N22 - Macroom to Ballyvourney (Macroom Bypass) [open to traffic]

Mrs Dempsey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120974224#Comment_120974224

So you don't ride a motorcycle?

While I'd not welcome it, sliding along the base of the smooth concrete wall would beat getting entangled in the vertical metal supports!

Packrat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120974377#Comment_120974377

After the week motorcyclists have had I wouldn't be advertising...

KrisW1001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120974377#Comment_120974377

At least this road doesn’t use a wire barrier. Instead, it’s the same kind of pressed-metal “armco” barrier as used on the roadside - wire barriers won’t be used on future projects. For the same impact speed, hitting a concrete barrier is more likely to seriously injure you than the metal as the concrete has no give at all.

In any case, the central barrier isn’t there to save your life - it's to stop you going onto the other carriageway and potentially causing a second, more serious, accident.

arsebiscuits82

Drove the new and old section yesterday....

Coolcower to Toonlane through the town and using old N22: 16minutes with no traffic.

Toonlane back to Coolcower at 100kph: just over 10 minutes.

Mrs Dempsey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120974412#Comment_120974412

I'm not trying to sell anything - nor do I advocate generalised collectivisation; such as "all whatever are whatever".

Torrey

Big tailbacks in Ballymakeera yesterday with people trying to get onto new section, the traffic lights are not ideal but they are a necessity unfortunately until the last section opens in October

cantalach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120973902#Comment_120973902

A vehicle travelling at 120 on a motorway has 44% more kinetic energy than a vehicle travelling at 100 on a type 2 dual carriageway. Good engineering doesn't mean using the strongest structures. It means using the most appropriate structures.

Water John

Was between a long artic and the median wall on the M8 yesterday as I was passing it out. Not a very nice feeling, certainly no room for error.

Mushy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120976705#Comment_120976705

I had one of those swerve into the overtaking lane as I was overtaking it on that road, was onto other side of rumble strips beside barrier when they pulled back in. Certainly wasn't going to be a nice situation!

niloc1951

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120977092#Comment_120977092

The quicker the overtaking manoeuvre the better. With a 30km/h advantage the time spent exposed to danger should be relatively short.

A few years, when overtaking a truck on the M7 it started moving into the overtaking lane, I just floored the accelerator and escaped the narrowing gap at over 130km/h. I did slow back to the speed limit once the drama was over.

Hitting the brakes wasn't an option as that could have involved me in a pile up with following traffic.

Mushy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120977189#Comment_120977189

Yeah a 2007 1.4 litre petrol doesn't have great acceleration power to react that way, although had I'd say a 25kmph advantage so might have squzed through.

On topic though...hooray to no macroom again

dmeehan

Killarney to Cork Airport this morning at 5am took 55 mins

marno21

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120980429#Comment_120980429

Just shows you what we get when our population centres aren’t connected by 19th century goat tracks

yerwanthere123

Is there any chance the remaining section of the bypass could open sooner than October 27th? The road already looks quite finished to my (admittedly non-expert) eyes.

sonnyblack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120980579#Comment_120980579

Do you leave from the cork side of Killarney or the Dingle or Farranfore side. Brilliant time anyway

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120980429#Comment_120980429

Generous with your right foot as well I’m guessing?

mcburns07

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120986570#Comment_120986570

Wouldn't need to be, can be done at around the speed limit in that time now if you're travelling as early as the poster was.

cantalach

Almost a week since the new section opened and I'm eagerly awaiting the reports of HGVs clogging up Macroom. When coming back from Kerry on Monday, I got off the new road at the Millstreet Road and diverted through the town to see the anticipated traffic chaos for myself. Much to my surprise, the town was very quiet. I guess I just got lucky...

KrisW1001

I think we all knew that that was never going to happen.

However, now that it’s possible to close the former N22 without provoking a road-traffic apocalypse, the County Council needs to do something about the junction between Millstreet Road and the old N22 - it’s a really sharp turn for HGVs coming from the West wanting to join the bypass, and it has very poor sightlines for drivers coming off the bypass who wish to turn right onto the westbound old-N22.

Here’s what is probably the cheapest solution...

ADKELMAC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989858#Comment_120989858

Is there any point in spending large amounts of money trying to rectify the Millstreet rd junction to accommodate HGVs? The correct thing would be to begin the process of adding slip roads at Carrigaphooca.

In an earlier post you mentioned that in 2009 the planning inspector did not recommend access at Carrigaphooca. Since 2009 there has been a Service station and at least 60 houses built on the Millstreet rd out of Macroom, the road is narrowed to 6 meters at one point at the newest housing development, Gleann an Fhia. Space is at a premium on this road for road widening & alterations.

There’s plenty less expensive space available around Carrigaphooca.

Cookiemunster

Dude, give it up. Slips at Carrigaphooca are never going to happen.

ADKELMAC

Spending more money ripping up the roads in around Macroom to accommodate HGVs that cant safely access the €280 million new road is no answer. Silk purse..sows ear…etc.

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990027#Comment_120990027

How on earth would this make sense on a cost benefit analysis. A junction would cost multiples of a small junction realignment.

cantalach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990075#Comment_120990075

If the junction where the R582 (Millstreet Road) meets the R618 (old N22) is fixed, HGVs will be able to access the new road by travelling just 1.2 km up the R582. Cork County Council apparently already owns the land and we're essentially talking here about just putting in a roundabout and slightly re-aligning the roads. If you're going to make an argument against "spending more money" then you'll surely have to acknowledge that building new slip roads at Carrigaphooca would be much more expensive.

KrisW1001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990027#Comment_120990027

What I drew there would cost about €500k, and it would fix the problem of access for everyone. What you want would cost between 10 and 15 million euro, and once it was done, the fix I drew would still be required on old N22. What I drew needs no widening, and takes only a small area of green-space from a residential development. But I’m not a civil engineer, and I’m sure someone whose job it was could do better than what I can in ten minutes of drawing...

Any planning given since 2009 takes the bypass into account - next time you’re there, have a look at the green verges of about 1.5 metres all the way outside Lios na Fea on both sides of the road. The only place with properties right up to the road is south of Looney’s garage.

But you’re saying 6 metres like it’s abnormal. It’s not. It is the standard width of a road inside a town boundary. Given that the maximum permitted width of a normal load is 2.55 metres, at a 60 km/h speed limit, keeping that 2.55 m truck within a 3.00 metre lane shouldn’t be a problem for any driver.

After all, 6.0 metres is wider than the main street in Macroom, and I’m pretty sure the road between Cill na Martra and Carrigaphuca is narrower than 6.0 m in places too...

ADKELMAC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990327#Comment_120990327

Absolutely, completing the junction at Carrigaphooca would be more expensive than re-alignment at the Millstreet Rd junction. But the benefit of taking unnecessary traffic out of Macroom would be well worth it, to both the road users and residents of Macroom. The country has the money. €5 - €10 million on this would be money well spent. 3% - 4% extra on the new road build cost is well worth it to those that are affected

Macroom will have more houses coming on stream especially on the western side. More houses, more traffic. There are houses/development earmarked for land just west of the re-cycling centre to name just one location

Why funnel HGVs up through the Millstreet rd or down through the town? It’s unnecessary.

KrisW1001

“We can’t drive” is a pretty weak excuse to spend up to 15 million euro. I don’t know how that haulage business ever lasted so long if they can’t drive on roads with houses nearby.

Lets wait and see the traffic counts through Macroom town to see how many HGVs are really “forced” to use the town...

ADKELMAC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120991014#Comment_120991014

No one is saying “we can’t drive”.

But after spending €280 million on the new road, residents of Macroom especially the western side should expect that traffic from the Mons direction shouldn’t need to go through the town. Drivers from Mons, Cill na Martra etc shouldn’t need to either.

Its commonplace that certain elements of projects get cut to save money if money is tight or to get it through planning. Its plausible that is what happened at Carrigaphooca

Future increases in traffic volumes and further development in Macroom will lead to a full junction at Carrigaphooca eventually. Just at an increased cost to the taxpayer……But sure no one is accountable for that.

In Ireland we just wait until a situation is chronic until we do something about it.

KrisW1001

Every time some truck operator complains that it’s not possible to bring a HGV up to the Millstreet Road junction, they are saying “our staff can’t drive”. If my boss thought so little of me, I’d start looking (it’s not like there’s a glut of licenced HGV drivers out there...) It’s not an easy turn, true, but the cause of that is the hairpin, and the hairpin can be cheaply engineered out of the road.

There was never a junction planned at Carrigaphuca - it was just the point where the old route crossed the new. That isn’t enough reason to install a junction. It wasn’t cut for cost reasons; it was never on the table at all. It was not in the initial plans, it wasn’t in the design that went through public consultation and planning, and so it wasn’t in the project that was built. Back in 2009 at that consultation, some people in Cill na Martra said “any chance of a junction here?”, they were told “no”, and that was the end of it. At the time nobody was screaming for a junction there. (Actually, at the time, the guy who cared so much about the issue to be spokesman for the recent protest didn’t even submit an observation to An Bord Pleanála... Did he think they were mind-readers, or did he just not care until this year?)

A junction at Carrigaphuca would be 6km from Macroom - that’s too far away to be of use to anyone in the town. The Millsteet Road junction is in the right part of the bypass to serve the western side of Macroom, and can be expanded, and a relief road added that would accommodate a huge increase in population around Codrum, and it would still cost less that a white-elephant junction in the sticks.

(If you had to add a new junction to help an expanding population in Macroom, then either Cooleyhane or Mountmassey are better places)

Look, I get it that some lad would like a private junction for his haulage business, and that’s fine... after all, I’d like a Maserati GranTurismo. but at least I know that it’s never going to happen.

Salvadoor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120991184#Comment_120991184

Any proof of the current "chronic" situation in Macroom town with it being bumper to bumper with HGVs apparently