M6 - Ballinasloe to Galway

Sponge Bob

While the scheme landscaping cannot to my mind be completed by December at least these lads are round for the next 30 years 'maintaining' the road and can always go back and do it in the spring or the next spring again ...if they can punch contraflows through that concrete barrier that is

Amtmann

If more sections than the one shown above are as unadvanced as that, then forget about a December opening. Can't be done surely. Completely at the mercy of the weather too.

Tech3

I cant see this scheme being opened for December looking at the october photo updates from kaizersoze. March or April next year would be more realistic target for road opening.

Sponge Bob

You could finish the road and line it by December , IMO that is .

Does anybody have a snap from around the Loughrea Junction and around Cappataggle as the surface and lining appears to be being completed 'from' the west

cjpm

Sponge Bob wrote: »

While the scheme landscaping cannot to my mind be completed by December at least these lads are round for the next 30 years 'maintaining' the road and can always go back and do it in the spring or the next spring again ...if they can punch contraflows through that concrete barrier that is

tech2 wrote: »

I cant see this scheme being opened for December looking at the october photo updates from kaizersoze. March or April next year would be more realistic. The landscaping is shockingly bad too.

Landscaping will be completed in the spring and will be done using a lane closure, shouldn't be a huge problem.

Furet wrote: »

If more sections than the one shown above are as unadvanced as that, then forget about a December opening. Can't be done surely. Completely at the mercy of the weather too.

I have it on very good authority that Dec 14th is the target date and the works are progressing at some pace at the moment!!

Imagine the tolls that they could collect for the 10 days before Christmas, well worth their while getting it done.....

csd

Apologies if this has been asked already, but does anyone know why the motorway redesignation didn't cover the entire scheme, but leaves the first section out of Galway as N6?

/csd

oddiot

csd wrote: »

Apologies if this has been asked already, but does anyone know why the motorway redesignation didn't cover the entire scheme, but leaves the first section out of Galway as N6?

/csd

The N6/M6 will ultimately continue as the Galway city outer bypass, the link to from existing dual carriageway near Doughiska is not part of the final N6/M6 route.

Sponge Bob

cjpm wrote: »

Landscaping will be completed in the spring and will be done using a lane closure, shouldn't be a huge problem.

Can't be completed before then seeing as nothing will grow .

I have it on very good authority that Dec 14th is the target date and the works are progressing at some pace at the moment!!

Imagine the tolls that they could collect for the 10 days before Christmas, well worth their while getting it done.....

The road signage will also be cack ( if there is indeed any) if they open in December but that should not matter overly if you are traversing the full length of it .

I also wonder whether the Loughrea Link road will open same time as the main line , I have memories of how long it took the Ennis link road off the N18 to open a few years back . If that is not to open in December they need only really erect signs before the toll and either side of Athenry and Carnmore .

L1011

By comparison it looked like wearing course down for some distance on both carriageways where I crossed it on the way in to Athenry...

An N18 style opening (no junctions...) could easily be done by mid December.

serfboard

MYOB wrote: »

An N18 style opening (no junctions...) could easily be done

Yes, but you may remember, that was just before an election ...

L1011

serfboard wrote: »

Yes, but you may remember, that was just before an election ...

Just around a budget in this case, might quell some angry nerves!

Although, as a toll road, maybe not...

Tech3

One of Kaisers photos below shows a lot of work to be done still on some parts of this scheme. Although I would welcome a December opening date!

kaizersoze

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Can't be completed before then seeing as nothing will grow .



The road signage will also be cack ( if there is indeed any) if they open in December but that should not matter overly if you are traversing the full length of it .

I also wonder whether the Loughrea Link road will open same time as the main line , I have memories of how long it took the Ennis link road off the N18 to open a few years back . If that is not to open in December they need only really erect signs before the toll and either side of Athenry and Carnmore .

I really can't see the NRA signing off on an incomplete project especially on an incomplete mainline.
They may get away with some offline landscaping or local access roads unfinished but not the mainline.

Sponge Bob

But they get revenue coming in , likely the guts of €1m in December alone . Will they care ??

In fact I suspect the NRA dare not impede the right of a toll operator to collect tolls because they would be afraid of their ****es of being sued but they will hold back on paying over at least some the money they owe ...however the tolls may cover the interest on that .

And we Galwegians would be happy not to drive the old N6 in the dark winter months, by choice, even if Furet will not accept the M6 is a complete MIU until the shrubbery appears and the dicky birds nest in it

But I heard about this almost two months ago and sure I told everybody back then so I did .

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=62074711&highlight=landscaping#post62074711

kaizersoze

I'd say their contracts have them well covered against such lawsuits. Completion of the project would without a doubt be in there as a requirement before signing off and parting with more money.

Imagine the headlines in the papers (C T in particular with the obligatory whine from Connaughton :rolleyes:) if the spankin new road costing €XXXm had lane closures and delays due to roadworks a couple of months after opening.

Sponge Bob

They can do the lane closures between 9.30 and 4.30 and it will not affect anybody, frankly , it will be a mile at a time .

As long as I don't ever have to drive past Portiuncula during visiting hours again I will consider it an inconvenience of the most minor kind .

kaizersoze

Sponge Bob wrote: »

As long as I don't ever have to drive past Portiuncula during visiting hours again I will consider it an inconvenience of the most minor kind .

Could be worse. You could have to go into Portiuncula during visiting hours.:p

KevR

Dougiska roundabout is pretty much complete. J19 is almost ready. The Athenry link road was nearly fully finished the last time I was out that direction so I would assume that the Athenry junction is almost good to go.

Anyone know how the Loughrea junction and link road are progressing?

I am optimistic that everything but planting/landscaping will be done by 14th of December. There are 900 people working flat out. Certainly down around J19 and Doughiska I have seen them working late in darkness many times. On one occasion I saw them working under floodlights at Doughiska at 00:15!

EAFC_rdfl

loughrea link road looks pretty much done, at least at the loughrea end its all lined etc and I havn't seen lorries going in there since early last week, when they seemed to be putting down the final layer. not sure how the junction at the M6 end is though. as someone doing loughrea-athlone 5 days a week, it would be great if it is all ready in mid december

antoobrien

kaizersoze wrote: »

I have my doubts as well. These were taken today from the Pollboy overbridge which opened last week. It's between the J15 and the Suck bridge.

In fairness this section has only been open fully for work for a couple of weeks at most. Lets see what progress is made before we rule out opening dates, after all they seem to be able to pull out progress when they need to.

kaizersoze

antoobrien wrote: »

In fairness this section has only been open fully for work for a couple of weeks at most. Lets see what progress is made before we rule out opening dates, after all they seem to be able to pull out progress when they need to.

That's true. I did say that the overbridge only opened to traffic though. Having said that, the rate of progress has been staggering and the ammount of work that can be done in a few weeks is unbelievable sometimes.

I'd love to see it open mid December but I still think there's too much to be done. As well as what the photo's show, there is no wearing course laid yet between J14 and the N6 overbridge at Aughrim. I don't think it's done from there to the toll at Cappataggle either but I haven't been out that far in the last week to check.

I hope I'm proved wrong.:D

cjpm

kaizersoze wrote: »

...there is no wearing course laid yet between J14 and the N6 overbridge at Aughrim. I don't think it's done from there to the toll at Cappataggle either but I haven't been out that far in the last week to check.


I hope I'm proved wrong.

A large paver can lay 4km of TSCS (wearing course), up to 12m wide in a day, so that's effectively 2No passes 2km long, one either side of the concrete barrier.

H/S = 2.5m, 2No. 3.5m lanes and 1m adjacent to the barrier = 10.5m which is less than the pavers width so it can do it in one strip.

The advantage of wide strips is that there are no longitudal joints in the pavement within the running carriageway.

kaizersoze

cjpm wrote: »

A large paver can lay 4km of TSCS (wearing course), up to 12m wide in a day,

Really...:eek:

Sponge Bob

Naths Picture at Glenascaul Posted 19th October . Big paver in distance with large truck feeding it .

kaizersoze

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Naths Picture at Glenascaul Posted 19th October . Big paver in distance with large truck feeding it .

I've seen the big pavers in action close up. It's not the 12m width that surprised me, it's the 4KM a day bit.:)

cjpm

kaizersoze wrote: »

I've seen the big pavers in action close up. It's not the 12m width that surprised me, it's the 4KM a day bit.:)

Well 4km would be a very good day and working long hours too.... This time of year it would be 2-3km

Sponge Bob

Ya but there must be 2 of them at least if Kaizer spotted on in Ballinsaloe and Nath about 30 miles west of there so they can do 4km a day between them.

And they have their own asphalt batching plant which can run 7 days a week somewhere near athenry (I think)

cjpm

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Ya but there must be 2 of them at least if Kaizer spotted on in Ballinsaloe and Nath about 30 miles west of there so they can do 4km a day between them.

I've heard alright that there is 2 on the go.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

And they have their own asphalt batching plant which can run 7 days a week somewhere near athenry (I think)

There's a batching plant close to the N17/N18 junction so sourcing materials any day of the week is possible.

kaizersoze

cjpm wrote: »

There's a batching plant close to the N17/N18 junction so sourcing materials any day of the week is possible.

Another batching plant at Cappataggle as well...



And a road base plant....

Sponge Bob

Well seeing as they built and surfaced and lit and signed a large roundabout in Doughiska in a month I would think they could surface and line the road by mid december .

The bloody headford road roundabout took about two years to build not counting the 'bog squashing' between it and the river , must start a thread on bog squashing which was a cost saving technique used in Ireland in the 1980s and abandoned thereafter

Hopefully they can get the topsoil in for the landscaping by then too , that appears to be progressing from the western end .

The signage may be incomplete , again what is the odd coned off section , really .

They can open the road and charge tolls in December , in my opinion , and can finish the detailing and planting by May while the road is open .