Worst national secondary road in Ireland

Tech3

Hi,

We have all been though hell on some secondary roads in this country. Just wanted to know what has been the worst you have driven on. My choice has to go to the N84 headford road. A lot of nice bumps here and there.

Random

Is this on the Westport to Galway route ?

Tech3

yeah it is, westport/castlebar - galway

Random

tech2 wrote: »

yeah it is, westport/castlebar - galway

Never drove it myself but been a passenger numerous times .. god it's an awful road !

AugustusMaximus

Ring of Kerry between Sneem and Waterville.

Without a doubt the worst in Ireland. The pot holes are awful.

L1011

Two nominations: For 'normal' routes its the N77. Its worse than most of Kildare's L roads.

The N56 however, is special. It has to have the twistiest section of national route in the entire country (coming in to Leitermacaward) as well as what must be the only case where the council signs you to leave the national route network to get to a destination on the same road (signs to get off the N56 and on to the R262 for Glenties/Donegal Town depending on direction). When you eventually find a straight, flat-ish looking section (coming in to Dungloe) you sill find yourself hauling the car constantly to the right as the uneven surface tries to force you off the road if you do more than 60km/h.

It also has some of the most comedy placement of speed limit signs possible, all 100km/h ones. Hairpin bends, 90 degree corners, and so on - wherever you need to go slow, theres a 100 sign... I doubt there is any real challenger to this.

murphaph

N81 will be mentioned soon, oops, just did it.

penexpers

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

Ring of Kerry between Sneem and Waterville.

Without a doubt the worst in Ireland. The pot holes are awful.

Agree about that. Also some parts of the N9 around Waterford are pretty hairy too.

Sponge Bob

The N9 is only a secondary if you live outside the south east , in the south east it is a primary :cool:

The N59 in Galway is appalling from Recess Leenane via Clifden , and I agree on the N56 being equally atrocious especially the Glenties - Killybegs boreen .

icdg

murphaph wrote: »

N81 will be mentioned soon, oops, just did it.

Certainly should get the Greater Dublin vote (if only because, er, it is the only national secondary road in Greater Dublin!). However it drops from urban dual carriageway (albeit of the old style, traffic lights and roundabout kind) to narrow, twisty, mountainy country lane almost instantly once you go through Jobstown! Certainly the worst of the N-roads leaving the capital by a long strech.

The national secondary roads seem to have become the outcast of the road network here, falling between two stools - largely ignored by the NRA who have responsiblity for them but concentrate largely on the primary routes, while not falling under the funding programmes for regional and local routes. As a result they are in many cases becoming worse than the regional roads!

Zoney

N52 between Borrisokane and Birr? It has an incredible up/down/left/right virtually one-lane rollercoaster bit just at the start if I remember correctly.

orbital83

MYOB wrote: »

The N56 however, is special. It has to have the twistiest section of national route in the entire country

Worse than the N87, near the NI border??

L1011

John J wrote: »

Worse than the N87, near the NI border??

Looking at maps here, the N87 is bad for longer but not as seriously... never driven it, though. Close call probably.

The seriously twisty bit of the N56 is about two miles long, but you're lucky to exceed 35mph average on those two miles. Theres zero passing places too... and you're hugging a river valley cliff most of the time, which could lead to a nasty end.

DWCommuter

Ive done the Ring of Kerry, but I gotta agree with MYOB, the N56 has to be seen to be believed. Ive driven it from Donegal town to Dungloe. Starts off grand, but then deterioates to an astounding degree. A disgrace.

road_high

N81 is pretty bad but the M9 will take much of it's current traffic in the next few years.
N77 is pretty bad too for much of it, at least it's only a short distance though.

marmurr1916

Most of the N67 between Kilcolgan in Co. Galway - joins the N18 there - and Ennistymon in Co. Clare is seriously sh*te. The N71 between Bantry and Kenmare is also terrible, especially the section past Glengarriff.

Let's face it: most of our national secondary roads are in crap condition. Once the improvments to the national primaries are finished we'll need a 5-10 year programme of major improvements to the national secondaries to bring them up to an acceptable standard.

L1011

DWCommuter wrote: »

Ive done the Ring of Kerry, but I gotta agree with MYOB, the N56 has to be seen to be believed. Ive driven it from Donegal town to Dungloe. Starts off grand, but then deterioates to an astounding degree. A disgrace.

The Mountcharles bypass really does lull you in to a false sense of security, nice WS2 with turning bays, etc. Then it loses the hard shoulders and any sense of a straight line directly after...

DWCommuter

MYOB wrote: »

The Mountcharles bypass really does lull you in to a false sense of security, nice WS2 with turning bays, etc. Then it loses the hard shoulders and any sense of a straight line directly after...

North of Glenties is really scary.

DWCommuter

marmurr1916 wrote: »

Let's face it: most of our national secondary roads are in crap condition. Once the improvments to the national primaries are finished we'll need a 5-10 year programme of major improvements to the national secondaries to bring them up to an acceptable standard.

Yup, they are. But I guess we'll have to wait on a second celtic tiger, because from my experience, improving the secondaries will require a huge amount of CPO'ing. This thread highlights yet more inconsistancy in relation to our transport investment. Many "R" routes are superior to national primary/secondary. I think across the transport spectrum, the Irish administration has failed to identify a coherent plan of implementation that deals fairly and strategically with the issues. This, I believe, is our biggest stumbling block with making tangible progress across the board.

icdg

icdg wrote: »

Certainly should get the Greater Dublin vote (if only because, er, it is the only national secondary road in Greater Dublin!).

Before someone else corrects me, I'll correct myself, yes there is also the N82. At just over a mile long and essentially a private road I'm not going to count it and its fit for purpose anyway. More than one can say about the N81...

I am wondering at this stage is there a case for detrunking every last national secondary road, they could retain their N numbers and green signage but be taken out of the NRA's remit and given to local councils who might actually do something about maintaining them properly...

JupiterKid

Yes, I agree with the others. The National Secondaty network, with a few exceptions, is a complete disgrace. Poor alignments, too narrow, poor sightlines, and few bypasses all serve to make then unpleasant and dangerous routes to drive on. About the only significant thing that has improved with them is the quality of their surfacing and marking.

If I had to select the worst stretches, they would be these:

N52 Kells to Mullingar. Absolutely atrocious. I was nearly in a head on collision on this stretch last year, due to a reckless driver overtaking in the oncoming direction on a very narrow section. Very close shave!:eek::(

N56 Glenties to Dungloe - very narrow, barely room enough in places for two average sized cars to pass safely, let alone a bus or lorry. Very dangerous bends north of Glenties. I've seen mountain tracks better than this stretch.

N81 Blessington to Baltinglass. Too narrow, too twisty and grossly under capacity.

Best sections? Too few to mention, but parts of the N52 have greatly improved, such as Birr-Tullamore, Belvedere to Mullingar and small bits between Mullingar and Delvin.

Parts of N71 near Cork city are good, as is much of the N76 Kilkenny - Clonmel.

rain on

marmurr1916 wrote: »

The N71 between Bantry and Kenmare is also terrible, especially the section past Glengarriff.

The N71 from Skibbereen to Clonakilty is painful as well. I hit a pothole the size of Louth on it last night (didn't see it in the dark) -- I'm amazed the car didn't fall apart there and then.

Typewriter

Zoney

R roads by contrast seem to have improved immensely in many counties - proper surfaces (even if the roads remain narrow), lighting at junctions, new signage, traffic calming/pavements in small villages, some occasional realignments at junctions/corners.

The secondary roads are still appalling in perhaps most places.

brettmirl

The N73 from Mitchelstown to Mallow is god awful.

fricatus

JupiterKid wrote: »

Parts of N71 near Cork city are good, as is much of the N76 Kilkenny - Clonmel.

The latter is true with the exception of the section from the end of the Callan bypass as far as KK city. That's an atrociously dangerous, windy road with loads of private entrances. I think there have been some tragedies there in the past few years. Given that it's so busy too, it's definitely one in need of big improvement.

loyatemu

driving in England a couple of weeks ago what struck me most about their roads was how much better their single carriageway A-roads were.

Even though in many cases they have no hard-shoulders and can be quite twisty (I was in the Cotswolds where its pretty hilly) they are generally very well surfaced, marked and signposted with plenty of parking lay-bys (usually with a burger-van parked in them!).

Also, driving at night, I couldn't get over how effective their cats-eyes are. - it was like driving on a runway. Why are the cats-eyes in this country (where they even exist at all) so hard to see?

crapmanjoe

mick_irl wrote: »

The N73 from Mitchelstown to Mallow is god awful.

Have to agree with you there, drove that road for the 1st time yesterday and was in shock at the state of it,god knows why the speed limit is 100k, even doing 80 on most of the corners is asking for trouble

brettmirl

God help the tourists who have to use that road en route to Killarney!

TheNog

Zoney wrote: »

R roads by contrast seem to have improved immensely in many counties

Outside of the rules I know but I nominate the R161 Trim to Kildalkey road.
Distance according to AA is 9.6km but as the crow flies the distance is about 7km

It was designed by a drunk engineer.

murphaph

loyatemu wrote: »

Why are the cats-eyes in this country (where they even exist at all) so hard to see?

Because the lens/wiper part is a consumable and needs periodic replacing...which never happens here. The manufacturer of Catseyes recommends a 6 month inspection schedule. Does anyone think that takes place in Ireland?

Tech3

the cats eyes in a lot of primary routes never mind secondary routes are awful.

Apart from the headford road i have to agree the N56 is a pretty bendy one.

Carawaystick

The road between An Daingean and Tralee N86 is pretty poor.
The N73 isn't great but the N72 is desperate in parts. Mallow to Fermoy
Second the N52 between Borrisokane and Birr.

JupiterKid

I forgot the section of N52 between Ardee and Dundalk. Haven't travelled that boreen in ages, but it was an apalling death trap.

N54 between Monaghan and Cavan is in poor condition.

RadioCity

Talking of the N87, wasn't it an "upgrade" of a couple of regional roads, one of them may have been the R202.

At the time, it was technically made up the main route from Dublin to Donegal through Enniskillen at Swanlinbar as what looked like the most direct route through Derrylin to the A509 was blocked. So to access the A32 into NI you would have to traverse the regional roads. When it became the N87, it made the route a lot clearer-even just by looking at it on a map.

As for the N56-its seriously hit and miss with wide sections at Letterkenny and Donegal Town and some dangerous bends on just about the rest of it! Tip for the N56: theres probably a better alternative Regional road. I can't see the point of any great future realignment to the N56 from Termon around North Donegal to Gweedore as the R251 is now a vastly superior road (compared to the N56).

L1011

Sections of the N56 are already signposted around by DCC telling you to use similar quality but shorter distance R roads!