M6/4 Motorway Galway to Dublin (for discussing completed sections)

veryangryman

veryangryman wrote: »

We also have a half-built roundabout at the Elan Exit. Traffic that previously was at stop-go on one side of road....is now stop-go at the other

Why they dont use signposts to divert Athlone/Tuam-Bound traffic onto the old Tuam/Monksland road sted of the roundabout is beyond me. Would make life much easier for the residents

Its not a massive bottleneck, but its still an unnecessary inconvenience

I thought that was the original plan! Maybe the residents revolted!!

KevR

Some photos of line painting and stud fitting progress on the Athlone-Ballinasloe section.

Click for full size images.











A short clip showing preparation work for line painting. Not very exciting but some people may be interested..

KevR

A few more from the Athlone-Ballinasloe motorway. These show work being carried out on the embankments. In the second picture you can see the existing N6 in the background.

KevR

I had these 2 pictures posted in the previous post but they weren't opening the full size images when the thumbnails were clicked for some reason so here they are again (hopefully working this time).

A couple of the N6 overbridge near Aughrim on the Galway-Ballinasloe scheme. Some cross beams were installed on Wednesday.




Kaizersoze has loads of great pictures over in Infrastructure for anyone who may be interested.

Carawaystick

So Cateyes and Armco on this scheme, 'twill be a bit of variety on the M6.


It's lookin good for opening soon.

Can line painting go down on a wet surface?

KevR

Carawaystick wrote: »

Can line painting go down on a wet surface?

I hope so! The weather has turned wet in the last few days and it looks like we could have a few more days of rain at least.

I'll see if I can see them doing any line painting when I'm passing this evening.

Side note: They are in the process of putting down the final layer of asphalt near the N6 overbridge today. This had been delayed a bit because they had a lot of landscaping to do in this area.

nordydan

A message here on the Westmeath RDO about resurfacing:

http://www.wccprojectoffice.ie/new/article.asp?newsId=81&backURL=%2Fnew%2Findex.asp

Road closures due to resurfacing works on N6 Athlone and N52 Kilbeggan 3rd and 4th July.
Posted By: Serena O'Connor - 1 Jul 2009
The north roundabout at Junction 8 (Creggan Interchange) on the N6 at Athlone shall be closed to traffic on Friday next the 3rd of July from 11-00hrs to 17-00hrs. The "off" ramp as you are approaching the roundabout heading east shall be closed to traffic and the "on" ramp at this roundabout will also be closed. There will be no access to the N6 eastbound from the Kilmartin roundabout however diversions will be in place. Traffic travelling eastbound on the N6 wanting to access the Kilmartin roundabout will be asked to divert via junction 7 (Moate West Interchange).
Also on Friday the N52 just south of Kilbeggan will be down to one lane of traffic from 07-00 hrs to 12-00hrs(noon).The length of works will be approximately 200m. A shuttle system will be in place controlled by traffic lights.
On Saturday the 4th of July it is intended to close the fast lane of the N6 at Junction 8 Athlone heading eastwards between the “off” and “on” ramps from 07-00hrs to 14-00 hrs.
All of the above closures are to facilitate resurfacing works.

KevR

A few pictures of the open sections of the M6. Pity it was quite dull. All are Eastbound.

Click thumbnails for full size images.


Rock cutting:


Layby/parking area which should have been 'closed' when the road was redesignated. As you can see there's still a signpost advertising it as a layby/parking area. You can't see it in these pictures but there were a couple of kids playing football in the layby literally a few metres from 120kmh traffic :mad:


Approaching the M4 merge. The rain ruined the pictures a bit

kaizersoze

KevR wrote:

As you can see there's still a signpost advertising it as a layby/parking area. You can't see it in these pictures but there were a couple of kids playing football in the layby literally a few metres from 120kmh traffic

Indeed and made even more dangerous by some motorists whizzing by at that speed while taking pictures......:p:pac:

Chris_533976

I would honestly leave those parking areas there until the MSAs are built. It would be more dangerous to allowed tired drivers to continue than to have an off-road parking area like that for a leg stretch.

veryangryman

Some of the junction names on this road are pretty darn stupid

1. Exit for Clonmacnoise Eastbound is ridiculous. Much quicker journey if you get off at Birr Exit and follow that road.

2. Moate Junctions needs to be changed to Moate East and West

3. The Westbound Moate East Exit is signposted as the R420 instead on N80.

4. Since Athlone Bypass not been declared a Motorway, the Exit numbers from 13 onward need to be changed to 9 onward. Optimism/Idealism will not make the bypass into a Motorway but thats covered in another thread or 3...

5. Rochfortbridge Exit Westbound should be signposted Mullingar. As should Kinnegad Eastbound Exit.

In general, the exit signs are not consistent with the quickest journey for the drivers. They have lazily been copied on both sides, wasting peoples time with an extra 10-20 miles to travel.

L1011

veryangryman wrote: »

4. Since Athlone Bypass not been declared a Motorway, the Exit numbers from 13 onward need to be changed to 9 onward. Optimism/Idealism will not make the bypass into a Motorway but thats covered in another thread or 3...

No, the exit numbers do not need to be changed. The NRA's policy is for the exit numbers to stay continous along a route, regardless of the class of road. The N4 is contiguous with the M4, the N7 with the M7. As a result the nymber system should cover the Athlone BP's junctions too, regardless of whether it gets changed in the future - as the matter is still under consideration, not dead.

KevR

Absolute nightmare of a drive home yesterday (Friday) evening.

There was a very minor accident on the Tuam Rd roundabout which led to huge tailbacks on the Bypass.

Surfacing work on the N6 (where it crosses over the soon to be opened M6) led to huge queues with a stop & go system in place.

A truck broke down approaching the roundabout in Oranmore, partially blocking the road and slowing traffic.

Then just general traffic in Galway City.

Took 2 and a half hours to get home from Athlone.

icdg

KevR wrote: »

Approaching the M4 merge. The rain ruined the pictures a bit

I continue to dispair at the NRA/LAs unable to use the motorway symbol properly, it should never appear on the mainline of a motorway! Meanwhile at the upgraded M50 and N4 SDCC in both cases forgot to use chopsticks to indicate start of regulations and in fact you won't see a single chopsticks approaching the start of the M4 westbound at Leixlip.

KevR

icdg wrote: »

I continue to dispair at the NRA/LAs unable to use the motorway symbol properly, it should never appear on the mainline of a motorway! Meanwhile at the upgraded M50 and N4 SDCC in both cases forgot to use chopsticks to indicate start of regulations and in fact you won't see a single chopsticks approaching the start of the M4 westbound at Leixlip.

That's probably a result of when the M6 used to be designated as the N6 (HQDC). That sign in the picture obviously wasn't updated when the N6 was redesignated as a motorway. A simple blank blue patch over the motorway symbol would have sufficed.

veryangryman

MYOB wrote: »

No, the exit numbers do not need to be changed. The NRA's policy is for the exit numbers to stay continous along a route, regardless of the class of road. The N4 is contiguous with the M4, the N7 with the M7. As a result the nymber system should cover the Athlone BP's junctions too, regardless of whether it gets changed in the future - as the matter is still under consideration, not dead.

Athlone Bypass seems quite the oddity though. You go westbound past exit 2 (Roscommon N61) and then are at exit 13.

If the driver in question happens to have theme from unsolved mysteries playing at the time, he may freak out.

Just saying is all...

Tech3

KevR wrote: »

That's probably a result of when the M6 used to be designated as the N6 (HQDC). That sign in the picture obviously wasn't updated when the N6 was redesignated as a motorway. A simple blank blue patch over the motorway symbol would have sufficed.

It should be corrected immediately IMO. We cant have inconsistent signage like this on our new motorways. The sign indicates your approaching a motorway when you have been consistently on motorway before it. Like you said kev a simple blue patch will do. I'll hop an email off to the NRA about this.

KevR

veryangryman wrote: »

Athlone Bypass seems quite the oddity though. You go westbound past exit 2 (Roscommon N61) and then are at exit 13.

If the driver in question happens to have theme from unsolved mysteries playing at the time, he may freak out.

Just saying is all...

That's the situation at the moment but, as far as I know, that will change at some point. If it gets redesignated then the blue motorway signs will go up with the new junction numbers. If it doesn't get redesignated they will make new green signs with the new junction numbers.

J6 --> J8
J5 --> J9
J4 (N55) --> J10
J3 --> J11
J2 (N61) --> J12
J1 --> J13

kaizersoze

It has always been the plan to re-number the junctions on the Athlone bypass whether it was redesignated or not.

http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/WestmeathCountyCouncil/N6KilbegganAthloneKMA/Map,16422,en.pdf

http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/GalwayCountyCouncil/N6AthlonetoBallinasloe/Map,16453,en.pdf

murphaph

icdg wrote: »

I continue to dispair at the NRA/LAs unable to use the motorway symbol properly, it should never appear on the mainline of a motorway! Meanwhile at the upgraded M50 and N4 SDCC in both cases forgot to use chopsticks to indicate start of regulations and in fact you won't see a single chopsticks approaching the start of the M4 westbound at Leixlip.

I share your despair but the motorway symbol can (rightfully) be found on the mainline when the end of motorway is approaching. I think that's the only place it can exist on the mainline.

L1011

KevR wrote: »

If it doesn't get redesignated they will make new green signs with the new junction numbers.

Or put vinyl stickers on with the new numbers, as has happened in the past week with J7 of the M4 (former J3).

On the topic of stickers, they have also put stickers with the new toll symbol on the last ADSs on the M6 eastbound/.

MYOB

MYOB wrote: »

Or put vinyl stickers on with the new numbers, as has happened in the past week with J7 of the M4 (former J3).

New signs for certain, the old ones are worn out! some have fallen down...

L1011

Deleted User wrote: »

New signs for certain, the old ones are worn out! some have fallen down...

The ones they stickered on the M4 are 15 years old and already patched and I suspect they've already spent the budget for new signs on the Athlone BP on a set of blue ones...

MYOB

MYOB wrote: »

The ones they stickered on the M4 are 15 years old and already patched and I suspect they've already spent the budget for new signs on the Athlone BP on a set of blue ones...

You could be right there:)

L1011

Another 20KM in the morning, then... although it didn't look near ready enough at the tie in when I used it last (Tuesday) night! Anyone able to confirm its ready to go?

kaizersoze

MYOB wrote: »

Another 20KM in the morning, then... although it didn't look near ready enough at the tie in when I used it last (Tuesday) night! Anyone able to confirm its ready to go?

It's good to go alright.

At the Ballinasloe end this evening there was a decent size army working. No major works, just cleaning, tidying and some landscaping. I've never seen so many road sweepers in the one place.:D

Tableman

So the Athline - Ballinasloe section is open now?

How long does it take to get from Athlone to Ballinasloe with the new road?

KevR

Don't think it will be open to the public until approx 1pm. The opening ceremony was at 11am I think (could still be ongoing).

It's 20km, the speed limit at the moment is 100km so you could probably drive Athlone-Ballinasloe in roughly 12 mins at the moment. On the 28th of August the speed limit will increase to 120kmh so you could drive in in 10mins approx then.

I don't think this section will have a huge impact on the Dublin - Galway journey as it bypasses no major bottlenecks (apart from the ones created by the works).

The biggest benefit will be felt by residents along the old road.

But still it will be a big help during peak periods.

KevR

At least we'll be gaurenteed a higher average speed on this stretch. Gone are the days of getting stuck behind a truck or a tractor doing 60kmh and not being able to overtake for ages.