What are they doing with the N4?

Holsten

Holsten wrote: »

Also it's very annoying heading eastbound just as the traffic comes onto the N4 from the M4 at Lexlip, everyone still jams on the breaks for no need.

The roadworks signs & Steel barriers might have something to do with it! It takes a while for habits to change after a road layout change, people are still jumping into the right lane to allow traffic to merge from the left despite there now being a slip lane there.

lord lucan

lord lucan wrote: »

i've been told it'll open fully on friday.

Did it open? I can't see from the camera whether it is or not.

lord lucan

they were still working on it at 07.00 on saturday morning. the bridge was cleared but they were only after erecting the traffic light poles on the superquinn side. could be early this week,maybe the workers don't like the cold:p

murphaph

Damn I thought it would be open today. Took a chance and had to divert again. The sooner the better.

jmkennedyie

Still need to do some surfacing, put up most of the traffic lights, and do all of the line markings.

Heroditas

Sounds like there's a few more days of work to be done. Possibly open on the 8th of December or some time later this week?
I actually thought it was open this evening when I saw it as I was crossing the pedestrian bridge into Cherbury Park.

Heroditas

The bus lane was opened on the N4 eastbound from the Ballymount section right up to the turn off for Liffey Valley on Friday night.
It certainly seemed to make a difference this morning. Traffic was flowing relatively freely this morning on this stretch.

lord lucan

traffic lights were up this morning and they had most of the road markings done by 14.30 when i passed by and they were working on some surfacing. couldn't see much else as i was late back from lunch after dodging some horses on the N4:D

If this camera is pointing in the right direction, we'll see it here first!

jmkennedyie

Spoke to some of the workers. They are hoping to open this junction tomorrow. Surfacing finished today. Finishing traffic light install/line painting tonight. Various signs are up. Nice spec bridge. Bridge has four lanes + lined cycle lanes, slips are all two lanes, no bus lanes, offline bus stops, left turns have amber filters (at least on South side).

icdg

jmkennedyie wrote: »

Spoke to some of the workers. They are hoping to open this junction tomorrow. Surfacing finished today. Finishing traffic light install/line painting tonight. Various signs are up. Nice spec bridge. Bridge has four lanes + lined cycle lanes, slips are all two lanes, no bus lanes, offline bus stops, left turns have amber filters (at least on South side).

Saw no signs other then temporary ones on N4 mainline approaching the junction an hour ago. Still, the lining seems to be done and it seems to be more or less ready to open.

I see from the camera that the traffic lights are working and most of the cones have been moved.
edit: it now looks like it's open.

Ice_Box

*MAIN TRAFFIC* * The new bridge is now fully open over the N4/Lucan Rd at the Newcastle Rd jct, facilitating traffic travelling between Newcastle and Lucan Village. This should alleviate evening traffic delays headed West on the N4.

Heroditas

Ice_Box wrote: »

*MAIN TRAFFIC* * The new bridge is now fully open over the N4/Lucan Rd at the Newcastle Rd jct, facilitating traffic travelling between Newcastle and Lucan Village. This should alleviate evening traffic delays headed West on the N4.

Fantastic news! It should also alleviate the "Woodies junction". Woohoo!!

jmkennedyie

icdg wrote: »

Saw no signs other then temporary ones on N4 mainline approaching the junction an hour ago. Still, the lining seems to be done and it seems to be more or less ready to open.

Clarification: Permanent signs I was referring to were on the junction itself...not on the N4 mainline.

Nice to hear it is open

serfboard

They did a great job on this junction in a very short space of time.

There are now no non-pedestrian traffic lights from Palmerstown all the way to Galway City. And only three (Renmore, the Radisson and Barna) to Connemara.

lord lucan

decided to head home via the new bridge this evening. there was no traffic backed up the newcastle road(it was 18.00hrs) and the signal sequence seems very quick so there shouldn't be much waiting time. the only thing i will say is the slip that merges back to the N4 eastbound obviously isn't finished properly,you have to stop at the end of it before merging but it's on a slight bend and vision is a bit impaired with regards to traffic coming from the west. this'll obviously be sorted when the 3rd lane is finished but that will be after christmas at this stage.

on a related note it seems they're starting on the surfacing of the westbound 3rd lane(old bus lane) form the woodies slip to the newcastle road slip. they've altered the slip from woodies to the N4 westbound,brought it nearer to the woodies bridge if you get my drift and looked like they were surfacing part of the outer lane.

Ice_Box

Almost an hour long queue this morning citybound. So far so bad. Worth the money?

L1011

Need the three lanes from Ballydowd to the M50 before we can possibly see if its sorted it out; similarly the Spa Hotel merge lane is required before Westbound starts working properly.

Davidth88

Since the junction with the Newcastle Rd opened the traffic inbound to town in the mornings is noticably slower.

I come thru there at about 6:45 , I used to maybe drop to 4th gear , now it's almost stop/start

spacetweek

Ice_Box wrote: »

Almost an hour long queue this morning citybound. So far so bad. Worth the money?

What's causing the hold-up? Is it Palmerstown Kennelsfort Rd traffic lights or the M50?

Ice_Box

spacetweek wrote: »

What's causing the hold-up? Is it Palmerstown Kennelsfort Rd traffic lights or the M50?

Its the junction at woodies mainly thats causing the problem. Traffic here comes from Lucan and from the outer ring road.

Heroditas

Ice_Box wrote: »

Its the junction at woodies mainly thats causing the problem. Traffic here comes from Lucan and from the outer ring road.

Gobsh1tes who can't merge and also the traffic coming inbound along the N4 who won't allow them to merge.
It took me nearly 30mins this morning at 8am to get from Willsbrook Park up onto the N4 at Woodies. Those pedestrian lights between the turn into Hermitage and the traffic lights at the outer ring road. are a menace. They're utterly ridiculous and there is absolutely no justification for them. They're sandwiched in betwen two other sets of lights 50m apart. Once a person hits them at peak hour, they go red almost instantly.

Redsoxfan

Seemed to be something up this morning. I started a new job 3 weeks ago and have been taking the M/N4 from Maynnoth every morning at around 7.15.

My theories about this morning:-

Traffic seemed to build up earlier than usual-from not long after Maynooth, which is odd at that time-I figured more people hit the road earlier due to the heavy frost (seemed worse than any other morning)

There was a Traffic Corps jeep with a van pulled in to the hard shoulder between the Cellbridge interchange and the Leixlip off ramp-a combination of rubbernecking and caution may have made the traffic move even slower.

lord lucan

Heroditas wrote: »

Gobsh1tes who can't merge and also the traffic coming inbound along the N4 who won't allow them to merge.
It took me nearly 30mins this morning at 8am to get from Willsbrook Park up onto the N4 at Woodies. Those pedestrian lights between the turn into Hermitage and the traffic lights at the outer ring road. are a menace. They're utterly ridiculous and there is absolutely no justification for them. They're sandwiched in betwen two other sets of lights 50m apart. Once a person hits them at peak hour, they go red almost instantly.

would it not be quicker for you to straight through the lights and head up lomans road and then back up onto the N4 at the deadmans.(i'm usually in work before 08.00 and heading the opposite direction so i could be talking bollox:p)

L1011

Tonight, further in to the city on the N4 was HELL - getting off the M50 was impeded by the line of traffic solid back from Liffey Valley, and getting out of that solid line in to the free-running middle/outer lane was a game of russian roulette almost.

Redsoxfan

MYOB wrote: »

Tonight, further in to the city on the N4 was HELL - getting off the M50 was impeded by the line of traffic solid back from Liffey Valley, and getting out of that solid line in to the free-running middle/outer lane was a game of russian roulette almost.

Yup. Pretty bad alright-and the usual crap on the M50 itself and the offramp.

Apparently there was an accident earlier this evening (was on the AA website around 4.30), having said that, last Friday was really bad as well-and for no apparent reason.

Heroditas

lord lucan wrote: »

would it not be quicker for you to straight through the lights and head up lomans road and then back up onto the N4 at the deadmans.(i'm usually in work before 08.00 and heading the opposite direction so i could be talking bollox:p)

I've tried it a couple of times but you then end up stuck behind eejits who can't traverse the roundabout at the end of St Lomans Road.
It's really much of a muchness.
The problem is that most of it is caused because Esker Lane has been closed off permanently so any traffic consisting of mothers bringing their little darlings to school in the 4x4 tanks now use the bridge by Woodies to get to the village.

lord lucan

Heroditas wrote: »

I've tried it a couple of times but you then end up stuck behind eejits who can't traverse the roundabout at the end of St Lomans Road.
It's really much of a muchness.
The problem is that most of it is caused because Esker Lane has been closed off permanently so any traffic consisting of mothers bringing their little darlings to school in the 4x4 tanks now use the bridge by Woodies to get to the village.

the schools are a right headache. the newcastle road has been fine for the last few months except for one time every day. yep,09.00 and the primary school run. backs up the whole road for about half an hour while they throw their various jeeps/SUVs onto the verges and block the kip up.

jmkennedyie

All 4 lanes (3 + buslane) now open inbound from Leixlip to Newcastle Road interchange.

Structural work on bridge outbound just before Spa Hotel looks largely complete too...another 4 or 5 months and hopefully the pinch points from here to Leixlip will be sorted out.

Jons running this scheme and I'm impressed. They seem to be making a bigger effort than usual to open up completed or semi-completed sections ASAP. e.g. mainline buslane from Lucan to Liffey Valley interchange on temp surface. They didn't hang around on M50 Phase 3 either.

Merry xmas all.

L1011

I can see the three lanes going down to two at Newcastle X causing horrible merge problems (due to Irish people not knowing how to merge properly); but obviously Jons aren't to blame for ****e driving; opening it was the best course of action.

Heroditas

Any comments regarding the N4 since Christmas?
Certainly the Ballyowen junction seems to be a lot lighter in the morning and evening since they reopened the Newcastle Junction. In fact, it seems to have improved a huge amount. I guess a load of traffic is now using the improved Newcastle junction instead of trying to join the N4 in the morning at Woodies.
It's also far easier to cross onto the outer ring road in the evening when approaching from Lucan village. It was frightful for a while.


Or maybe I've spoken too soon and it'll be a nightmare again next week

I still find it busy out-bound at the Spa hotel, that may all change when the work in complete of course. I suppose we will soon get slowdowns past Liffy valley when the works get going there!

Heroditas

Deleted User wrote: »

I still find it busy out-bound at the Spa hotel, that may all change when the work in complete of course. I suppose we will soon get slowdowns past Liffy valley when the works get going there!

Hopefully not outbound anyway - it's 3 lanes westbound already.
Inbound to town will be another matter though.

L1011

Inbound is three lanes from the Liffey Valley exit to the M50; but seeing as one is a lane gain, I'm at a loss as to see how they're going to integrate the third lane there!

There's a wide median along there, they'll easily squeeze in a couple of extra lanes..;)

L1011

More a problem of where the lanes are going to GO, theres already terrible weaving there as it is...

Hopefully they will take the opportunity to make the connection with the M50 junction a bit more logical! for example N4 east - M50 north requires a last minute lane change & M50 north - N4 west has a very short merge.

HonalD

Heroditas wrote: »

They're utterly ridiculous and there is absolutely no justification for them. They're sandwiched in betwen two other sets of lights 50m apart. Once a person hits them at peak hour, they go red almost instantly.

Isn't that the point of pedestrian crossings? God gave us legs before we thought of the car......

HonalD

lord lucan wrote: »

the schools are a right headache.

Lord Lucan, as king of the land, banish the kids and that solves that one!:rolleyes:

lord lucan

HonalD wrote: »

Lord Lucan, as king of the land, banish the kids and that solves that one!:rolleyes:

a school bus system would make more sense but we don't do sense in ireland:rolleyes::D

while i think of it,is that a new footbridge going in to replace the existing cherbury/esker one? there's 2 concrete abutments just been finished beside the existing one.

HonalD

HonalD wrote: »

Isn't that the point of pedestrian crossings? God gave us legs before we thought of the car......

Yes... but they should be configured so as to work with the traffic not against it! switchiing at the wrong time could cause gridlock!

Davidth88

I assume a lot of people are still off or something the traffic is still quite light.

No holdups coming into town, however the left hand lane ending just as the underpass starts is an accident waiting to happen, it will get busy with two solid lanes moving at maybe 50kph and some self important pr*t will barge up the inside and try to push in and cause a crash ( I can see it ) , or someone not paying attention will be surprised the lane ends like that and panic and try to push in.

Out of town its still horrible , yesterday it was back up to Woodies as usual , ok moving but slow , all caused by the terrible design of the temp merge lanes at the spa hotel and Newcastle Rd.

Heroditas

lord lucan wrote: »

while i think of it,is that a new footbridge going in to replace the existing cherbury/esker one? there's 2 concrete abutments just been finished beside the existing one.

That appears to be the case alright. Maybe they'll make it wide enough to accomodate two lanes of cars.

Where's the "fingers crossed" smiley?

Redsoxfan

I would like to think that the relatively free flowing traffic eastbound at around 7.30am for the past week is down to the improvements, but I suspect that people may still be on hols (or the recession is taking its toll?)

I fail to see how the 3rd lane from Lucan off ramp to Newcastle will make much difference for now-nobody uses it-perhaps when it is extended?

Still find the evenings hit and miss-sometime bad all the way from M50 to Leixlip, always bad from Foxhunter to Leixlip.

lord lucan

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Still find the evenings hit and miss-sometime bad all the way from M50 to Leixlip, always bad from Foxhunter to Leixlip.

tbh they could put 10 lanes in and it would still be backed up every day:rolleyes:

lord lucan

lord lucan wrote: »

tbh they could put 10 lanes in and it would still be backed up every day:rolleyes:

That's what happens when you put the jobs in one town and the houses in another.

Great (government & brown envelopes) planning decisions all round :rolleyes: (well deserved smiley)

Redsoxfan

lord lucan wrote: »

tbh they could put 10 lanes in and it would still be backed up every day:rolleyes:

You're probably right, although the extra lanes on the M50 seem to be be making a difference.....

lord lucan

Redsoxfan wrote: »

You're probably right, although the extra lanes on the M50 seem to be be making a difference.....

the final verdict on the N4 upgrade won't come until it's fully finished and operational. there does seem to be a little less traffic on the road these days so it may be hard to gauge exactly what impact it has compared to say 5 years ago.

mulphisto

Anyone know the expected completion date for the extra lanes on the N4?