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

kiwipower

Ciaran187 wrote: »

Quick question. Living in Dublin and driving to Tuam (well, past Tuam). Up to now, I've taken the motorway to Athlone then the Tuam road. Someone told me the motorway now goes to Claregalway. Is this right? If so, am I better off heading that way from now on?

Heard from someone who travels Tuam to Dublin twice a day with trucks who said in good weather there is no difference in time or fuel consumption either way (when taking tolls into account,) but with the bad weather it is safer to take the motorway.:D

L1011

Trucks are limited to 96km/h or whatever on the motorway (officially!), cars aren't - so if its the same time for a truck, it should be faster for a car to go by the motorway.

antoobrien

kiwipower wrote: »

Heard from someone who travels Tuam to Dublin twice a day with trucks who said in good weather there is no difference in time or fuel consumption either way (when taking tolls into account,) but with the bad weather it is safer to take the motorway.:D

You could go to Claregalway or Athenry, whichever is quicker. I'd think about Athenry depending on the time of day.

KevR

Got a few pictures yesterday (Sunday). Was a pretty dull day and, typically, the only 10 mins of sleet Galway got all day was the 10 mins I was on the M6! Quality isn't brilliant; I'll have to get some proper photos on a dry, sunny and frost/snow-free day sometime.

Click thumnails for full size images.

Heading East from Doughiska to Athenry.

Doughiska:



Rock cutting near Doughiska:


Signage approaching Junction 19/start of motorway:



Getting nearer J19:



At Junction 19/start of motorway:


Ice warning VMS and SOS phone + destination signage:



Wide median section + wide bridge over wide median section:


Heading East:

KevR

And some more heading East.

Approaching Junction 18 (Athenry):


Approaching Junction 18 (Athenry):


End of Motorway at Athenry:

KevR

Heading West towards Galway City at night. Pretty poor pictures but I'll post anyway.

First photo doesn't really do the Cat's Eyes justice. Trust me, it's like being on a runway. Second photo shows signage; a bit blurry but you van see how well dipped headlights illuminate the sign.


Approaching Doughiska. Second photo is quite blurry, sorry!


At Doughiska:

Tech3

Nice shots Kev, the road looks brilliant. Would this be your favorite section of the M6 overall? I have not driven any of the M6 only the N6 Athlone bypass but looking at photos it looks as though this one was the best constructed.

Also is the R348 link road off J17 standard single carriageway with hs? I'm copying your posts into the original thread aswell. I can reopen it if you want to review the scheme?

KevR

Yeah, Galway-Ballinalsoe is definitely my favourite section of the M6. I would prefer if they had rumble strips on the emergency lane yellow line and median solid white line and if the mainline had streetlighting through junctions though.

The R348 is a standard single carriageway with hard shoulders, streetlighting and cat's eyes. The surface seems a bit rough though and there are roadworks 50kmh speed limit signs on it. I'm thinking it might only be a temporary surface and that they will come back an put a permanent surface on it after they have opened the other link road to the Derrydonnell side of Athenry.

CrowdedHouse

Galway - Ballinasloe was in very poor condition this morning.
Very poor gritting
Right lane unusable and a few hairy spots on the left as well,perfect after Ballinasloe.

EAFC_rdfl

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

Galway - Ballinasloe was in very poor condition this morning.
Very poor gritting
Right lane unusable and a few hairy spots on the left as well,perfect after Ballinasloe.

i travelled loughrea - athlone this morning, couldnt complain considering the snow that fell after dark last night (maybe it was worse galway - loughrea). it was obvious ballinasloe and eastwards didnt get nearly as much hence both lanes were clear.
I found the left lane was grand, and no call for people going at 40mph in it :mad:

Nath

KevR wrote: »

First photo doesn't really do the Cat's Eyes justice. Trust me, it's like being on a runway.

Great pics Kev, what really impresses me is the cats eyes on the concrete barrier, they are really excellent and I haven't spotted them anywhere else, e.g. M18 Ennis bypass.

Also, there is a noticeable difference in the road smoothness on the Galway to Ballinasloe section compared to anything east of that. Next time you are heading east, note the lack of road noise until after the B'Sloe East junction.

KevR

I think the barrier reflectors are on some other stretches.

The difference in surface smoothness is really noticeable between Galway-Ballinasloe and most other sections of road in the country in my opinion. Especially compared to the likes of the M4 near Dublin where the surface is quite a bit older (it's a lot nosier than Galway-Ballinasloe).

Tech3

KevR wrote: »

I think the barrier reflectors are on some other stretches.

The M7 Nenagh bypass has unbelievable reflectors on the crash barrier. The ones on the M18 should be replaced IMO.

ipodrocker

tech2 wrote: »

only the N6 Athlone bypass

is the athlone bypass staying as the N6? or will be upgraded to M6?

KevR

As far as I know the Athlone Bypass is still being considered for redesignation to motorway. Have no clue when the decision will actually be made though.

ipodrocker

its weird as we cant say the entire road is motorway.

KevR

KevR wrote: »

As far as I know the Athlone Bypass is still being considered for redesignation to motorway. Have no clue when the decision will actually be made though.

According to the local paper, a decision is due early in the new year!

Carawaystick

ipodrocker wrote: »

its weird as we cant say the entire road is motorway.

But the M1/N1 isn't Motorway the whole way, the M7 only starts in Naas etc.

BluntGuy

Carawaystick wrote: »

But the M1/N1 isn't Motorway the whole way, the M7 only starts in Naas etc.

The M1 is near enough the whole way though. The M7 and M4, without extensive works will never reach the M50. However, there are no technical reasons the Athlone Bypass can't be made motorway, the upgrade would inconvienece a very small minority, with the benefits of route consistency and enhanced safety for everyone else. Why have a cumberland-style gap where we needn't have one?

L1011

The M7 would need to be built along its reseved corridor from Maudlins to the M50 rather than upgrade the N7 but the M4 would just need a service road for Sureweld and the Hermitage GC strip out the bus stops and put a proper barrier where the poles seperating the service lanes are; thats basically it. Shouldn't be any demolition or further removal of access needed.

Can't see removing the bus stops being popular though; nor sending people along the Strawberry Beds as the alternative route for non-m'way traffic.

Chris_533976

BluntGuy wrote: »

The M1 is near enough the whole way though. The M7 and M4, without extensive works will never reach the M50. However, there are no technical reasons the Athlone Bypass can't be made motorway, the upgrade would inconvienece a very small minority, with the benefits of route consistency and enhanced safety for everyone else. Why have a cumberland-style gap where we needn't have one?

I agree that it should be motorway for completeness and safety, provided that they put MASSIVE 100kmh signs up at both ends. The biggest problem is the severity of the left hand turn as you hit the bypass going west. That cant be taken at 120kmh and you dont expect 100kmh signs. Needs to be more than the usual small speed limit signs.

L1011

Chris_533976 wrote: »

That cant be taken at 120kmh and you dont expect 100kmh signs. Needs to be more than the usual small speed limit signs.

I've taken it at heard tale of it being taken at in excess of 140km/h... admittedly in a car with proper sports suspension and decent tyres, etc!

MYOB

MYOB wrote: »

I've taken it at heard tale of it being taken at in excess of 140km/h... admittedly in a car with proper sports suspension and decent tyres, etc!

Many of the locals take that bend at 120km/h no problem - the problem is that visitors who don't drop their speed can be "caught out!" by the unexpected sharpness of it, at the very least it should have a warning sign!

L1011

Throw up the suggested max speed signs they have on deceptively tight bends on the A26 DC in the North (and I'd assume other places too) then. 70mph DC, sign suggests 50mph at a bad bend - if you know the road you can take it at 70 (but 80 would have you off I suspect) and if you don't know it, you take it slower.

oddiot

Attached is a google earth kmz file of the route from the M50 to Doughiska. If you play with the time sliders within google earth, you can see data points that show speed and direction that were recorded for that point. This was created using instamapper on a mobile phone on Christmas eve in poor conditions, so the journey took 1h50m.

Chris_533976

Went on a burn from Galway to Loughrea today. Absolutely love the new stretch, I reckon its the closest to a European motorway we'll ever get - good sightlines, emergency phones, wide median in places, long distance between junctions etc.

It even has emergency access gates.

My one complaint would be the parking area just before the Loughrea turnoff heading East. Its right on top of it. The 3 2 1 signs are right on the parking area, and it would be VERY easy to think the parking area is part of the sliproad. I know what a motorway junction looks like and I was nearly caught out.

Chris_533976

Deleted User wrote: »

According to the local paper, a decision is due early in the new year!

Someone on Wikipedia has gotten ahead of themselves and marked the Athlone bypass as motorway

veryangryman

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Someone on Wikipedia has gotten ahead of themselves and marked the Athlone bypass as motorway

Good luck to him (and everyone applicable on this forum) for their blind ambitions. Motorway redesignation there will NEVER happen, for the same reason it wont for N4 Leixlip-M50 and N7 Naas-M50 - there is no reasonable altertative route.

L1011

veryangryman wrote: »

Good luck to him (and everyone applicable on this forum) for their blind ambitions. Motorway redesignation there will NEVER happen, for the same reason it wont for N4 Leixlip-M50 and N7 Naas-M50 - there is no reasonable altertative route.

Motorway redesignation won't happen on the N4 or N7 due to private accesses. The Athlone BP does not have this problem. The alternate routes for some sections of motorway in Ireland make the option of going through Athlone look like rather a palatable one. Such as this section of the R772 (M11 alternative):

BluntGuy

I'm hoping sense will be seen and the bypass will be redesignated.

This page needs to be updated:

M6 motorway wiki

Also, this is blatantly wrong:

The Dublin-Galway Motorway is split in two, the M4 goes from Dublin to Athlone, then the M6 runs from Athlone to Galway, completing the Dublin-Galway route to full motorway city to city.