What are they doing with the N4?

Redsoxfan

Q3 2009 according to the project page on the NRA website

http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/SouthDublinCountyCouncil/N4LeixliptoM50Junction/SchemeName,15415,en.html

Seth Brundle

jmkennedyie wrote: »

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

MYOB wrote: »

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.

Funny but there isn't really a problem caused by this because most drivers travelling along the N4 are in lanes 2 and 3 leaving lane 1 pretty much empty. I find it great when I pass all those cars sitting there!

Heroditas

The road's layout has been changed overnight heading east from the Ballyowen interchange to Liffey Valley. They have moved the barriers from the median and the outside lane is now behind them - i.e. the inside lane has been moved onto the buslane that opened just before Christmas.
As a result, traffic was moving a bit slower than normal this morning but it's great to see they're now starting work on that third lane eastbound.
Roll on Q3!

Heroditas

The N4 was down to 1 lane eastbound tonight from near the slip road down to Liffey Valley until up near the Texaco station - there appears to be road marking taking place.

mulphisto

Is it just my imagination or are there not many people working on the N4 at the moment. There only seems to be about 8 workers there everyday!

Seth Brundle

They have half of the new pedestrian brisge sitting at the side of the N4 inbound. Presumably it will be lifted at the weekend.

spacetweek

kbannon wrote: »

They have half of the new pedestrian brisge sitting at the side of the N4 inbound. Presumably it will be lifted at the weekend.

Which one is this? The only 2 I know are already complete (Liffey Valley and Tandy's Lane).

Seth Brundle

IIRC there is a pedestrian bridge between the Newcastle Cross and Woodies already there. A new bridge (same as the two new ones already up) is lying complete at the side of the N4 - all it needs now is a crane and no traffic underneath!

jmkennedyie

spacetweek wrote: »

Which one is this? The only 2 I know are already complete (Liffey Valley and Tandy's Lane).

N4 upgrade appears to be replacing all pedestrian bridges that have a column/pier in the centreline.

• Tandy's Lane done.
• Cherbury park is the one they are about to replace.
• Presumably Ballyowen Lane is next (some wall demolishing done already).
• New Pedestrian bridge at Woodies and relatively new bridge at Sureweld are already single span.
• As you mentioned, new Liffey Valley bridge single span too (part of M50 Phase 1).

Note also that there are plans for steps on the embankment from old Lucan/Celbidge road up to the N4 level just under the SPA hotel to allow pedestrians get from Lucan village up to Spa hotel / Kew Park easily.

Heroditas

The road markings have been improved westbound from Liffey Valley to the Texaco station. This was badly needed because it was a bit of a nightmare where the road goes down from three lanes to two lanes just by the slip road down to Liffey Valley.
This bit of three lanes becoming two lanes must cause chaos in the evenings.

Also, they appear to have dug up the median from Woodies up as far as Liffey Valley where they'll be widening the road.

Finally, the exit from Woodies onto the N4 has been slightly altered since yesterday morning. You have to go slightly around the roundabout before veering onto the slip road leading to the N4. They appeared to be relaying pipes yesterday.

A lot of progress appears to be made at the moment.

Redsoxfan

Since people have started using the new inside lane that runs to the underpass at Newcastle, the traffic in the morning seems to have got worse. 2 lanes to 3 lanes back to 2 lanes seems to cause problems....

I think there was a Gatso van within 100 metres of the start of the M4 yesterday evening-under the bridge-in the 60kph zone

L1011

Are they doing Ballyowen Lane bridge at all? The Spa bridge was too low for the new road height and for the Cherbury one the support pillar is dangerous as its protruding from the central barrier (the Spa one didn't, its stump is actually still there).

jmkennedyie

MYOB wrote: »

Are they doing Ballyowen Lane bridge at all?

Actually, just noticed today there is no central pillar on that bridge, so I don't konw if they are going to replace it or not.

The new Cherbury bridge has now been assembled by the road side, but looks like wire mesh will be installed before it is lifted into place.

spacetweek

jmkennedyie wrote: »

Note also that there are plans for steps on the embankment from old Lucan/Celbidge road up to the N4 level just under the SPA hotel to allow pedestrians get from Lucan village up to Spa hotel / Kew Park easily.

Oh, that's interesting. I've a particular interest in the whole N4 scheme cause the family home is very near it. Always thought steps there would be useful.

jmkennedyie

spacetweek wrote: »

Oh, that's interesting. I've a particular interest in the whole N4 scheme cause the family home is very near it. Always thought steps there would be useful.

Those steps are on the way now... embankment well dug up under the Spa.

New Cherbury bridge installed over the weekend, old one removed.

Ballyowen bridge, although single span, is also being replaced: the columns are being widened in situ at the moment.

Re the road, quiet enough last week or two for obvious reasons. Works on stretch outbound from Woodies to Newcastle seems to be moving along the fastest.

mysterious

jmkennedyie wrote: »

Those steps are on the way now... embankment well dug up under the Spa.

New Cherbury bridge installed over the weekend, old one removed.

Ballyowen bridge, although single span, is also being replaced: the columns are being widened in situ at the moment.

Re the road, quiet enough last week or two for obvious reasons. Works on stretch outbound from Woodies to Newcastle seems to be moving along the fastest.

Which bridge is that? the Lucan off slip interchange??

L1011

The Ballyowen bridge is the one down by (but not directly alongside) the Woodies interchange. No idea why it needs replacing...

jmkennedyie

mysterious wrote: »

Which bridge is that? the Lucan off slip interchange??

Just to clarify the bridges I'm referring to are all pedestrian - they are between Woodies and Newcastle road interchanges.

Heroditas

Work seems to be progressing awfully quickly on the stretch between Ballyowen and Liffey Valley. They seem to be nearly ready to fill in the bit in the middle of the road.

Work is also coming along nicely on the Ballyowen interchange.

df1985

am i the only who thinks theyre taking for-bloddy-ever on the outbound side near the spa, the inbound side has had all lanes open for a while now. the people merging at the newcastle slip and the spa slip is what causes the delay in the evenings, get passed there and you're flying again on the M4.wish it would get sorted soon.

mysterious

jmkennedyie wrote: »

Just to clarify the bridges I'm referring to are all pedestrian - they are between Woodies and Newcastle road interchanges.

Were any of the bridges widen or retrofitted, or were they all wide enough?

Seth Brundle

All bridges over the N4 between the M50 & Leixlip are being replaced with wider metal footbridges (I think there were pics of the one going to Dodsborough a few pages back - I think the others (bar the Liffey valley one) will look like this)

spacetweek

Heroditas wrote: »

Work seems to be progressing awfully quickly on the stretch between Ballyowen and Liffey Valley. They seem to be nearly ready to fill in the bit in the middle of the road.

Work is also coming along nicely on the Ballyowen interchange.

Anyone know how this can be the case considering how unbelieveably slow widening on the M50 is proceeding? Is all the effort being put into the new interchanges at the expense of widening? The N4's rapid progress has been astounding.

mallet head

Waste of bloody money doing this project when you still have to sit in your car for 20 minutes to get through the traffic lights at palmerstown heading west at rush hour.

mysterious

mallet head wrote: »

Waste of bloody money doing this project when you still have to sit in your car for 20 minutes to get through the traffic lights at palmerstown heading west at rush hour.

I've always said that the N4 and N7 should be joined at Chaplizod, and funneled to Edward street and onto the South circular roads. Allowing the Inchicore and Palmerstown bottlenecks for the suburbs and local trafifc.

The western interurbans need access to the greater city.
The Palmerstown traffic can still go via city and head to the North circular roads.

But there is far to much traffic wanting to go to different parts of the city, especially the South circular, Edward/High street, Crumlin, and Harolds cross. All this traffic still has to use the quays and Palmerstown/Inchicore in order to disperse throughout the city.

But thats a genius speaking.:)

We don't have many in this country.

L1011

mysterious wrote: »

I've always said that the N4 and N7 should be joined at Chaplizod, and funneled to Edward street and onto the South circular roads. Allowing the Inchicore and Palmerstown bottlenecks for the suburbs and local trafifc.

The western interurbans need access to the greater city.
The Palmerstown traffic can still go via city and head to the North circular roads.

But there is far to much traffic wanting to go to different parts of the city, especially the South circular, Edward/High street, Crumlin, and Harolds cross. All this traffic still has to use the quays and Palmerstown/Inchicore in order to disperse throughout the city.

But thats a genius speaking.:)

We don't have many in this country.

The N7 terminates at the Red Cow and traffic is signed to use the M50/N4 (officially, it doesn't seem to be inbound but is outbound). Where do you suggest there is a route corridor to bring the road in?

Also, Where is "edward street"?

mysterious

MYOB wrote: »

The N7 terminates at the Red Cow and traffic is signed to use the M50/N4 (officially, it doesn't seem to be inbound but is outbound). Where do you suggest there is a route corridor to bring the road in?

Also, Where is "edward street"?

The road from Where Kilmore to the South circular road embankment was orginally proposed as the DC section that was to disperse onto Edward High street.

Its the South entrance into the city, and leads onto the old Limerick/cork road that used to go this way into town.. It leads right up to Dames street.

The route can be tunnelled at Kylmore for 1km, and back onto the green belt provided that goes towards the Davit road. Then the road can split onto many of the feeder routes and thus going into the city.

Leaving much of the city boud traffic avoiding bottlenecks such as Inchicore and Chaplizod into town via the traffic conjested quays.

HonalD

mysterious wrote: »

The road from Where Kilmore to the South circular road embankment was orginally proposed as the DC section that was to disperse onto Edward High street.

Its the South entrance into the city, and leads onto the old Limerick/cork road that used to go this way into town.. It leads right up to Dames street.

The route can be tunnelled at Kylmore for 1km, and back onto the green belt provided that goes towards the Davit road. Then the road can split onto many of the feeder routes and thus going into the city.

Leaving much of the city boud traffic avoiding bottlenecks such as Inchicore and Chaplizod into town via the traffic conjested quays.

Not sure you're entirely serious about this...............I'd hate to take the bait

Anyway, the N4 between Leixlip & the M50, can it get any worse before it gets better as the improvements progress?

The newcastle junction improvements just moved the problem what next, assuming the depression doesn't eliminate the traffic first!

manc

The junction just before the SPA Hotel (Cornmill Road?) will be closed from the 23/2 to the 16/3. Not sure where buses/cars heading westbound out of the village are going to get back onto the N4.


Possibly reverse the one way road along the Lucan golf course?

Remember the mess when they changed the lanes on the N4 near the start of the roadworks and it took a couple of hourr to get throught the village to this road.

Heroditas

manc wrote: »

The junction just before the SPA Hotel (Cornmill Road?) will be closed from the 23/2 to the 16/3. Not sure where buses/cars heading westbound out of the village are going to get back onto the N4.


Possibly reverse the one way road along the Lucan golf course?

Remember the mess when they changed the lanes on the N4 near the start of the roadworks and it took a couple of hourr to get throught the village to this road.

Oh God, that's going to make traffic through the village horrendous.

They'll have the option of getting onto the N4 at the Newcastle junction.

Ice_Box

http://www.sdublincoco.ie/index.aspx?pageid=939&pid=15466

COMHAIRLE CHONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS

SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Roads Act, 1993, Section 75

Temporary Closure of Old Cornmill Road

South Dublin County Council has made an order to temporarily close the Old Cornmill Road (lane turning onto N4 westbound) from Monday 23rd February 2009 until Friday 13th March 2009, in order to facilitate the completion of Crowes Corner Bridge and the tie-in between Old Cornmill Road and the N4 mainline.

Alternative Routes Westbound:

Route 1 Tandys Lane (Dodsboro Rd) Southbound

Lock Road R120 Northbound

Lucan By-pass N4, Westbound on ramp

Route 2 Millstream Road, Celbridge Road (R835), Leixlip Road (R835), Adamstown Road (R120), Lucan By-pass N4, Westbound on ramp and vice versa

Diversion signs will be erected.

Local access will be maintained at all times.


Maps, Drawings & other Documents Available

lord lucan

Heroditas wrote: »

Oh God, that's going to make traffic through the village horrendous.

They'll have the option of getting onto the N4 at the Newcastle junction.

hillcrest will become an awful rat-run while them works are going on,it'll be a nightmare for anyone living there!!

L1011

Crowes Corner Bridge, never heard that name before, I take it its the pedestrian overbridge or the actual mainline bridge over the road?

Ice_Box

Completion date of September 2009 now being touted

http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/Dublin/traffic.asp?id=99435

10:56 - Works continue on the N4 Leixlip to M50 improvement scheme until September 2009 (approx)

The works are taking place on the N4 from the Kildare County Boundary (in the west) to the interchange with the M50 on the outskirts of Dublin (in the east). The route follows the line of the existing N4, passing to the south of Lucan village and north of the developments at Fonthill Road. The length of the scheme is approximately 6 km. The scheme comprises: widening to three lanes plus hard shoulder/bus lane from M50 Interchange to Ballydowd Interchange (Woodies); widening to three lanes plus hard strip from Ballydowd Interchange to Leixlip Interchange; extension of bus lanes west of Ballydowd Interchange; full grade separated interchange at Newcastle Road; upgrading of Ballydowd Interchange.

Heroditas

It was always supposed to be finished by September though, wasn't it?

Anyway, I see they have moved the entrance into the Hermitage golf club from the N4 to the slip round/roundabout at Woodies.

bg07

what route are the maynooth and celbridge buses taking now since the Old Cornmill Road closed?

a_ominous

66 / 67 Buses will probably turn up Tandy's Lane before McDonald's and head back towards Dublin up to Newcastle Road bridge and then head west.
Bl00dy disaster this morning - chemical trailers heading down southern end of Tandy's Lane, bound to get stuck on some of those bends. Inadequate signage around.

L1011

The notice in the local rag is as a_ominous guessed; they're turning up the Lucan stub of Tandy's Lane, heading inbound on the N4 and looping at the Newcastle Road.

L1011

N4 outbound appears to be much, much faster at the moment since:

1: Spa Hotel merge closed off temporarily
2: Newcastle bridge merge has been given a far longer merge lane and no longer has a Yield sign.

This is despite the 3->2 lane reduction being far closer to the M50 bridge than it was before and the lack of a de-merge lane for Lucan this has caused.

Heroditas

MYOB wrote: »

N4 outbound appears to be much, much faster at the moment since:

1: Spa Hotel merge closed off temporarily
2: Newcastle bridge merge has been given a far longer merge lane and no longer has a Yield sign.

This is despite the 3->2 lane reduction being far closer to the M50 bridge than it was before and the lack of a de-merge lane for Lucan this has caused.

They've also altered that 3 -> 2 lane bit after the M50.
Previously it was the inside lane that merged into the middle lane while the outermost lane continued. This meant, effectively, that the 2 lanes outbound from Palmerstown had to merge together while the lane joining from the M50 southbound had a free road.
Now that outermost lane has to merge into the middle lane. It's a much more sensible approach.

Seth Brundle

MYOB wrote: »

1: Spa Hotel merge closed off temporarily

The merge at Cornmill Rd. is closed to traffic entering the N4 but not traffic coming off the N4.

L1011

kbannon wrote: »

The merge at Cornmill Rd. is closed to traffic entering the N4 but not traffic coming off the N4.

Didn't notice that; that would have minimal to no bad impact on outbound traffic flow though.

I made it door to door in 20 minutes today from work to home. Considering I work in Tallaght thats quite good!

Heroditas

The work is progressing very quickly out by the Cornhill Road junction. Looks like that whole section may have the three lanes open within the next two weeks.

Also, the section between Ballyowen and Liffey Valley is progressing very quickly. They appear to be filling in the trench with tarmac already!

That'll just leave the section from Ballyowen to the Newcastle junction to be completed.

I'd definitely be confident it'll be finished before September if work continues at this speed.

hope so, last night was a real PIA as there was an "island" at the Spa hotel, slowing everyone down.

Heroditas

Deleted User wrote: »

hope so, last night was a real PIA as there was an "island" at the Spa hotel, slowing everyone down.

That island was still there this morning when I was heading out to Celbridge. The driver in front of me braked and stopped when they got to the end of the "island" ... sheesh!!! Then indicated to "rejoin" the lane they were already in.
:rolleyes:

Heroditas

The island appears to have been removed overnight

df1985

it was down to one lane at the spa last night coming through at nine.itll have to be back to two or there'll be chaos this evening.

Heroditas

Oh it was back to two lanes this morning.

icdg

Noticed cantilever supports have gone up between Tandy's Lane and the R120 eastbound, they look kinda wierd though...