M9 - Waterford motorway construction updates

Chesco

Roryhy wrote: »

He timing the journey from the same point, so Knocktopher exit is right.

M9 bit is obviously wrong though.

Thank you Roryh.
I,m kicking myself for not spotting that.

L1011

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

OSM seriously is the only one I'd trust for the new roads. Just cant beat it.

Unfortunately, its about as useful as a chocolate teapot when you step away from urban areas (as, admittedly, is Tele Atlas!)

road_high

Those new signs for the M9 in Kilkenny are so slap-dash looking. They should more accurately read M9-N10 as you need to drive the N10 for a few KMs out to Danesfort to meet the M9.

Dum_Dum

mfitzy wrote: »

Those new signs for the M9 in Kilkenny are so slap-dash looking. They should more accurately read M9-N10 as you need to drive the N10 for a few KMs out to Danesfort to meet the M9.

It bet KKCC still spent more on those signs than they have on the entire N9 for the last 20 years.

road_high

Dum_Dum wrote: »

It bet KKCC still spent more on those signs than they have on the entire N9 for the last 20 years.

Well the old N9 was a (supposedly!) a National Primary route so it should have been funded properly by NRA funds via the Dept of Transport. Anyhow that road is thankfully ancient history now.
Back to those signs, they just look like kind of plastic sticker type things to me. they are useful but should not plastered over the N10 part of the signs.

MarkK

mfitzy wrote: »

... for a few KMs out to Danesfort to meet the M9.

And more accurately it's "km" not "KMs"

Chris_5339762

MYOB wrote: »

Unfortunately, its about as useful as a chocolate teapot when you step away from urban areas (as, admittedly, is Tele Atlas!)

Get the GPS out and fix that

road_high

MarkK wrote: »

And more accurately it's "km" not "KMs"

Thanks Mark for that helpful correction there....

Dummy

Has anyone heard when the Powerstown to Danesford section will be opening? i have gone through the last 10 pages but could not see any mention.

Drove from Waterford to Dublin today and loved the M9 but what a pain to have to go through Kilkenny.

L1011

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Get the GPS out and fix that

Everywhere near me is mapped, extensively, already. I've done some minor corrections but thats all that can be done. I could do back home at some stage (it has the townland names but nothing else at all) but I'm not there very often.

The areas I don't know I need working maps for, and they're the ones that aren't there.

flop

Chesco wrote: »

Should this read

Paulstown via the old N9 ?
And Paulstown via Dansford and KK ring road from the Danesfordt exit?

Yes my post should read from the old N9 and Not M9 (getting ahead of myself there)

However the timings are based from the same start point (Knocktopher exit) and end point (Paulstown or specifically, where the N10 meets the N9 just outside Paulstown)

Apologies for the confusion

Regards
Flop

hi5

Dummy wrote: »

Has anyone heard when the Powerstown to Danesford section will be opening? i have gone through the last 10 pages but could not see any mention.

Drove from Waterford to Dublin today and loved the M9 but what a pain to have to go through Kilkenny.

The NRA website says Q4 2010
http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/KilkennyCountyCouncil/N9N10CarlowKnocktopherKilcullenWaterford/SchemeName,16507,en.html

Also heard July/August somewhere which would make it Q3
All depends on the weather;)

csd

Folks,

Here are some pics from the recently opened Danesfort - Waterford section, taken on Sunday. Overall it appears to be a good-quality scheme, blighted by the stupid terminal junction and those unsafe parking areas.

Enjoy!

1. Here's the sliproad at the start of the motorway section, heading south at Danesfort.


2. Route confirmation sign soon after the start.


3. Bridge & cutting, with parking area ahead. Taken between Danesfort and Knocktopher.


4. Close-up of the parking area. The on- and off-slips aren't very long, and the plastic reflector strips offer no protection for those parked in these glorified laybys.


5. Approaching exit 10, heading south.


6. Approaching exit 10.


7. Exit 10, for Knocktopher.


8. South of Knocktopher.


9. Approaching exit 11, Mullinavat.


10. Route confirmation and distance sign, south of exit 11.


11. Warning of another dangerous parking area ahead!


12. Nothing to stop a HGV careering into a parked car here...


13. Approaching the end of the motorway. Bizzarely, the M9 scheme doesn't connect directly to the N25 Waterford city bypass. Instead, traffic is dumped onto this roundabout, where it then must negotiate another roundabout at the N25 before being able to access Waterford city.


14. The terminal roundabout at the southern end of the M9, with the N25 Suir Bridge visible in the background. A short section of dual carriageway N9 remains to connect this roundabout to the N25 junction near the bridge.

Bodan

They are some great photographs, thanks csd !

kieranb07

Just wondering has anyone else noticed the planes of water that do be streaming down and accross the road both sides of the big hill near mullinavat? its more so going southbound,
The car infront of me decided to brake in the middle of it this morning!! Needless to say she wont be trying that again:rolleyes:

Its the only fault that I have with the road really, soo cant wait for the rest of it to open...

Silverado

kieranb07 wrote: »

Just wondering has anyone else noticed the planes of water that do be streaming down and accross the road both sides of the big hill near mullinavat? its more so going southbound,
The car infront of me decided to brake in the middle of it this morning!! Needless to say she wont be trying that again:rolleyes:

Its the only fault that I have with the road really, soo cant wait for the rest of it to open...

Sounds like the drainage problem they had on the construction here. One of the main delays on the opening of the road was the drainage problem at Mullinavat caused by the steep ground at Tory Hill.

tramor

Anyone got any photos of the final unopened section.

Jayuu

Have driven the new section of road (both ways) recently and its a great piece of work.

I just have a question with regard to some of the warning signage and this applies to other motorways as well. Why is it that on the M50 all the entrance/exit junction signage is blue yet on the M9 we still have the old style yellow diamond signage, where they exist at all?

Given that both roads are under the control of the NRA wouldn't it be helpful to introduce a common standard, preferably the blue signage. What is the standard on the other inter-urbans?

--

I also did notice the confusion in directional signage between both sections of the M9 although in fairness this was within the first few days of the road opening. The weirdest one I noticed is that the N10 leaves the Kilkenny ring-road signposted for Waterford and then at Danesfort it completely disappears into the M9 or R713 (I think?). A bit confusing for anybody who was following a map. However, I suppose it does make some sense for the CoCos to wait until the road is complete before making wholesale changes to ancillary signage.

I'm wondering what is the future of the N10 once the motorway is completed? Will it be downgraded on both sides of Kilkenny?

drakshug

I've been using the Athy link since it opened for going into Dub every day.
The Athy link is a lovely piece of road. I wish I still had a bike - lovely smooth tarmac, though the Gards are out at Irishtown most mornings. The M9 roundabouts are tight as a............. well they are tight heading to Dublin. Noticed tyre tracks across the roundabout. Interesting ridges/bumps at both the Athy and M9 ends where the road joins the roundabouts. :eek:
The M9 from Kilcullen to the Athy interchange gives off some alarming ringing noises through the tyres - enough to intrude through the stereo.
It has shaved off 5 mins (legally) but have met some weird traffic as other posters have pointed out - agri traffic, those not used to m/way driving, etc.
Just for an experiment i took the old N78 to Athy. Defo quicker than it was and actually more interesting but the new link road is soooooooooooo clean and well trimmed. Nice fencing etc. The turn off at Kilcullen is a bloody mess with the litter on the verge.
Now all they have to do is finish resurfacing down Dublin road Athy and get a bypass for Athy. It took me 30 mins to get through to Loughmans to pick the motor up one evening. Not nice when you finish work in dublin at 5 and Loughmans shuts at 6:15 ish. Thanks for staying open, Anne:D

rameire

drakshug wrote: »

I've been using the Athy link since it opened for going into Dub every day.
The Athy link is a lovely piece of road. I wish I still had a bike - lovely smooth tarmac, though the Gards are out at Irishtown most mornings. The M9 roundabouts are tight as a............. well they are tight heading to Dublin. Noticed tyre tracks across the roundabout. Interesting ridges/bumps at both the Athy and M9 ends where the road joins the roundabouts. :eek:
The M9 from Kilcullen to the Athy interchange gives off some alarming ringing noises through the tyres - enough to intrude through the stereo.

firstly it is very good on the bike,
but on windy days it is quite bad on the new road compared to the old road.
i have been blown from one side to the other on the new road ( by the wind )
if i knew you id lend you my bike.
the fact that the roundabouts are tight have so far not played a part in my driving, because since i have started using the road everytime i have arrived at the roundabout after using the new road there has been traffic on the roundabout so i have had to yield, meaning i have not hit the roundabouts at full speed, apart from the athy end but with the bump in the road it makes it hard to approach at speed.
approaching the athy roundabout from the new road it feels like there are rumble strips built into the surface as the bike shudders for the last 500 meters up to the roundabout.
Guardai seem to be all over the new road at the moment, they were on it this morning and this evening, the area they hang out is near enough half way, near the large farm sheds.

Roryhy

Traveled the link road today, beautiful stretch! Cops had a great hideout in the forested area looking both directions along the straight, half a dozen cars warned us in advance so no trouble there. Its longer than i expected though, no use when traveling Carlow to Athy.

road_high

Anybody know what this is about? Seems to be do with works on the old road;
http://www.kilkennycoco.ie/eng/RSS_Roads_Notices/Notice_of_Intention_to_Close_Roads_-_R449_Old_N10_at_Knocktopher_.shortcut.html

L1011

I'd guess BAM have to restore the old road to a certain condition? Would be damaged by the construction traffic.

dougal

mfitzy wrote: »

Anybody know what this is about? Seems to be do with works on the old road;
http://www.kilkennycoco.ie/eng/RSS_Roads_Notices/Notice_of_Intention_to_Close_Roads_-_R449_Old_N10_at_Knocktopher_.shortcut.html

I seem to remember something about changing the junction in Knocktopher so that traffic coming from the motorway had priority rather than the current scheme of things where the traffic coming from Stoneyford has right of way.

Daysha

Finally got to travel on this for the first time this morning. 2hrs 10mins from the Quay in Waterford to DCU via the M50, and that was on top of sitting in traffic on the Naas road for 20 minutes.

The whole M9/N25/N24 junction really is a mess though. I know it's been said a lot before but only after using it today did I realise how bad it is. I just can't see why the motorway couldn't have been extended an extra km and finish at that first roundabout between the city and the N25, and then make two new motorway exits for the N24 and N25.

Amtmann

Gentlemen:

I'm just wondering, would it be better to (1) leave this thread as it is or (2) create a dedicated M9 thread for discussing completed sections? If option (2) were followed this current thread would remain open to discuss the remaining unopened section of M9, while the discussion of the form and drivability of the open sections could be moved to the new thread.

Opinions?

Zoney

Furet, I'd say leave it - won't the remaining section be open soon enough? Also the two topics get a bit mixed together in some posts anyway do they not?

As regards the M9/N9/N25/N24 arrangement, perhaps part of the logic here is that the N24 connection/roundabout will need revisited anyway when that route gets upgraded?

Still don't understand the connection to the N25 - that surely can't easily be upgraded?

MisterCrown

Would be interested in opinions on the following. If I were to travel from North of Kilkenny city to Waterford, would it be faster to go ...

A - On the new road at the Hebron junction on the ring road, which heads east until it hits the new part of the M9 where it goes west again towards Danesfort.
B - Stay on the ring road and head to Danesfort the usual way.

It seems, from OpenStreetMap, that A may be longer distance but may be a shorter time as you won't get stuck behind a lorry full of logs.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.6084&lon=-7.1624&zoom=13&layers=B000FTF

wellbutty

MisterCrown wrote: »

Would be interested in opinions on the following. If I were to travel from North of Kilkenny city to Waterford, would it be faster to go ...

A - On the new road at the Hebron junction on the ring road, which heads east until it hits the new part of the M9 where it goes west again towards Danesfort.
B - Stay on the ring road and head to Danesfort the usual way.

It seems, from OpenStreetMap, that A may be longer distance but may be a shorter time as you won't get stuck behind a lorry full of logs.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.6084&lon=-7.1624&zoom=13&layers=B000FTF

I make it 11/12 minutes both ways from the Hebron Road roundabout to Danesfort, albeit route A is a theoretical time (no trucks, traffic and at the current 100kmh) and route B will be actual.

MisterCrown

wellbutty wrote: »

I make it 11/12 minutes both ways from the Hebron Road roundabout to Danesfort, albeit route A is a theoretical time (no trucks, traffic and at the current 100kmh) and route B will be actual.

If both are the same then I might take A just for the ease of the drive.