M9 - Waterford motorway construction updates

BluntGuy

I know this picture was posted by johnbk two months ago, and I'm sure most of you have seen it, but doesn't the M9 just look huge in this shot in comparison to the old road?

I know it's only two lane DC, but for some reason this image just impresses me...

road_high

BluntGuy wrote: »

I know this picture was posted by johnbk two months ago, and I'm sure most of you have seen it, but doesn't the M9 just look huge in this shot in comparison to the old road?

I know it's only two lane DC, but for some reason this image just impresses me...

Sure does, and the sooner this road is history the better basically..
That's pretty much the standard of the whole N9 between Paulstown and Waterford.

fricatus

Does anyone know if the N10 has reopened between Stonyford and Danesfort? It's a pain in the hole having to go through Thomastown or Kells to get to KK at the moment.

road_high

fricatus wrote: »

Does anyone know if the N10 has reopened between Stonyford and Danesfort? It's a pain in the hole having to go through Thomastown or Kells to get to KK at the moment.

Is it finished up tomorrow ? According to the following it should be;http://www.kilkennycoco.ie/eng/Services/Roads/Roads_General/Road_Closures_and_Road_Works_Information_Notices/Road%20Closure%20N10%20Danesfort%20Cross%20to%20Ennisnag%20-%20the%20road%20will%20not%20be%20open%20until%20Tuesday%202nd%20December%20at%20the%20latest.html

Will be interesting to see what they have been doing for the past two weeks.

fricatus

Drove on the new stretch of road this morning. It's nice: straight and wide, and there are roundabouts either end of the bridge, presumably for the future M9/N10 junction.

There are still traffic lights up at the Danesfort end of the new stretch, but at least it's now open. Part of me will miss the old stretch though - it was a great bit of driver's road when there was nobody else around.

But let's face it, most of the time you were staring at the ar$e-end of a truck anyway, so you couldn't really have any fun along there!

Bards

fricatus wrote: »

Drove on the new stretch of road this morning. It's nice: straight and wide, and there are roundabouts either end of the bridge, presumably for the future M9/N10 junction.

There are still traffic lights up at the Danesfort end of the new stretch, but at least it's now open. Part of me will miss the old stretch though - it was a great bit of driver's road when there was nobody else around.

But let's face it, most of the time you were staring at the ar$e-end of a truck anyway, so you couldn't really have any fun along there!

below is a plan of the junction. how much of this is complete?
http://n9-n10kilcullen-waterford.ie/eiswp/chapters/Figure4-129_Danesfort_Junction_eis_wp.pdf

fricatus

Bards wrote: »

below is a plan of the junction. how much of this is complete?
http://n9-n10kilcullen-waterford.ie/eiswp/chapters/Figure4-129_Danesfort_Junction_eis_wp.pdf

That bit running left-right (north-south... confusing!) is the realignment of the N10, and that's the bit that's complete. The roundabouts are done, as is the bridge over what will be the M9.

The earthworks for the ramps on the Dublin side appear to be well advanced. The old road is on the Waterford side, so obviously the ramps on that side have yet to be built up. The actual motorway cutting underneath is probably complete in terms of its final shape.

road_high

Anybody observe the progress on Waterford-Knocktopher the past month or so? Has the flyover the current N9 nort of Waterford started?

fricatus

mfitzy wrote: »

Anybody observe the progress on Waterford-Knocktopher the past month or so? Has the flyover the current N9 nort of Waterford started?

Take a drive into Waterford from KK mfitzy, and you'll see most of the work ongoing in the Waterford area. This is what you'll see, starting from the KK side:

- At Dunkitt, you can see where the M9 will fly over the existing road
- Further in, after the railway overbridge, you are diverted to the right, up a temporary road, but straight on, you can see the big metal beams being put onto the concrete pillars as part of the N25/N9 junction.
- You pass a roundabout for Kilmacow, and then you're on one half of a dual carriageway section that will link the roundabout at the end of the M9 to the N9/N25 junction.
- You then make a left around the M9 roundabout (you can see where the M9 will start) and then you're on the new section of the N24.
- Left again at a tiny roundabout and then you get a good view of the new bridge, where they've started installing the cables to support the bridge deck. You can see some terrific pictures of the bridge and the new N25 here.
- Heading towards town on the old N24, you'll see where part of it has been realigned - you "dip" under the part where you can see supports for a future N25 flyover.
- You then pass the old N9/N24 mini roundabout. Left is where you would have headed for Dublin - you can see another flyover (this time for the N9) here - but you head straight on towards the city.
- You're now back on the old N9, but you can see construction for the new one on your left.
- The realigned N9 swings up to the left, so you no longer pass the Autoboland garage. There is a roundabout at the top of this section.
- At the roundabout, left would take you onto the new N9, but that isn't open yet!
- Straight on takes you onto a new stretch of road leading to Newrath and Ferrybank.
- Right takes you onto the new dual carriageway towards the city centre. It's not finished yet, but I can't imagine it will be long before both sides are open.

Amtmann

Some images of the M9 between Kilkenny and Waterford, courtesy of the poster Nielsie13 on the skyscrapercity discussion board.



Bridge over the new motorway:

Trotter

Its great to see it actually there and 'almost' driveable. Are we still looking at Q2 2010 before I can motorway it to Dublin?

BluntGuy

Is it just me or am I detecting a hint of Cahir-Mitchelstown-ism in that last picture?

The road looked grand, nice and straight, nearly ready for lining and then THAT image.

Trotter wrote: »

Its great to see it actually there and 'almost' driveable. Are we still looking at Q2 2010 before I can motorway it to Dublin?

Q4 2010 is the official date for the 40 km Carlow-Knocktopher and 27 km Carlow - Kilcullen stretches...

Amtmann

BluntGuy wrote: »

Is it just me or am I detecting a hint of Cahir-Mitchelstown-ism in that last picture?

The road looked grand, nice and straight, nearly ready for lining and then THAT image.

LOL. I know. It looks like a rollercoaster track. I don't know what the designers were thinking; but that last picture in particular is bizarre.

BluntGuy

Furet wrote: »

LOL. I know. It looks like a rollercoaster track. I don't know what the designers were thinking; but that last picture in particular is bizarre.

Well surely those steep gradients will have substandard sightlines for a motorway.

Ah sure... as with all Design and Build contracts quality isn't garunteed.

Also, I presume these images are of the Knocktopher stretch that'll be opening later this year. I still don't know if they'll be opening with blue or green signs. The issue regarding the redesignation of this stretch was "resolved", but I haven't seen any official documentation stating that this stretch has been declared motorway.

Perhaps the NRA will need a third tranche after all because it would be lunacy not to give this road the proper restrictions...

Trotter

BluntGuy wrote: »

Q4 2010 is the official date for the 40 km Carlow-Knocktopher and 27 km Carlow - Kilcullen stretches...

How about the Waterford to Knocktopher section?

BluntGuy

Trotter wrote: »

How about the Waterford to Knocktopher section?

The Waterford-Knocktopher section will be opening in Q3 of this year, presumably at the same time as the Waterford bypass seeing as how part of the M9 is being constructed with that.

Geogregor

Furet wrote: »

LOL. I know. It looks like a rollercoaster track. I don't know what the designers were thinking; but that last picture in particular is bizarre.

I think it is looking that because picture it taken with big zoom. It is well known that such pictures shorten perspective. It means that vertical and horizontal distances are “preserved” but depth is shorten.
In this case curves or hills which are hundreds of meters apart looks like they are one after another.


We have problems on Polish forum with people's complains about curvy motorways based on similar pictures. But they are perfectly design motorways with 130km/h speed limits.
And it means you can safely rive 150km/h

spacetweek

Geogregor wrote: »

I think it is looking that because picture it taken with big zoom. It is well known that such pictures shorten perspective. It means that vertical and horizontal distances are “preserved” but depth is shorten.
In this case curves or hills which are hundreds of meters apart looks like they are one after another.

We have problems on Polish forum with people's complains about curvy motorways based on similar pictures. But they are perfectly design motorways with 130km/h speed limits.
And it means you can safely rive 150km/h

I'm also pretty confident that it's just a trick of perspective. You're looking at maybe 2 km into the distance, but edge on. If you were driving on it, those hills would be very gentle indeed.

road_high

Is it just me or does the site look half-abandoned.
Could be finished so much quicker with a push on from the contractor.

Amtmann

mfitzy wrote: »

Is it just me or does the site look half-abandoned.
Could be finished so much quicker with a push on from the contractor.

The photos were probably taken over Christmas. But yes, there'll be an awful lot of gentrification works to do. On most other schemes I've watched get built, the banks are covered with topsoil asap and hydroseeded asap, long before the median is erected even.

Amtmann

The section of HQDC N9 that didn't get redesignated in tranche 1 will be up for redesignation in tranche 2 when the minister signs in a few weeks. It will probably make it this time. I don't know what exactly the "issue" was the last time, but I do know it involved the Kilkenny road link.

spacetweek

Furet wrote: »

The section of HQDC N9 that didn't get redesignated in tranche 1 will be up for redesignation in tranche 2 when the minister signs in a few weeks. It will probably make it this time. I don't know what exactly the "issue" was the last time, but I do know it involved the Kilkenny road link.

Probably had something to do with it being M10 or N10. Remember a few people on here pointing out a while ago that according to the way they are building the N10/M9 interchange east of Kilkenny, that it will actually have to be the M10. Reckon the DOT didn't want that and had to figure out a way around it before they committed.

johnbk

I was out for drive at the weekend to see progress on this route. Ascon are constructing the section from Knocktopher to Waterford. They have completed large sections (including concrete barrier), however they have a lot of work to do junctions (Mullinavat, Knocktopher). They also have alot of work to do on the last 5 Km of road before Waterford. I predict that it will be at least another 15 months before this section is complete.

Roadbridge are constructing the rest of the M9. They are catching up on Ascon I think. Sisk construct the structures and as far as I can see all of them are substantially started already. Dansford junction is complete. The bridge pillars over the Kings river are up. There are large rock cuttings around Stoneyford with big rock breakers (Not explosives) which are worth a look at. At Powerstown there is substantial excavation taking place. They need to make access for the beams for the bridge over the Barrow.

I can see Dansford to Knocktopher opening along with the Ascon’s section onto Waterford but this is I think will be more than a year yet.

fricatus

johnbk wrote: »

I predict that it will be at least another 15 months before this section is complete.

Bugger! The signs up around Ballyhale say Spring 2009 and Bards, who posts on here, says August - although I don't know which of you is working with the better information.

Has anyone been communicated an estimated opening date by Ascon/BAM, or is it just speculation?

With my hopeful hat on, I've found that roads like the Kilkenny ring road and the Carlow bypass looked a long way from complete a month before opening.

Bards

fricatus wrote: »

Bugger! The signs up around Ballyhale say Spring 2009 and Bards, who posts on here, says August - although I don't know which of you is working with the better information.

Has anyone been communicated an estimated opening date by Ascon/BAM, or is it just speculation?

With my hopeful hat on, I've found that roads like the Kilkenny ring road and the Carlow bypass looked a long way from complete a month before opening.

I'm still willing to Bet Aug/Sep for both Waterford City Bypass & Waterford - Knocktopher Section.

I concur with the spped of pregress by RoadBridge Sisk JV. And maybe they will have as far as Knocktopher to Kilkenny Junction complete by then.

Remember it took Roadbridge 18 months to complete the Gorey bypass which is roughly the distance we are talking about

Amtmann

Roadbridge, from what I've seen, are without equal in this country.

alpha2zulu

If surfaces are anything to go by I would agree roadbridge are the bees knees. The Gorey bypass has to be the smoothest DC/Motorway in the country.

johnbk

I think by September alot of the Knocktopher to Waterford section will be complete. Its difficult to see it being open by then but we will see. I think its more likely to be the start of 2010.

I would be more confident that Dansford to Knocktopher will be ready before this even considering they started a year later.

From watching Roadbridge over the last couple of years they really are amazing to watch. I remember an article last year in Earthmovers magazine where a English tarmac contractor said that they have never gotten the output on a contract anywhere, than what they got with Roadbridge.

fricatus

Check out today's NRA press release.

156 km of new roads will be completed in 2009. The projects are; N4 Leixlip to M50 Junction; N6 Athlone to Ballinasloe; N7 Nenagh to Limerick; N8 Fermoy to Mitchelstown; N9 Waterford to Knocktopher; N9 Kilcullen to Carlow, N51 Navan Inner Relief Road and the N25 Waterford City By Pass

So both the city bypass and the section to Knocktopher are to open this year (seemed to be the case anyway), but the big news here is the bit from Kilcullen to Carlow is down for this year too! I would imagine it would be very late in the year, but it's fantastic news if it turns out to be the case!

BluntGuy

fricatus wrote: »

Check out today's NRA press release.



So both the city bypass and the section to Knocktopher are to open this year (seemed to be the case anyway), but the big news here is the bit from Kilcullen to Carlow is down for this year too! I would imagine it would be very late in the year, but it's fantastic news if it turns out to be the case!

Yeah, I was surprised at that as well. I'm not complaining, it looks like you'll be getting a huge chunk of M9 opening next year.

But the Waterford City Bypass has been ruined by its non-motorway status. I was looking forward to it, but seeing it open with green signs, cyclists, tractors, learners... yuck...

And then the two massive roundabouts which have been carefully crafted to allow inappropiate developments to be tacked onto them, which will, of course, hamper any future efforts to upgrade the junction leading to more expense.