1011

Kilcullen Carlow was meant to be a Friday and ended up a Monday due to the cancellation / boards.ie forced opening wasn't it?

blackwarrior

Call me a spoilsport, but I'm not convinced this is opening in 2010. And, yes, I badly want it - I'm a daily commuter on the N7 and badly need it!

But I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised.