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

Chris_5339762

Forgot to mention - on the Little Island slip road just at the entrance to the tunnel, there was a VMS this morning saying that the slip is closing on the 24th November.

Reckon they'll be moving the southbound lanes into the tunnel under the un-used bridge very soon too.

DylanQuestion

the new eastbound signage is just after Little Island. It says

CITY CENTRE along the top for both lanes

CORK | LIMERICK

That makes no sense to me. Only the right hand lane (N8) brings you to Limerick and City Centre. The left hand lane eventually brings you to the North Ring Road. So it should say CORK (Northside) or something. The N40 signage should say Westbound and Cork (Southside)

cantalach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119909130#Comment_119909130

They will need to close that link temporarily to place the remaining bridge beams for the N25W to M8N link.

Jeju

People need to realise that the 2 left lanes coming out of tunnel are going east, the left lane had hardly any traffic in it both times I went through while the right lane was queued upto and beyond the first set of lights.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119909144#Comment_119909144

Some of the signage is confusing. That being said, the Tivoli Dual Carriageway needs signage for CITY CENTRE. I keep seeing cars making last minute lane changes at the Silversprings flyover. I think at that point the N8 signage stops making sense as you’re basically in the city.

Either stick to City Centre / An Lar or use Cork (Central)

”Cork“ is meaningless on a sign in Cork City

As for that Dumbell setup. The roundabouts just seem far too small. The volume of traffic is going to choke on them very quickly. It’s a bad design and seems to underestimate the traffic volumes towards the city from the M8.

The merge from into the M8 is also dangerously short. I can see that both being a future choke point and potentially could cause a few accidents, especially if traffic moves faster.

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119909738#Comment_119909738

Traffic volumes from M8 to Tivoli are actually quite small. It’s easy to see the volume on the south side of the roundabout as the traffic queues at the traffic lights at the tunnel exit. You have only 10 cars max per lights sequence heading towards Tivoli. Much less than heading to the tunnel.

titan18

Not sure if it's changing in the future but the road going from city centre to Little Island is going to be a bottleneck. You've got traffic from the city centre and traffic from tunnel/dunkettle all merging into one small roundabout to go towards the "back" road to Little Island. It's difficult enough to get out from the city centre road as there's no real break in traffic.

cork_south

The traffic light sequence changes seem to have helped on the M8/N40 unless you are coming from Midleton direction on the N25 where there is another 10km tailback.

AugustusMinimus

The old N25 exit is being broken up already I see.

I really don’t understand why the N25 to tunnel movement is now so bad. The old Ibis slip surely couldn’t have been handling all that extra traffic?

mcburns07

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119910164#Comment_119910164

I think it’s a combination of all the traffic being funneled into two lanes after Little Island before it opens up again at the interchange, the 60kmh limit, constant speed vans (some people for whatever reason feel the need to go even lower than 60kmh when they see one), rubber necking at the roadworks, lane swapping.

I’ve been traveling from East Cork for years and the N25 in general is exceptionally busy these days, I haven’t seen traffic figures but at least to my eyes it is a lot busier than it used to be.

niloc1951

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119909852#Comment_119909852

Not forgetting southbound traffic from the M8 heading for Cork City center via the N8, and the North Ring Road (R635) will also be entering that (northern) roundabout too when the link from the southern roundabout to the N25 westbound is complete.

N40 (northbound) and M8 traffic, heading for the city/R635, will have right of way over traffic from the N8 eastbound (Glanmire roundabout)

I'm still really struggling to get my head around some of the future traffic flows on this. Even with the map diagrams, I don't think I quite understand them. I need to see some kind of 'Tube map' like, simplified diagrams.

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119911750#Comment_119911750

Check out the bottom of the following page:

https://www.dunkettle.ie/Dunkettle-Interchange

Each movement is highlighted in red. Excellent resource.

cantalach

Today's progress update email confirms permanent closure of the Little Island slip road from the N40S. The air is going to turn blue there tomorrow morning when people get to that point, realise they can no longer exit, and are forced to go all the way to the Mahon exit to turn around.

Hungry Burger

What’s the limit coming off the n25 slip towards midleton? Seen the speed van there last couple of days but didn’t notice a speed limit sign. Presume it’s 60?

markodaly

No news on Link B opening. Maybe next week.

cantalach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119912065#Comment_119912065

The entire works area is 60.

Mushy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119911987#Comment_119911987

I assume the back road onto the n25w off-slip doesn't close as part of this?

Edit: See the email now, no change here.

lfc200

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119911987#Comment_119911987

Saw that as well. There is a surprising amount of traffic that uses that slip road into little island. Friday will be the fun morning as the slip doesn’t close till 10am.

AugustusMinimus

Traffic was very heavy early on the N40 going towards tunnel but now has significantly subsided which is unusual for 8.30.

I think this is due to lots of people leaving earlier than usual and the traffic situation normalising at the junction with people now understanding it.

AugustusMinimus

And with that, the magic back door into Little Island is closed forever. A red artic lorry bring its last traveller.

KrisW1001

I think they’re using a little sleight of hand around the word “Permanently”. It’s true if you’re coming from the tunnel, but not if you’re approaching from the west, unless there are changes made since these drawings, the link will still be there (highlighted in yellow):

But maybe they’ll put automatic gates on it... The road here can’t be blocked off, as it’s the only escape-path for traffic coming up to the tunnel if the tunnel has to close in an emergency.

Chris_5339762

It is the emergency lane yes. I really hope there is a barrier or there will be some horrific weaving from traffic coming down from Dublin. It just isn't being built for that.

cantalach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119916140#Comment_119916140

One of the updates a few months back said it would be closed to normal traffic and reserved for emergency use. Presumably that includes it being a way to remove vehicles that activate the overheight detector.

cargo

I'm assuming now that the back door into Little Island is closed they will progress the new N25W to Tunnel slip fairly quickly? This should help with backlogs on the N25 in the morning? I see plenty of flashing lights on the cameras in that area tonight (in fact on all sides of the works). Looks like tar going down in that slip tonight now that the slip road is closed.

cork_south

New N25W to tunnel slip won't be free flow afaik and will still need to go through 2 sets of lights (Little Island exit and DKI) in quick succession I think.

If that's the case I don't see how it will help with the huge tailbacks on the N25. Hope I am wrong.

Shedite27

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119918778#Comment_119918778

They're both gone once the slip road is open.

Slip road is to bypass DKI.

Little Island Exit will be through the barbell (does anyone know if that' open same time as the slip?

cork_south

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119918882#Comment_119918882

The N25W to tunnel slip (Link K) will open before barbell access to N25W opens I'd imagine.

Newsletter from October 7th states the following for Link K.

===

There will be a new set of traffic lights to cater for this adjustment...

===

Today's newsletter might have more info.

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119918778#Comment_119918778

Correct. This will just be a rerouting under the new bridge to facilitate construction of the N25 West to M8 North slip around that area.

marno21

Could N25W -> tunnel open and see N25W - M8N traffic redirected via the Dunkettle roundabout and N8E -> M8N free flow slip, thereby closing the westbound off-ramp altogether