M6 - Athlone to Ballinasloe

Sponge Bob

Spoke to an engineer today , they expressed grave concern that the bridge in Ballinasloe "might not last the summer"

How soon could the Ballinasloe Bypass bit of the N6 be commissioned Kaiser ???

Fozzie Bear

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Spoke to an engineer today , they expressed grave concern that the bridge in Ballinasloe "might not last the summer"

How soon could the Ballinasloe Bypass bit of the N6 be commissioned Kaiser ???

Just copped that now. I was convinced the new section being opened tomorrow by Biffo was going to take traffic completely around Ballinasloe and deposit it back onto the old N6 on the Galway side of the town. What a pisser! All that traffic is still going to be directed through the town FFS. Its just going to get there from Athlone quicker now! Is there still that much work left to do before Ballinasloe will be bypassed?? Will they wait until the full M6 section to Galway city is opened next year or will this particular small section be opened sooner to bypass the town?

Sponge Bob

It was supposed to open next year in one go but the recent dramatic deterioration of the bridge in Ballinasloe would appear to make it a priority that the Ballinasloe Bypass be urgently prioritised for a 2009 opening .

zing

Are people certain (or confident at least) that the new stretch will be given a 120kph limit next month ? iirc the various sections of Kinnegad <--> Athlone remained at 100kph until all sections of it were completed. iirc they used green signage on the earlier sections of that initially though.

Have a funny feeling that it could be limited to100kph until the road is fully completed.

kaizersoze

Deleted User wrote:

True, just beside Élan perhaps?

Aye. I had a good look around Elan today and the Ballinasloe end this evening in search of the commemorative plaque but no sign. Official openings are normally done where these are located are they not?

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Spoke to an engineer today , they expressed grave concern that the bridge in Ballinasloe "might not last the summer"

How soon could the Ballinasloe Bypass bit of the N6 be commissioned Kaiser ???

It's in a bad state alright but I hadn't heard anything official. There seems to be a big push in the last couple of months on this section. I'd say you're still lookin at 6 months at least to commissioning though.
I'm sure if it fell into the river something would be arranged fairly quick.

cliojamie

Thursday July 23 2009

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen is due to open a new €211m dual carriageway today -- but the signs will be out of date by next month.

The new 19km road between Athlone, Co Westmeath and Ballinasloe, Co Galway will have a speed limit of 100kmh for just 37 days.

The speed limit signs will have to be changed to 120kmh when it is upgraded to motorway status on August 28.

Tens of thousands of racegoers using the Dublin to Galway motorway will shave six minutes off their journey to the annual Ballybrit festival next week -- under the old speed limit.

Fine Gael TD Denis Naughton said it was a sign the Government had learnt nothing from its previous experience of re-designating roads as motorways, which cost €11,627 per kilometre.

"This highlights the gross inability of this Government to plan ahead and deliver value for money," he said.

Last week, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey signed the ministerial order to re-designate 294km of new and existing roads as motorways on August 28. The Athlone-Ballinasloe dual carriageway, which will form part of the Dublin-Galway motorway, was included in the list.

But Mr Naughton said the plan had been announced last September and that the public consultation process had concluded last December.

"What has the Minister for Transport been at since then? Why did it take until July to sign the required ministerial orders and why must we wait 37 days to have the speed limit increased by 37kmh?" he asked.

The National Roads Authority (NRA) said it had planned ahead for the changeover.

"We have the popsicle signs up with 100km per hour and we can just replace them in the middle with 120km per hour -- not the actual pole. There's not a significant expense with that," a spokesman said.

The NRA estimates that it will take "a day or two" to replace the 100km per hour discs on the signs with discs bearing the new 120kmh speed limit. It has already installed blue 'M' motorway signs on the Athlone-Ballinasloe Road rather than the green 'N' signs used on national primary routes.


Expensive

The Department of Transport said the Athlone-Ballinasloe road had been completed early and pointed out that it would have been expensive to rush through a separate ministerial order to re-designate it as a motorway for today. It also said the only alternative was to keep it closed until the order came into effect next month.

"This could have had safety implications apart altogether from the unjustifiable position of having 20kms of new high-quality dual carriageway lying idle," a spokeswoman said.

From todays Irish Independent.

ohnoigotsick

cliojamie wrote: »

Thursday July 23 2009

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen is due to open a new €211m dual carriageway today -- but the signs will be out of date by next month.

The new 19km road between Athlone, Co Westmeath and Ballinasloe, Co Galway will have a speed limit of 100kmh for just 37 days.

The speed limit signs will have to be changed to 120kmh when it is upgraded to motorway status on August 28.

Tens of thousands of racegoers using the Dublin to Galway motorway will shave six minutes off their journey to the annual Ballybrit festival next week -- under the old speed limit.

Fine Gael TD Denis Naughton said it was a sign the Government had learnt nothing from its previous experience of re-designating roads as motorways, which cost €11,627 per kilometre.

"This highlights the gross inability of this Government to plan ahead and deliver value for money," he said.

Last week, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey signed the ministerial order to re-designate 294km of new and existing roads as motorways on August 28. The Athlone-Ballinasloe dual carriageway, which will form part of the Dublin-Galway motorway, was included in the list.

But Mr Naughton said the plan had been announced last September and that the public consultation process had concluded last December.

"What has the Minister for Transport been at since then? Why did it take until July to sign the required ministerial orders and why must we wait 37 days to have the speed limit increased by 37kmh?" he asked.

The National Roads Authority (NRA) said it had planned ahead for the changeover.

"We have the popsicle signs up with 100km per hour and we can just replace them in the middle with 120km per hour -- not the actual pole. There's not a significant expense with that," a spokesman said.

The NRA estimates that it will take "a day or two" to replace the 100km per hour discs on the signs with discs bearing the new 120kmh speed limit. It has already installed blue 'M' motorway signs on the Athlone-Ballinasloe Road rather than the green 'N' signs used on national primary routes.


Expensive

The Department of Transport said the Athlone-Ballinasloe road had been completed early and pointed out that it would have been expensive to rush through a separate ministerial order to re-designate it as a motorway for today. It also said the only alternative was to keep it closed until the order came into effect next month.

"This could have had safety implications apart altogether from the unjustifiable position of having 20kms of new high-quality dual carriageway lying idle," a spokeswoman said.

From todays Irish Independent.

thats the reason i don't vote , some **** head of a politican is pissing and moaning that the 100Km/k signs will be out of date next month, they won't be, they will be taken down and used as spares or put into some storage as the 120km/k go up , what a pointless excercise of pissing and moaning , fair enough if they were putting up mph signs and they were in the bin in 37 days time. :mad:

KevR

Quick update:

Temporary barriers at the Ballinasloe link road have been removed.

The ceremony will be taking place roughly 40/50 metres East of the N6 (soon to be R446) overbridge. Saw the plaque and some flags there this morning - it looked really nice.

Eastbound traffic is still crossing the median of the Athlone Bypass. However, spare pieces of concrete barrier are on location ready to be dropped into place. I didn't see any workers around though..

If anyone is using the old N6 this morning, has a camera and has time to stop - could you please try and get a picture of the plaque and flags from up on the bridge? If you're passing at 11am you might even be able to get pictures of the ceremony from the bridge or go down and see the ceremony up close.

KevR

Denis Naughton wrote:

Fine Gael TD Denis Naughton said it was a sign the Government had learnt nothing from its previous experience of re-designating roads as motorways, which cost €11,627 per kilometre.

"This highlights the gross inability of this Government to plan ahead and deliver value for money," he said.

Maybe it cost €11,627 per km when the yellow line had to be re-painted and all new signs had to be made but all that has to be done with Athlone-Ballinasloe is to update a few speed limit signs. The yellow line is already solid and all the other signage won't need to be changed.

KevR

KevR wrote: »

Quick update:


Eastbound traffic is still crossing the median of the Athlone Bypass. However, spare pieces of concrete barrier are on location ready to be dropped into place. I didn't see any workers around though..

Obviously decided not to confuse the commuters, so it will be a case of a couple of days work with temporary single lane working while they reinstate the median and clean up the westbound LILO.

Tech3

ohnoigotsick wrote: »

thats the reason i don't vote , some **** head of a politican is pissing and moaning that the 100Km/k signs will be out of date next month, they won't be, they will be taken down and used as spares or put into some storage as the 120km/k go up , what a pointless excercise of pissing and moaning , fair enough if they were putting up mph signs and they were in the bin in 37 days time. :mad:

Very good point I thought it was a pointless rage too. Even if the blue signs were not up and the yellow line was down it was only given to the minister a month and a half ago. Plus he actually signed it last month too. It was the NRA that were reviewing it for 8 or 9 months.

kaizersoze

Official opening along with the ubiquitous farmers protest of course. I bet they're sorry they used the noise making Armco now.:pac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhtA74hBTts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6IYrNGh-jY

Pics to follow.....

KevR

Why the hell are they protesting?

Is it open for traffic yet?

Tech3

I expect it to be on RTE news at 1, if it isint it will probably be on at 6. I look forward to the inept media report as usual.

Tech3

KevR wrote: »

Why the hell are they protesting?

Theyre demostrating over government cutbacks. If they want to do that go somewhere else not the opening of a new stretch of motorway.

It will be on RTE news in a few mins.

billbond4

Fecking Farmers, should run a few bulldozers over them

KevR

I want to leave work and drive on it right now this minute but I can't..

Tech3

tech2 wrote: »

It will be on RTE news in a few mins.

Wow RTE news covered that a lot worse than I thought.

kaizersoze

tech2 wrote:

It will be on RTE news in a few mins.

Indeed.....


More pics here......
http://gallery.m6.kaizersoze.net/index.php?album=athlone-to-ballinasloe&page=6

KevR

tech2 wrote: »

Wow RTE news covered that a lot worse than I thought.

I can imagine what i was like! Similarly AA Roadwatch kept referring to the road as being in Westmeath when it's entirely in County Roscommon and the project was undertaken by Galway County Council on behalf of Roscommon CC. Nothing to do with Westmeath really..

Tech3

kaizersoze wrote: »

Have a look at the tractors on the bridge, they must be all the ones mysterious speaks about that use the Athlone bypass every day

kaizersoze

tech2 wrote: »

Have a look at the tractors on the bridge, they must be all the ones mysterious speaks about that use the Athlone bypass every day

Now now..be nice.:D
Thats just 12 of them. The other 988 are busy joyriding on the bypass.

kaizersoze

Not open to traffic yet btw...probably 2pm.

dubhthach

tech2 wrote: »

Have a look at the tractors on the bridge, they must be all the ones mysterious speaks about that use the Athlone bypass every day

Post of the week!

veryangryman

kaizersoze wrote: »

Not open to traffic yet btw...probably 2pm.

Pah...went home at lunch to check it out Athlone side. Why the feck was all the pomp and ceremony at Ballinasloe end. Who the feck wants to go near Ballinasloe. Its a dreghole with barely 1 existing working bridge over the Suck (which is ironically named after my opinion of the town it flows through) The road is there for those wishing to escape that town to get to Athlone quicker :pac:


Tractor Thursday wha...

Seriously though..Its a good day

kaizersoze

veryangryman wrote: »

Pah...went home at lunch to check it out Athlone side. Why the feck was all the pomp and ceremony at Ballinasloe end. Who the feck wants to go near Ballinasloe. Its a dreghole with barely 1 existing working bridge over the Suck (which is ironically named after my opinion of the town it flows through) The road is there for those wishing to escape that town to get to Athlone quicker :pac:


Tractor Thursday wha...

Seriously though..Its a good day

It wasn't near Ballinasloe at all. It was at the N6 crossover at Ballydangan.
And who in their right mind wants to go to Athlone? Isn't that why there's a bypass? So you can fly by without even gettin the smell.:pac::p

veryangryman

kaizersoze wrote: »

It wasn't near Ballinasloe at all. It was at the N6 crossover at Ballydangan.
And who in their right mind wants to go to Athlone? Isn't that why there's a bypass? So you can fly by without even gettin the smell.:pac::p

Town has a bypass because its already congested with people who want to be there

Ballinasloe=Ghost-town when the bypass opens there. Bar the occasional hospital visitor, there will be much tumbleweed blowing around the streets

Amtmann

Thanks very much to Kaizer and KevR for all the informative updates. I look forward to reading all the reviews!

kaizersoze

kaizersoze wrote: »

Isn't that why there's a bypass? So you can fly by without even gettin the smell.:pac::p

That's the gas distribution terminal near kilmartin, always know when I'm nearly home by the smell. :rolleyes: