N8/N25/N40 - Dunkettle Interchange [open to traffic]

Chris_5339762

Heres a rundown on this weeks Dunkettle Newsletter

• Night time working will continue at the Interchange roundabout area over the coming week, focused on ground investigation works.
• This phase of night time working is likely to continue until the end of March/early April.
• Further information on the Dunkettle project is available on the project website, http://www.dunkettle.ie.

Advance Works at Silversprings:
Footpath construction and road resurfacing to regularise the traffic lanes in the area for both inbound and outbound traffic at Silversprings. More information at http://www.dunkettle.ie/gallery-silversprings
• Works here are at substantial completion.

Advance Works at Little Island Interchange:
Capacity improvement works in the Little Island Interchange area.
• Works are now being progressed on the most difficult part of the site, the overbridge itself.
• The photographs below show the removal of the pavement layers from the eastern section of the bridge, waterproofing of the bridge deck after the removal of the surfacing and the road widening works progressing in the area south of the overbridge.
• We expect to complete the works in the eastern footpath area by Wednesday the 20th of March 2019. Works will then switch to the western footpath area and we expect to complete the works here by Friday the 12th of April 2019. Pedestrian access will be maintained at all times through the western footpath area while the works are being progressed.
• Members of An Garda Siochana will continue to be in place during the pm peak to assist traffic flow at the junction on the northern side of the overbridge.
• A number of companies on the Island have implemented flexi-time working arrangements for the duration of our construction works. This has had a significant positive benefit from a traffic flow point of view and the cooperative approach taken by all commuters affected by the ongoing works is both recognised and appreciated.
• Following on from completion of the western footpath area, and subject to approval by An Garda Siochana, it is proposed to complete the remainder of the works on the overbridge over the Easter holiday weekend between 9pm on Thursday the 18th of April to early morning on Tuesday the 23rd of April 2019. Full details of proposed arrangements during this period will follow in future updates but both pedestrian access and emergency vehicle access will be maintained at all times.
• Offline works in a number of areas south of the overbridge will continue over the coming period and works overall remain on track for completion by the due date of June 2019.
• We now understand that the O’Flynn Construction works at the exit to An Crompan Roundabout from the Eastgate Business Park will get underway during week commencing Tuesday the 19th of March 2019 and O’Flynn Construction propose to complete their works in line with the timeline for the main construction works.

N28 Works at Shannonpark, Raffeen Junction:
Adjustments to lane configuration at Shannonpark to improve traffic flow. Traffic calming/safety measures at Raffeen Junction.

• Works are now well advanced on the city bound side of the N28 exiting the Shannonpark Roundabout – see photograph below.
• Over the coming week, works will continue on the city side of the roundabout and works are now also getting underway on the N28 approach to the roundabout from the Ringaskiddy side.
• No peak time lane closures are envisaged over the coming period.
• Dates have yet to be confirmed for removal of the poplar trees on the southern side of the N28 at the Raffeen Junction.
• From a programme point of view, works remain on track for completion by the due date of June 2019.

N40 Intelligent Transport System:
Installation of gantry mounted Variable Message Signs and other infrastructure to display traffic information such as journey times.

• Contractor appointment expected over the coming weeks with works getting underway on site probably in May 2019.
• Details of works proposed and associated traffic management measures to follow in future updates.

N22 Macroom/Ballyvourney Project:
Construction of over 22kms of new national primary road bypassing both Macroom and Ballyvourney/Ballymakeera.

• The photograph below shows diversions of high voltage power lines by ESB crews in an area east of the Bohill River.
• The main high voltage power line diversion works required are near the western end of the scheme. Construction of an access track to facilitate these diversion works will get underway next week.
• It is still hoped that the main construction works will get underway before the end of this year.


Dunkettle Bunny Update

I missed a golden opportunity during the week as I didn't have my camera on the passenger seat. There was a big fat bunny munching grass in the morning sun right next to the Upgrade sign on the south side of the roundabout. He was perfectly lit and it would have made a wonderful photo. Other than that, I've seen at least one bunny out every night this week and one heading back to his burrow up the slope when it was beginning to rain. Fortunately, there are still loads of bunnies there despite the nighttime works.

spacetweek

Full construction was meant to get underway in Q1, but now it's April.

marno21

spacetweek wrote: »

Full construction was meant to get underway in Q1, but now it's April.

That's down as "summer" now. 3 year timeframe

AugustusMinimus

Any reasons for the delay?

spacetweek

marno21 wrote: »

That's down as "summer" now. 3 year timeframe

Thread title changed.

Chris_5339762

To be fair its been like this for a while. Advanced works early 2019 and full start Summer 2019.

The poor bunnies will be out trying to sun themselves for the summer and they'll have to put up with construction traffic.

I haven't seen that many over the past few days but there was an absurdly fat one grazing on the south side of the roundabout on Monday afternoon.

Limerick74

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cc5fad32-58a1-11e9-8813-c167a1bb1937

Behind a paywall

Markcheese

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Any reasons for the delay?

Wasn't there a slight change in planning,
And a hiccup over ground conditions?

kub

Limerick74 wrote: »

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cc5fad32-58a1-11e9-8813-c167a1bb1937

Behind a paywall

More of this carry on, what a joke of a country.


The dogs on the street would have known ground conditions in a tidal area like Dunkettle would of course have been boggy / marshy.


Is there any common tact at all involved in these projects?


What is the contractors game here? Get in with the cheapest quote and then fight for the best possible profit.

marno21

kub wrote: »

More of this carry on, what a joke of a country.


The dogs on the street would have known ground conditions in a tidal area like Dunkettle would of course have been boggy / marshy.


Is there any common tact at all involved in these projects?


What is the contractors game here? Get in with the cheapest quote and then fight for the best possible profit.

This article annoyed me to the point that I didn't bother posting it here.

There is nothing in there that's wrong or anything. Everything in that article is normal and expected with a project like this. It's just hunting for clicks on the back of Childrens Hospital outrage.

Dunkettle was originally priced at €100m.

marno21

I was on the N40 today at peak time and a couple of thoughts occured to me that have been posted here before but I think bear repeating.

It seems clear to me that when Dunkettle is finished, there will of course be many benefits, but it's going to spawn several other issues that are currently masked by Dunkettle's traffic filtering.

1. The Douglas flyover: having freeflow from Dunkettle, Mahon traffic and most importantly N28 traffic all merging into 2 lanes at the Rochestown Park Hotel is going to be a nightmare. After the M28 is complete it'll be 4 M28 lanes + 2 M40 lanes merging into 2 M40 lanes. This is going to be absolute carnage

2. The N25: at present, traffic heading east on the N25 is constrained by the Dunkettle Interchange. When it's complete, the congestion at the Lakeview Roundabout, and further on at Castlemartyr will become significantly worse. TII state that the N25 between Lakeview and Youghal is sufficient to deal with capacity beyond 2030 but I don't believe this to be a fact

3. The N22: this may be less of an issue but more traffic heading west on the M40 at faster rates will cause even more issues at the end of the current N40/N22 at Ovens. Again, TII have no immediate plans to advance Ovens-Macroom

4. Cork's infrastructure is not keeping pace with growth and the list of backlog items is growing by the year.

5. The level of traffic on the N40 in general is frankly obscene and totally unsustainable: the N40 between J6 and J7 is carrying upto 100k vehicles daily. The M25 at Heathrow carries around 2.5x that for a city the size of London connecting some of the UK's most important motorways. The N40 is carrying more than half what the M50 carries at its busiest section. This level of car usage & car dependency for a city of its size needs addressing and not by widening roads. The Cork Metropolitan Transport Strategy will deal with some of this but as long as there is no attempt to address Cork's multi faceted infrastructure deficit this will continue to get worse. There is little point in publishing CMATS with suburban rail improvements, light rail, quality bus corridors, cycling infrastructure etc if it gets published and then put into a filing cabinet in City Hall.

AugustusMinimus

Number 1 is my biggest issue too.

Another is a lack of routes crossing the N40 for local traffic which have no access directly to the N40.

On the entire length of the road, there is only 2. Togher Road and Waterfall Road. Junctions with N40 access are just clogged with traffic.

No consideration was given to this when it was being built. Part of the reason is topological (Bloomfield to Tunnel can’t have any access roads due to the sea. I believe another bridge going from Sourh Douglas Road to Grange should have been build but it’s too late now.

One idea might be to block the South Douglas Road exit. Would dramatically improve traffic in and out of Douglas IMO.

Finally, the Jacobs Island setup is all wrong. Jacobs Island should have no access to the N40. The Mahon Interchange should have been built as a trumpet. Jacobs Island would then be accessed by a second bridge with access only from Mahon.

hans aus dtschl

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Number 1 is my biggest issue too.

Another is ...

I agree with everything you've written, but at the same time those horses have bolted.

At this point I really don't see how we're going to be able to continue with the level of car dependency in Cork. I think something's gotta give: the council's going to have to bite the bullet and take priority away from cars in a lot of places.

neddynasty

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Number 1 is my biggest issue too.

For the last couple of years I've thought the only solution to this and the N40 in general is variable speed limits and lots of fixed speed cameras to ensure compliance. Slow down to move faster (& safer) kind of idea.

mydiscworld

marno21 wrote: »

I was on the N40 today at peak time and a couple of thoughts occured to me that have been posted here before but I think bear repeating.

It seems clear to me that when Dunkettle is finished, there will of course be many benefits, but it's going to spawn several other issues that are currently masked by Dunkettle's traffic filtering.

1. The Douglas flyover: having freeflow from Dunkettle, Mahon traffic and most importantly N28 traffic all merging into 2 lanes at the Rochestown Park Hotel is going to be a nightmare. After the M28 is complete it'll be 4 M28 lanes + 2 M40 lanes merging into 2 M40 lanes. This is going to be absolute carnage

2. The N25: at present, traffic heading east on the N25 is constrained by the Dunkettle Interchange. When it's complete, the congestion at the Lakeview Roundabout, and further on at Castlemartyr will become significantly worse. TII state that the N25 between Lakeview and Youghal is sufficient to deal with capacity beyond 2030 but I don't believe this to be a fact

3. The N22: this may be less of an issue but more traffic heading west on the M40 at faster rates will cause even more issues at the end of the current N40/N22 at Ovens. Again, TII have no immediate plans to advance Ovens-Macroom

4. Cork's infrastructure is not keeping pace with growth and the list of backlog items is growing by the year.

5. The level of traffic on the N40 in general is frankly obscene and totally unsustainable: the N40 between J6 and J7 is carrying upto 100k vehicles daily. The M25 at Heathrow carries around 2.5x that for a city the size of London connecting some of the UK's most important motorways. The N40 is carrying more than half what the M50 carries at its busiest section. This level of car usage & car dependency for a city of its size needs addressing and not by widening roads. The Cork Metropolitan Transport Strategy will deal with some of this but as long as there is no attempt to address Cork's multi faceted infrastructure deficit this will continue to get worse. There is little point in publishing CMATS with suburban rail improvements, light rail, quality bus corridors, cycling infrastructure etc if it gets published and then put into a filing cabinet in City Hall.

Before you get to 1 Douglas and 3 Ovens you must pass Mahon exit. Traffic free flowing through Dunkettle will quickly clog up the slip road to Mahon and begin queueing in the slow lane on the N40.

This will lead to accidents and phantom traffic jams with traffic not going to Mahon needing to move to the right lane

Bacchus

Traffic this morning is a perfect example of how point 1 (above) will get worse, and become more frequent with all that traffic merging.

Baldilocks

North Ring (if it ever happens..... said he believing that Tolkiens lord of the rings was as real as screen in front of me) would remove a significant amount of traffic from the N40

hans aus dtschl

Baldilocks wrote: »

North Ring (if it ever happens..... said he believing that Tolkiens lord of the rings was as real as screen in front of me) would remove a significant amount of traffic from the N40

No question about that.

But ideally it should only be completed as part of an overall strategy towards modal shift. So probably as few junctions as possible, sustainable transport corridors (park & rides, rail stops in Blarney and Dunkettle, greenways to and through the centre etc) and as much reduction/diversion of traffic from within the N40 as possible. Who knows, possibly even congestion charges.

Truckermal

Bad accident at Dunkettle earlier so everything is gridlocked now!

They must have changed the sequence of the lights because the traffic coming down from Dublin is not that bad in the morning now but it's very heavy coming from the West and that was always very light before.

kub

I am on the roads a lot around Cork and over the last few months due to delays on the N40, I am using other routes instead and staying away from it at busy periods.
This has made me wonder though, as i am finding the other routes easier going, have people forgotten there are other ways of getting to places rather then via the N40/ Dunkettle intersection etc ?

JupiterKid

As bad as Dublin is with urban sprawl and excessive car dependancy, our regional cities - Cork, Limerick and especially Galway - are worse.

The proposed North ring road will help -
but the only long term solution is a massive investment in public transport for the city and its functional region including an East-West light rail line and from Mahon Point via the city centre to Ballincollig serving UCC and better planning to facilitate increased density mixed-use redidential developments around key public transport nodes.

I did extensive research in this area nearly 20 years ago with respect to Dublin and recommended a compact city model with better high capacity public transport in a number of reports and publications but nothing was done to address these issues.

steeler j

a ring road from Glanmire to Ringaskiddy and built the m28 as wall as the m71 possibly built a motorway from east of Youghal to Glanmire and invest in public transport for the city ,everyone uses the n40 to go most places in Cork

steeler j

urban sprawl is a problem as well but not Justin cork

AugustusMinimus

Better public transport is key.

1. Light rail between Mahon and Ballincollig.
2. Light rail from Blackpool to Douglas / Airport.
3. Some sort of distributor bus at Little Island train station in mornings and evenings.
4. Dense development around the train station.
5. Dramatically improved bus services. Reliability of service is first port of call.
6. Move bus station to train station and create one centralised transport hub.

All of this lies on one thing. Increased population density especially along potential light rail lines. I then find it quite ironic that the party calling for better public transport is so against high rise.

hans aus dtschl

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Better public transport is key.

1. Light rail between Mahon and Ballincollig.
2. Light rail from Blackpool to Douglas / Airport.
3. Some sort of distributor bus at Little Island train station in mornings and evenings.
4. Dense development around the train station.
5. Dramatically improved bus services. Reliability of service is first port of call.
6. Move bus station to train station and create one centralised transport hub.

All of this lies on one thing. Increased population density especially along potential light rail lines. I then find it quite ironic that the party calling for better public transport is so against high rise.

before achieving density there's some comparatively cheap and easy cycling/walking wins that the councils seem to have little to no interest in chasing up: high-quality greenways could be provided at very low cost in a number of areas such as:
Carrigaline-Ringaskiddy-Passage
Glanmire-Cork
Little Island-Cork
Ballincollig-Cork
Douglas-Togher-Wilton
Combine these with electric scooters and/or ebikes and you start reducing car dependency. You're talking about <10km distance for most of these, which is <25 mins on a scooter or bike. But at the moment many of these are dual-carriageway only or have very poor pedestrian/cycle facilities.

The big problem is with the remaining people commuting around the outside of the city using the N40. Many of these are going to County (not city) industrial parks and one-off facilities: Airport, Little Island, Ringaskiddy, Carrigtohill, Ovens etc. The county needs to really change its attitude before this will improve: perhaps local authority fines for not achieving sustainable transport targets?

Markcheese

steeler j wrote: »

a ring road from Glanmire to Ringaskiddy and built the m28 as wall as the m71 possibly built a motorway from east of Youghal to Glanmire and invest in public transport for the city ,everyone uses the n40 to go most places in Cork

As in an outer, outer orbital?? Wow that'd be expensive, and will be decades and decades before it'd be built... Public transport yup, (including some kind of south ring transport link)

Markcheese

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Better public transport is key.

1. Light rail between Mahon and Ballincollig.
2. Light rail from Blackpool to Douglas / Airport.
3. Some sort of distributor bus at Little Island train station in mornings and evenings.
4. Dense development around the train station.
5. Dramatically improved bus services. Reliability of service is first port of call.
6. Move bus station to train station and create one centralised transport hub.

All of this lies on one thing. Increased population density especially along potential light rail lines. I then find it quite ironic that the party calling for better public transport is so against high rise.

Why move the bus station further out of the centre.?? If you want a better link between the train station /bus station and around the city centre then great (a hop on/hop off high frequency bus maybe?.)
I'd love the light rail idea, but it'll be 20 or 30 years, a decent frequent bus service (Brt) with luas style ticketing and stops would be a great start, put a tram on the route later...
The distributor bus idea for little island is great, maybe a mínibus for each industrial estate or major factory, and roll out for other locations, (sooner self driving minibuses kick in the better),
But that kind of leads to another problem, very few journeys start or end at Kent Station...

marno21

Markcheese wrote: »

As in an outer, outer orbital?? Wow that'd be expensive, and will be decades and decades before it'd be built... Public transport yup, (including some kind of south ring transport link)

The only outer orbital element would be Ballinhassig-Ringaskiddy (the route of the R613 for most of it).

The Ballinhassig-M40 element will be needed one day as part of a future M71 and the Ballincollig-Killeens-Glanmire is the two North Ring road schemes, which we currently don't know what the story is with. The council are desperate to advance the 2 North Ring sections, Coveney said that the eastern section would be included in the M20 project but the M20 project design tender apparently doesn't involve the North Ring road element at all.

steeler j

Markcheese wrote: »

As in an outer, outer orbital?? Wow that'd be expensive, and will be decades and decades before it'd be built... Public transport yup, (including some kind of south ring transport link)

ovens to glanmire should be first and the rest in time ,glanmire to youghal is a straight run it would help dunkettle by removing traffic to the north and west of city that's coming from youghal and beyond ,the m71 to ringaskiddy would take port traffic from west cork and Kerry away from the n40 ,dunkettle will be fixed when the current project is done but it will only kick the problem down the n40

steeler j

glanmire to youghal is not needed if people travel north from dunkettle to the new north ring road to travel to the north and west of the city