Athlone bypass! should it be a motorway?

spacetweek

spacetweek wrote: »

Love watching your videos Furet; your musical taste is great

Few observations:
What's with all the cones? I know the Ballinasloe BP tie-in is going on but the coned off section started a good 2km before the end of the Athlone BP. Is it because they're resurfacing?

The first set are for emergency works on the "bridge over the river Shannon" and the second lot are for where the temporary crossover will be built to allow the tie in works to commence.

Originally Posted by Deleted User
At 6:16 you can just about see where the "chiccane" will be installed, when the main line is cut in a few days time.
All westbound traffic will then leave at this junction and go up and over a roundabout before rejoining the old N6(R???) at the new roundabout (7:20). You can easily add in another five minutes in here!
Eastbound traffic will do the reversa and use the chiccane to rejoin the bypass.

Saruman

flazio wrote: »

I would be against the upgrading for the simple reason that the Athlone town bridge isn't really suited for any slow heavy goods vehicles to be going across it on a regular basis.

Why would that matter? HGV's can use a motorway so why would they all of a sudden start going through the town?

From my experience of that road, it is more than capable of being 120kph. It is no different than older motorway sections such as the M4 between Maynooth and Lucan. Some resurfacing is all that is needed in places.

Bards

mysterious wrote: »

The town bridge can't cope as it is. The town needs another bridge. And to make it's second bridge a motorway is just plain absurd. .

... and yet you have no problem with the Waterford City Bypass becoming a Motorway even thought there is only one bridge accross the suir for a much larger City than Athlone town, and the second crossing would be a Motorway Only Bridge????

I just don't get your double speak and inconsistencies

Saruman

Saruman wrote: »

It is no different than older motorway sections such as the M4 between Maynooth and Lucan. Some resurfacing is all that is needed in places.

Except for a few bends and Junctions, it's exactly the same.

Saruman

A few bends? Sure but its not like you have to do much in the way of wheel turning, they are light bends and the road pretty much bends in one direction depending on which way you travel as it is going around the town. The only danger the bends pose is on the slight chance there is a pile up, in fog with little visibility.
There is no possible way that on a normal day, if there is an obstacle on the road that you do not see until you go around a little curve that there is no way you could stop in time. The curves are not small and sharp, they are long gradual curves.

Junctions? There are on and off ramps that lead to junctions on the roads into town and the only thing dangerous about them are the junctions themselves. Such as the one heading Dublin bound for where B&Q is? I could have the wrong one but when you exit, you come to a stop sign and to the left the road curves away so there is no way to see what is coming. That is pretty dangerous, no where on the bypass is dangerous in my opinion, at least not when it is fully open and not packed full of cones and roadworks.

Admittedly I do not live in Athlone so would not use it every day, perhaps there is something I am missing and only a local would see it but I do use the road enough to feel perfectly safe at 120kph (traffic permitting of course).

murphaph

Myterious is waffling anyway.Curves and junctions me @rse. Ever driven the M50 Mysterious? That's proper curvy with tight junctions and bends with steep slopes to boot. I wasn't aware of multiple pileups around Ballymount/Red Cow or up in the foothills every day. Just crazy talk.

The bends are not sharp as such, but sharp enough to "wake up" dozy drivers! After 70Km or so of new straight(ish) motorway the bends appear relativly sharp.

Installing rumble strips before the first bend wouldn't be a bad idea.

Amtmann

The entire length of the bypass needs to be resurfaced and cleaned. There's a lot of mud on the hard shoulder. The median concrete barrier in the centre of the bypass seems to have been just dropped there at some point; the barriers do not appear to be fixed into position. I agree the first bend as you head west after leaving the newest part of the M6 comes on you pretty suddenly.

Sponge Bob

Rumble strips on a 120kph motorway , the horror :eek: the HORROR :eek: .

Note the half blind divvys who tootle along slowly between Blyry and the Ros Road in the cars...never mind the mystery tractors . It is a ****ing deathtrap I say .

Lower the speed to 90kph over that entire stretch unless you want lots of people to die !

120kph roads should be designed as such , the core of the Atlone bypass was designed 30 years ago or so ...and as a weaving snaking bypass of Athlone not as a motorway .

However I do believe it should be a 90kph Motorway .

Saruman

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Lower the speed to 90kph over that entire stretch unless you want lots of people to die !

Im curious, since the road was built and has been 60mph and 100kph for all these years, how many people have died on it to warranty a reduction to 90kph? A speed limit I might add that I have never seen on any Irish road.

murphaph

Britain's roads are much safer than ours (app. half the per capita fatalities) and in fact Britain has the safest or second safest roads in Europe statistically. In Britain the Athlone Bypass would either be motorway or an all purpose dual carriageway.....but would have a 70mph limit on BOTH.

Zoney

murphaph: only by default. From what I gather, the authorities there are getting increasingly zealous about scrapping NSL on certain stretches of road near to urban areas.

No doubt it would certainly have been so around the time we built it though, up till recent years. But I would think there is some chance that UK authorities would have slapped a 60mph limit on such a AP DC bypass at this stage.

The 90 km/h limit thing is a non-runner - the only options are 80 km/h and 100, and it isn't going to be lowered to 80. So it will be 100 km/h regardless of it being motorway or DC, and they'll probably have to have large signs and enforcement either way too, due to the 120 km/h motorway either side.

Sponge Bob

80kph then I am sorry to say .

That turn east of the bridge is tight @ 100kph if there is any wind etc and the sightlines around the 2 eastern junctions and over the ros road hump west of the bridge are cack too.

There are too many places where sudden braking could occur @ 100kph for me which is why I would reduce it to a sustainable limit .

G_R

Sponge Bob wrote: »

80kph then I am sorry to say .

That turn east of the bridge is tight @ 100kph if there is any wind etc and the sightlines around the 2 eastern junctions and over the ros road hump west of the bridge are cack too.

There are too many places where sudden braking could occur @ 100kph for me which is why I would reduce it to a sustainable limit .

but sure its 100 at the moment with slow moving vehicles allowed. it wouldn't make any sense to take the dangerous, slow moving classes of vehicles and pedestrians etc. off the road and then reduce the speed limit.

Amtmann

New surfacing, signage, relectors, studs and lines would make a huge difference, all for the better.

Zoney

This is where I say "it's a limit not a target"! If you reduced it to 80 km/h, you'd simply have even more people driving at/in excess of 100 km/h than you do at present, except for the strictly legal drivers (even many good drivers will adapt upwards to account for traffic speed - so the low limit will simply make them lawbreakers) - and these few "slow" drivers will merely increase the chances of accident.

Simply adding "curve ahead" warning signs should be sufficient as regards informing drivers to drive sensibly if there is a real issue.

BluntGuy

And as much as I hate to say it: speed cameras should be used here to discourage traffic from moving too quickly.

I'm not a massive fan of the Athlone Bypass' signage either. Very faded, patchy and often difficult to see. It needs replacing regardless of redesignation.

Amtmann

It also has some annoying personalised ADS signage; one bit gives Athlone town's website!

Zoney

BluntGuy wrote: »

And as much as I hate to say it: speed cameras should be used here to discourage traffic from moving too quickly.

I'm not a massive fan of the Athlone Bypass' signage either. Very faded, patchy and often difficult to see. It needs replacing regardless of redesignation.

Hah - I was wondering whether to say that! Quite a controversial move. I'm not entirely sure whether I would advocate it myself. Maybe if they were set to trigger on everyone who's more than 10 km/h above the limit.

G_R

BluntGuy wrote: »

And as much as I hate to say it: speed cameras should be used here to discourage traffic from moving too quickly.

im totally against speed cameras on M-ways, its a bit like shooting fish in a barrel tbh, most people travel at 125, 130 on motorways and well i dont really see the harm, its within the design speed so its safe enough. They should, however, be installed on R routes where people keep gettin killed, and it should be zero tolerance on those roads, but thats for a different thread, different time.

Mayb there is a case to be made for cameras on the athlone bypass only but it should be a last resort i think.

Sponge Bob

The other problem I have with that sharp curve east of the bridge is that when it is windy and high sided vehicles are taking that curve westbound they are caught sideways by a wind funnel effect off the river...not helped by the high buildings along that river in the town .

The funnel effect continues until you are over the Ros Road hump .

Crushing 120kph cars against the concrete median is a real risk along there and that is another reason why I feel it is a lunatic speed limit on that stretch .

Sponge Bob

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The other problem I have with that sharp curve east of the bridge is that when it is windy and high sided vehicles are taking that curve westbound they are caught sideways by a wind funnel effect off the river...not helped by the high buildings along that river in the town .

The funnel effect continues until you are over the Ros Road hump .

Crushing 120kph cars against the concrete median is a real risk along there and that is another reason why I feel it is a lunatic speed limit on that stretch .

Wind Funnel!! The valley's so shallow there, that's impossible.

BluntGuy

BluntGuy wrote: »

speed cameras

NO!
NO!
NO!
and
NO!
again. :mad:

KevR

On the way to work this morning I saw a tractor on the bypass!

BUT he was NOT crossing the Shannon. He joined East of the Shannon Bridge and was heading East. I'm not sure but I would imagine that there would have been some alternative route that he could have used as he wasn't crossing the river. Probably just used the bypass as a shorter route.

No way should the Athlone Bypass be reduced to 80kmh. If you reduce the Bypass to 80kmh then reduce all single carriageway N roads to 60kmh. It's a good stretch of road. It's not quite as good as our motorways but it's not that bad either. Let's not be dramatic about it.

L1011

mysterious wrote: »

These are not motorway standards I'm afraid. If they were, it would of been reclassified as one years ago.

The ability to reclassify roads as motorways only came in to existance last year. The Athlone Bypass has been included in the first batch on non-MIU reclassifications. Another of your little "facts" rather destroyed I think.

L1011

murphaph wrote: »

Myterious is waffling anyway.Curves and junctions me @rse. Ever driven the M50 Mysterious? That's proper curvy with tight junctions and bends with steep slopes to boot. I wasn't aware of multiple pileups around Ballymount/Red Cow or up in the foothills every day. Just crazy talk.

In mysterious's eyes, thats "different" for unspecified reasons. Because he just wants his green road, he won't specify them.

mysterious

Bards wrote: »

... and yet you have no problem with the Waterford City Bypass becoming a Motorway even thought there is only one bridge accross the suir for a much larger City than Athlone town, and the second crossing would be a Motorway Only Bridge????

I just don't get your double speak and inconsistencies

The Rice bridge can handle up to 55,000 a day.

The Athlone bridge is is arch stone bridge that is pretty narrow, and it's the only bridge to access either side of the town, the only alternative, is 30miles either side there is a difference. Waterford is getting another crossing. Athlone isn't, the bypass bridge been reclassified isn't going to ease the town bridge. The motorway at Waterford will ease the existing bridge, yet another difference your blind to see. Most of Waterford city is on the south side and the entire citycentre is intact on the south side core. The river shannon divides Atlone town in half by a narrow old bridge.

Why would you compare a fairly modern bridge at Wateford to Athlone. The New Motorway will actually ease traffic at the Rice bridge. The Athlone bypass has been in place for the last 20 years and is used by the towns local traffic etc.

That is not double talk, it's just you wailing nonsense and trying to make a decent comparison but you can't.

mysterious

MYOB wrote: »

In mysterious's eyes, thats "different" for unspecified reasons. Because he just wants his green road, he won't specify them.

Since it's already green I'm not the one screaming and hawning I want my blue road.

mysterious

murphaph wrote: »

Myterious is waffling anyway.Curves and junctions me @rse. Ever driven the M50 Mysterious? That's proper curvy with tight junctions and bends with steep slopes to boot. I wasn't aware of multiple pileups around Ballymount/Red Cow or up in the foothills every day. Just crazy talk.

So much for hypocrisy.
It's you spent a few lines waffling above. Lay of the exaggeration ffs.

Foothills, oh god:rolleyes: The M50 isn't curvy. There is only one curve south of firhouse that is not designed for 120kmh speed radiants. The rest of it is.

But since it was always a motorway and it to got it's speed reducted down to 100kmh. It's stupid comparing the M50 with this.

Murphaph I've argued you many times, and corrected you on many stances. Tight junctions are over the M50. still doesn't really affect the mainlne, plus the fact that the weaving lanes between interchanges allow alot of these movements to negoiates safely with the mainline.

So you should lay off the nonsense.:rolleyes:

Steep slopes, want a blue motorway much? You are screaming the motorway agenda here, for any excuse, even if it is lies.

G_R

mysterious wrote: »

Since it's already green I'm not the one screaming and hawning I want my blue road.

mysteriouis, who, other than you, has said the words "I want a blue road", im pretty sure you'll find that no one, no one, has said that other than you. will you please stop sayin it. Its gettin pathetic like, when ever you have nothing to say you jus say that we wanty our blue road and thats that