M6 - Athlone to Ballinasloe

KevR

veryangryman wrote: »

I doubt anyones really arsed about Athlone-Ballinasloe opening in time for the races. You dont really save much time on the journey with this section. Certainly not as significant as Moate being out of the way last year.

Obviously the sooner it opens. brilliant for safety etc, but Ballinasloe bypass will be "the big one" for me

I'd love for this to open a bit early as I'd be able to use it for the last few weeks of my work placement.

Seem to always get caught in a long tailback behind a slow moving truck between Ballinasloe and Athlone. Then on the Athlone Bypass everyone breaks the speed limit because it's their first chance in a while to overtake safely and make some proper progress.

Will save a bit of time when Ballinasloe-Athlone motorway opens but it will remove a lot of frustration.

veryangryman

I drove past the open Median earlier. The surface seems to be neigh on complete if not properly complete.

There are also some signs that are facing wrong way (to be used soon i would guess) on the approach to the Westbound Tuam Exit.

I do like to see progress on what has overall been a painful process, so thumbs up to those concerned!

I suspect that westbound traffic will divert first, shortly followed by eastbound, but still more work to do first, like white lines on the link road.

veryangryman

Anyone travel it last night? According to a friend who was driving up there, the westbound tuam exit WAS closed and he had to back up at Summerhill RAB and up the eastbound exit

Perhaps they doing the works at night?

@19

Closed again tonight @19:00 on the dot! I went to monksland and on the way back they were putting up the diversion signs.

Most of the lines are now in place as well as the new local signage, there appear to be some sections of topcoat still to go on.

My guess is that the link road will open this weekend.

Coming home this evening I noticed that the Tuan Rd sign had the straight ahead "finger" blacked out and a number of turned around signs placed on the westbound carriageway, different ones to those for the closures the past couple of nights!

Looks like everything is in place for the switch over to the link road!

KevR

Deleted User wrote: »

Coming home this evening I noticed that the Tuan Rd sign had the straight ahead "finger" blacked out and a number of turned around signs placed on the westbound carriageway, different ones to those for the closures the past couple of nights!

Looks like everything is in place for the switch over to the link road!

Just after posting something similar in the general M6 thread.

flazio

So will traffic go straight across the carrigeway median over to the east bound lanes or will they go contraflow on the west bound for a couple of yards before merging over to the east bound?

flazio

flazio wrote: »

So will traffic go straight across the carrigeway median over to the east bound lanes or will they go contraflow on the west bound for a couple of yards before merging over to the east bound?

It will go straight across the westbound carriageway, there will be temporary barriers to stop crossover type accidents as well.

billbond4

A word of warning, a friend of mine was done for speeding coming towards the new Summerhill roundabout from Galway last Saturday night at 2 in the morning, he was doing 90 in the 50 zone.
From the Mullingar road exit the speed going westwards is signposted 80 kph and from the coosan exit its 50kph, so the cops could make a mint on the road if they wanted !!
So be careful.....

Stark

Just noticed something on the nra.ie route map. The Athlone bypass is marked as "N4 - Athlone Bypass" (http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/GalwayCountyCouncil/N6AthlonetoBallinasloe/Map,15418,en.pdf)

Stark

Stark wrote: »

Just noticed something on the nra.ie route map. The Athlone bypass is marked as "N4 - Athlone Bypass" (http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/GalwayCountyCouncil/N6AthlonetoBallinasloe/Map,15418,en.pdf)

Proof reader on leave that day. :rolleyes: well spotted!

veryangryman

Stark wrote: »

Just noticed something on the nra.ie route map. The Athlone bypass is marked as "N4 - Athlone Bypass" (http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/GalwayCountyCouncil/N6AthlonetoBallinasloe/Map,15418,en.pdf)

Clearly done by a Dub who has never gone beyond Maynooth :rolleyes:

Irish and Proud

Stark wrote: »

Just noticed something on the nra.ie route map. The Athlone bypass is marked as "N4 - Athlone Bypass" (http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/GalwayCountyCouncil/N6AthlonetoBallinasloe/Map,15418,en.pdf)

...well we learn something new everyday! :rolleyes:

Regards!

billbond4

billbond4 wrote: »

A word of warning, a friend of mine was done for speeding coming towards the new Summerhill roundabout from Galway last Saturday night at 2 in the morning, he was doing 90 in the 50 zone.
From the Mullingar road exit the speed going westwards is signposted 80 kph and from the coosan exit its 50kph, so the cops could make a mint on the road if they wanted !!
So be careful.....

Those signs are still in place, completely pointless as there are no delays along those sections of road, the Tuam road exit is coping better than I expected it to, barring those who can't work out which lane to use entering the (westbound) roundabout!

If the limits were between the Roscommon and Tuam junctions then I could understand it.

flazio

Just been through the Beagh Roundabout and the Galway crests have been covered over by Black tape. Looks like it was professionally done by the workers rather then just some Roscommon activists taking matters into their own hands. Personally I reckon if they need to put some crest on these roundabouts, the Ballinasloe town crest would be the fairest ones, after all at least one more roundabout is to be built past Texoil near Garbally and that's going to be well inside County Galway.

kaizersoze

I drove about 2kms of the road this evening from eastern junction (14) to the Kilbegly overbridge. It's really well advanced. Final layer of asphalt down on most of it and alot of the signage in place. All that seemed to be missing was the central barrier and road markings.

I also saw something that surprised me and it could speed up the opening alot. Them seem to be using Armco for the central reserve and only using concrete around the overbridge supports.:eek:







Album

kaizersoze

Shannonbridge road overbridge.

Amtmann

Fascinating pictures! That's novel - and most unusual. I don't know what to make of it to be honest; why aren't they using a concrete barrier? I'm also a little disturbed by the lack of landscaping progress - it's May after all. Very late and risky to start planting anything.

Kaizer, how much of the scheme, in percentage terms, has received its final surface?

Also, did you drive on the actual motorway?

Furet

Furet wrote: »

Fascinating pictures! That's novel - and most unusual. I don't know what to make of it to be honest; why aren't they using a concrete barrier?

Cost, I would imagine! Another thing I have noticed recently is the fact that the concrete barriers cause debris to accumulate at the central median, another issue with the concrete is the "dipped or not dipped" headlight problem that has previously been highlighted here (or transport & commuting).

All, none or some could be the reason.

kaizersoze

Furet wrote: »

Fascinating pictures! That's novel - and most unusual. I don't know what to make of it to be honest; why aren't they using a concrete barrier?

I really don't know why they're using Armco. Got a bit of a surprise tbh. the markings for the steel supports are marked on the carriageway aswell. Not just in the pics where it's laid out but further on towards Athlone aswell.

Furet wrote: »

Kaizer, how much of the scheme (Athlone to Ballinasloe, right?), in percentage terms, has received its final surface?

I only drove ~2km of it so it's probably not a huge sample but on that 2km about 70/80% had it's final layer.

Furet wrote: »

Also, did you drive on the actual motorway?

I did indeed.:)

GalwayGunner

So when is this due to be opened then???

Amtmann

Deleted User wrote: »

Cost, I would imagine! Another thing I have noticed recently is the fact that the concrete barriers cause debris to accumulate at the central median, another issue with the concrete is the "dipped or not dipped" headlight problem that has previously been highlighted here (or transport & commuting).

All, none or some could be the reason.

Well, I'd imagine any problem with headlights would be exacerbated by the new barrier. I'll reserve judgement until I see the finished road, but I'm quite disappointed with what I've seen in Kaizer's latest album. The EIS says that landscaping "will likely be" one of the last things to be done on this scheme. This indeed appears to be the case. Since it will open probably sometime in the next nine weeks, this is very bad, as a significant amount of the plants will not survive a summer planting. This could turn out to be very unsightly. Fingers crossed that it'll all come together soon.

Amtmann

kaizersoze wrote: »

I did indeed.:)

Brass neck! Fair play to you. Many's the time I was tempted on the M8 C-C and M-F schemes but didn't. Did it seem nice and level?

kaizersoze

Furet wrote: »

Brass neck! Fair play to you. Many's the time I was tempted on the M8 C-C and M-F schemes but didn't. Did it seem nice and level?

Yeah twas level and smooth. Looking on in the distance the general road level seemed to rise and fall quite a bit though but smoothly.

Amtmann

I wonder if the barrier issue is the reason this wasn't included in tranche 1 of the redesignations last year.

kaizersoze

Furet wrote: »

I wonder if the barrier issue is the reason this wasn't included in tranche 1 of the redesignations last year.

Why would it be an issue though. Isn't it still motorway spec?

Amtmann

kaizersoze wrote: »

Why would it be an issue though. Isn't it still motorway spec?

Absolutely. I'm just trying to figure out any reason at all why it might not have been included.

KevR

Thanks for the amazing pictures kaizersoze!

I'm sure Furet can answer this - when a concrete barrier is being used, are the 2 carriageways laid totally as one (i.e - before the barrier goes in it looks a bit like one really wide single carriageway road)?

I ask because I, when passing, I did notice that there seemed to be a narrow gap between the 2 carriageways. Then I saw them putting what looked like sand or cement into the gap and covering it only with the final layer. Had me a little confused because I remember people saying for narrow median/concrete barriers the carriageways were laid as one (although with the steel barrier Athlone-Ballinasloe is still narrow median).
Off-topic slightly but, from what I've seen, Galway-Ballinasloe seems to have a narrow gap between the carriageways; I wonder if it could be steel barrier also. (Part of G-B has a wide gap and I'm almost sure that section will be wide median).

Also, it really did look to me like they were laying the final surface. But with concrete barriers the final surface goes down after the barrier so I thought it must be the second to last layer. Must have been the final layer after all.

Lucky you getting to drive on it!!
I've been meaning to pull in on the way home from work some evening for a quick look and come up some weekend for a walk on it when there's no builders around but just haven't had the chance. Won't be around for the next 2 weekends but I'm definitely making time some evening next week to stop for a quick look.

KevR

Deleted User wrote: »

Cost, I would imagine! Another thing I have noticed recently is the fact that the concrete barriers cause debris to accumulate at the central median, another issue with the concrete is the "dipped or not dipped" headlight problem that has previously been highlighted here (or transport & commuting).

All, none or some could be the reason.

Have noticed debris at concrete barriers also. Some grass and weeds growing out from under some of them too.

The headlight issue with the concrete barrier is that sometimes it completely blocks out lights (full heads) and other times it doesn't (particularly on curves and climbs). Someone could be going along with full headlights not bothering anyone and then all of a sudden they come to a bend and often don't realise that they are suddenly blinding oncoming traffic.

With the steel barrier (or cable barrier) you can always see oncoming traffic so people are more likely to dip their headlights when necessary.
Although, there are always a few halfwits that think it's perfectly fine to have full heads on even if there is oncoming traffic that they are blinding. They must be under the impression that they don't have to dip because the carriageaways are seperate. These people need to be educated - maybe the RSA and Gardai could launch a campaign of "How to drive on a motorway properly" for the next bank holiday weekend (rather than yet another drink and speed campaign).

Not sure if headlights is the reason they decided not to use concrete.

Could it be anything to do with drainage? I'm just guessing wildly but a concrete barrier would sort of hold water more than a steel one (although I notice that some sections of concrete barrier have holes bored at the base for drainage).