Worst Stretch of National Route Road in Ireland

AugustusMaximus

Without a doubt in my mind it has to be the N70 (Ring of Kerry) between Sneem and Waterville. Just appauling.

The funny thing is that there are 100kph everywhere on it. You can barely do 60kph on a lot of the sections. The German tourists must have a great laugh seeing the signs.

On the other hand, a lot of perfectly good bypassed roads have 80kph limits. Go figure.

Oilrig

Worst stretch of primary road in the country is easily the Paulstown - Waterford stretch of the "N9".

Narrow, twisty and populated by trucks in the main.

Run_to_da_hills

Most frustrating stretch in my opinion is from the end of the M7 to Roscrea. Once you hit this stretch and get stuck behind some slow idiot who won't pull over you are in for a long haul. Another frustrating stretch is from Limerick to Foynes. (you cannot pull over on this long stretch)

Esel

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

The funny thing is that there are 100kph everywhere on it. You can barely do 60kph on a lot of the sections. The German tourists must have a great laugh seeing the signs.

They don't notice the signs, because they are on the wrong side of the road!

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Most frustrating stretch in my opinion is from the end of the M7 to Roscrea. Once you hit this stretch and get stuck behind some slow idiot who won't pull over you are in for a long haul. Another frustrating stretch is from Limerick to Foynes. (you cannot pull over on this long stretch)

Just to clarify, by 'pull over' do you mean 'get the fuc out of my way'?

Run_to_da_hills

esel wrote: »

Just to clarify, by 'pull over' do you mean 'get the fuc out of my way'?

Precisely, there is nothing worse than being stuck in a train of cars behind some idiot who is hogging the centre of the road at 65KPH when the limit is 100KPH especially when they dont bother to pull in and let cars pass. These guys are worse than those that speed because they encourage dangerous maneuvers of those that are stuck behind them.

Esel

So, you are a 'get the fuc out of my way' kind of person! The 'get the fuc out of my way' kind of person who has never experienced anything worse than "being stuck in a train of cars behind some idiot who is hogging the centre of the road at 65KPH when the limit is 100KPH especially when they dont bother to pull in and let cars pass". Lucky you tbh.

Smart drivers on national routes do not normally find themselves at the back of long lines of traffic, or, if they do, they know to proceed. Punctuation not guaranteed. Your mileage may vary.

Run_to_da_hills

esel wrote: »

Smart drivers on national routes do not normally find themselves at the back of long lines of traffic, or, if they do, they know to proceed. Punctuation not guaranteed. Your mileage may vary.

Do you have Lithuanian plates? :eek:

Beta Ray Bill

M50

thats it and thats all...

without a shadow of a doubt it's the worst road in ireland. and you have to pay to use it... lame

a close second is road that goes from Kilbarrack firestation to Donamghede Shopping Centre. that road is like lego on christmas morning... in bits!!!!

Run_to_da_hills

grahambo wrote: »

M50

thats it and thats all...

without a shadow of a doubt it's the worst road in ireland. and you have to pay to use it... lame

a close second is road that goes from Kilbarrack firestation to Donamghede Shopping Centre. that road is like lego on christmas morning... in bits!!!!

Mate, this thread is about national routes and not about carparks.

kyote00

All roads in meath.... some examples...

1) The R161 - the main road from trim to kinnegad just as you leave trim.
resurfaced last summer and now already disintegrating...

2) R156 through rathmoylan. Resurfaced last month after laying pipes - new sections have sunken already....

3) new bit of the N3 after dunboyne.... they have spend nearly 2 years working on this and opened a new section a few weeks ago .... guess what .... its a single lane in each direction for cars and bus lane at each edge....there is loads of leveling, landscaped space at each side left unused....

4) New road from trim to navan - under construction for 1.5 yrs (at least)...loads of room but we still end up with single lane in each direction....

While I'm at it --

how many new roads do you see that dont drain properly after a shower of rain....


In general, soddy workmanship always taking the short term view while contractors milk the local councils for whatever they can get....

Slidey

The N4 between cooloney and castlebaldwin, it goes from a dual carrigeway to pure sh1te in no lenght.
Also the road from boyle to roscommon is brutal, in plaves 2 trucks struggal t pass each other

PaulKK

This is easy, worst national roads are the N77 from Kilkenny to Ballyragget and a lot of the N78 to Castlecomer (where the presidents motorcade had an accident a few weeks ago). Its rough and windy nearly all they way.

mike65

Kilkennys N routes are the worst as measured county by county.

Mike.

L1011

Another vote for N77, made worse by the fact that Google's route finder sends you down it to get to Kilkenny City from Dublin!

alanucc

Theres a bad stetch of the N21 between Macroom and Ballyvourney. Really really treacherous most of the time

Rowley Birkin QC

Road from Mitchelstown to Limerick, absolutely shocking until after Caherconlish.

MSporty

N9 heading south after Ballyhale, is quite a dangerous road. Some overtaking oppurtunities followed by long winding narrow stretches. Perfect recipe for disaster. Plenty of crashes on this route. Just aswell the new motorway is being constructed.

VeVeX

Drove down to Millstreet recently from Dublin. The N72 & N73 are an absolute disgrace.

There should seriously be alot more emphasis put on the contribution that poor road conditions play in accidents.

E92

Mallow - just before Croom is an absolute disgrace for a road that is supposed to be connecting the second and third biggest cities in the Republic.
The Fermoy Mitchelstown road isn't any great shakes either, what with all the accidents that happen on it.

I wouldn't be gone on Macroom - Ballyvourney(in fairness it's pothole free but my God are there twists and turns on it) either. Ballyvourney-Tralee is for the most part a good road though it could do with being a Dual Carriageway as could all of the Cork-Tralee roads.

Could someone explain to me why given that our Dual Carriageways and Motorways have a design speed of 100 mph or 160 km/h that we are only allowed to travel at only 100 and 120 km/h respectively?

Zonda999

alanucc wrote: »

Theres a bad stetch of the N21 between Macroom and Ballyvourney. Really really treacherous most of the time

Totally agree.Those 6 miles or so between the mons bar and ballyvourney is absolutely treacherous.Would'nt recommend it on a friday evening anyway, thats for sure.The roads surface along some of that route is terrible as well.At least in recent times theyve put that yellowy gritt stuff on the worst turns

N81 is pretty crap

lots of crap roads, been on most mentioned in the thread so far and I agree completely with ye!

Stephen

100% agreement on the N9 between Paulstown and Waterford. I drive the aforementioned N77 every day as well, its not half as terrible as the Waterford end of the N9!

_Kaiser_

kyote00 wrote: »

All roads in meath.... some examples...

+1 on all roads in Meath.. more examples:

- The Navan to Athboy Road. Sunken in places so what to they do. Put up signs rather than fix it!

- Most roads in Navan itself

- Kells to Athboy. Kells itself. The recently resurfaced bit is already potholed in places.

- Coming into Trim from Navan. Can barely see the roadmarkings (where they even exist) and the road surface itself between where the road drops from 60 to 50 km/h is atrocious.

PanhardPL

bigkev49 wrote: »

Road from Mitchelstown to Limerick, absolutely shocking until after Caherconlish.

That section of road is still only an R route with an 80kph limit all the way and for the last 15 years plus Limerick County Council have been trying to get it upgraded to a National road, but the Dept. have refused to budge.

dingding

slideways wrote: »

The N4 between cooloney and castlebaldwin, it goes from a dual carrigeway to pure sh1te in no lenght.
Also the road from boyle to roscommon is brutal, in plaves 2 trucks struggal t pass each other

And the road from Sligo to Blacklion via Manorhanilton. :eek:

AugustusMaximus

I'm guessing from the replies that not many have had the pleasure to drive that particular section of the N70.

Its basically like the Macroom to Ballyvourney section where it is very twisty except the road surface is also appauling.

Seth Brundle

M50. The surface of the new sections is an absolute disgrace!

Scottie99

Heading to Castlebar, turning left from the main high street in Longford travel down the road for 300yards. Its very very bad! If you did the speed limit you would receive a detached retina::rolleyes:

VH

N9 thru Kilkenny is an absolute disgrace, tho it is bad from the just before Castledermot. No other national primary city-to-city route is as bad. Kilkenny Co Co should be ashamed of themselves and should get a funding cut to reflect the money they're not spending on roads. It's understandable why the NRA picked the M9 to be the first completed (tho it's not likely it'll be first now) city-to-city national primary.

peasant

The one road that takes the biscuit though is the N59, without a doubt.

Sligo to Ballina is just dangerous, Galway to Clifden as well, but the bit between Clifden and Westport is hardly a cow path, never mind a National road ...very scenic though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N59_road



100 km/h anyone ?

AugustusMaximus

peasant wrote: »

The one road that takes the biscuit though is the N59, without a doubt.

Sligo to Ballina is just dangerous, Galway to Clifden as well, but the bit between Clifen and Westport is hardly a cow path, never mind a National road ...very scenic though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N59_road

That's the sort of nominations I want. I can't understand how National Primary routes being mentioned can be that bad.