M17/M18 - Gort to Tuam [open to traffic]

nordydan

dubhthach wrote: »

We'll know in two weeks when the Budget is announced on the 7th December. Of course the €15billion cuts plan is been announced today so it might get a mention then regarding cuts in Capital budget.

The ration being quoted internally the banks is about 3:1 spending cuts, so approx €11.25b spending cuts and €3.75b tax increases (€900 a head)

antoobrien

dubhthach wrote: »

We'll know in two weeks when the Budget is announced on the 7th December. Of course the €15billion cuts plan is been announced today so it might get a mention then regarding cuts in Capital budget.

Capital budget to be cut by 800m (on top of the already promised 1 billion), however major strategic projects will continue to be funded.

The completion of the Major Inter Urban Routes and a number of remaining national roads projects of key strategic importance will be progressed and will further augment productive capacity in the economy.

I don't know if this project is considered a 'key strategic project' by the government, but I don't see any reason to be nay more negative than we already have been about the future of this project (yet).

4 year plan
summary

glineli

Looks like it might go ahead, but not looking good for WRC

16:33: Work on Dublin's Metro North is still scheduled to start in 2012, but the DART Interconnector has been postponed because of the cutbacks in the four-year plan.

Transport Minister Noel Dempsey said because the DART underground project is still in its planning stage and is not ready to go ahead, there will be no money available to start before 2014.

LUAS projects such as the BXD - the city centre link - as well as extensions to Lucan and Bray will also not go ahead during the lifetime of the present programme.

Road projects due to start next year will go ahead, but the Minister said there will be no major road schemes starting in 2012 or 2013.
He said there would be a further review before consideration of phase two of the Western Rail Corridor.

antoobrien

glineli wrote: »

16:33: Work on Dublin's Metro North is still scheduled to start in 2012

According to the NRA the Gort-Tuam Rd is one of the second set of PPP projects, which means that there's no initial capital investment by the government. Same logic is being used to proceed with Metro north (i.e. it's not going to cost us until it comes online) means this should go ahead

jd

Press release today Dept of Transport
http://www.transport.ie/pressRelease.aspx?Id=257

What road projects will proceed in 2011?
· NRA will go ahead with the planned 2011 starts and have adequate money for rehabilitation and minor works.
· Starts include Belturbet / N5 Longford/ Tralee bypasses and the Cork Southern Ring Road junctions.
· Two PPP projects will also start in 2011 - the M17/18 Gort – Tuam PPP and M11/Newlands Cross PPP bypasses.
· Purchase of land for service areas and expressions of interest from developers

Tech3

glineli wrote: »

Road projects due to start next year will go ahead, but the Minister said there will be no major road schemes starting in 2012 or 2013.
He said there would be a further review before consideration of phase two of the Western Rail Corridor.

Now this is important. The M17/M18 and Newlands X/ M11 will go to construction but nothing else for another 2 years. Ive been highly critical of dempsey but at least they have been straight up on announcing these cuts to there capital programme.

westtip

Indeed Dempsey one hopes will be one of those to lose his seat - but if Tuam/Gort starts we in the west can breath a huge sigh of relief - not least because of the lives it will save - and it will thankfully be the death knell of the WRC.

dubhthach

I see the fool Fahy is already in paper claiming that contract will be signed in January and that he's gonna get the NRA to prioritise the M17 part first so as to relieve the poor citizens of Claregalway :rolleyes:
http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/33785

One would think that it makes more sense to open section from Gort to the M6. After all it's continuous with existing M18 and is more economically important for Galway city (Shannon, traffic to Limerick etc.). Then again the M18 section of the road isn't in "Galway West" but nearly all in "Galway East"

antoobrien

Frank Fahy (don't laugh) claims that the contract for this project will be signed in the new year.

Not so interestingly he's calling for the Tuam to Athenry part to be developed first, so as to act as a Claregalway Bypass (reducing the daily number of vehicles from approx 21,00 to about 5,000 if the figures are to be believed).

While i'd like to see this happening (home is that side of Galway, so i'm biased) I don't see it happening, or the motorway would have been started from Galway to Ballinasloe while the Kinnegad - Killbeggan route was being developed

antoobrien

dubhthach wrote: »

the M18 section of the road isn't in "Galway West" but nearly all in "Galway East"

I think very little if any of the road is in Galway west

dubhthach

antoobrien wrote: »

I think very little if any of the road is in Galway west

Indeed looking at constituency maps and those of the scheme at most there is a couple hundred metres of scheme in and around Clarenbridge that would fall withing "Galway west". Personally if the scheme was to start construction in summer 2011 it would be nice if even part of the M18 could be opened in time for the Volvo ocean race in July 2012. (Gort to Kiltiernan junction perhaps)

glineli

dubhthach wrote: »

I see the fool Fahy is already in paper claiming that contract will be signed in January and that he's gonna get the NRA to prioritise the M17 part first so as to relieve the poor citizens of Claregalway :rolleyes:
http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/33785

One would think that it makes more sense to open section from Gort to the M6. After all it's continuous with existing M18 and is more economically important for Galway city (Shannon, traffic to Limerick etc.). Then again the M18 section of the road isn't in "Galway West" but nearly all in "Galway East"

Interesting to see that they say the whole route will take just 2 years:

Construction will start early in the new year and the project will cover a distance of 57kms at an estimated average cost of €10 million per kilometre. The project should take two years to complete.

Tech3

I said a few posts back that the contract is expected to be signed by January. Construction to start in April hopefully.

Chris_5339762

Frank Fahey needs to learn the geography of his constituency.

Dep Fahey has also asked the NRA and BAM Balfour Beatty to prioritise the section of the road between the N17 Galway-Tuam road outside Tuam town and the new M6 motorway at Cashla, Athenry. This section would then provide for the Claregalway Bypass.

“While it is important that we move towards the beginning of construction of the M17/ M18 motorway, we need to ensure that this section is built first,” said Dep Fahey. “This section will remove heavy traffic from Ardrahan and Clarinbridge and Oranmore. It will also provide a significant improvement for commuter traffic between those towns and Galway city.”

BluntGuy

A number of, shall we say, discourteous adjectives come to mind when I read Frank Fahey's rubbish.

The man has nothing to do with the project, and should get zero credit for it. The contractors are not going to change their construction timeframe to suit a worthless hack like him.

serfboard

BluntGuy wrote: »

The man has nothing to do with the project, and should get zero credit for it. The contractors are not going to change their construction timeframe to suit a worthless hack like him.

While I agree with you, the only thing is that when I ask on this forum how come the M20 never got priority over the M18, the answer people give me is that there is insufficient lobbying from politicians in the Cork/Limerick area.

Ergo, there must have been some sort of lobbying to get this project advanced?

Amtmann

serfboard wrote: »

While I agree with you, the only thing is that when I ask on this forum how come the M20 never got priority over the M18, the answer people give me is that there is insufficient lobbying from politicians in the Cork/Limerick area.

Ergo, there must have been some sort of lobbying to get this project advanced?

I don't know. The Road Needs Study called for a dual carriageway from Cork to north of Charleville in 1998. It recommended a dual carriageway between Oranmore and Gort.

But the first I heard of the actual M20 scheme proposal from the NRA was 2008.

dubhthach

Furet wrote: »

I don't know. The Road Needs Study called for a dual carriageway from Cork to north of Charleville in 1998. It recommended a dual carriageway between Oranmore and Gort.

But the first I heard of the actual M20 scheme proposal from the NRA was 2008.

I remember looking at a PDF from Galway Roads department showing the proposed layout of the M6/M17/M18 superimposed on Ordance Survey map of Galway in 2004/2005. These were the approved routes so it would imply design work on M17/M18 had started at least in 2001

Chris_5339762

I have a map of the then N20 from Mallow to Croom dated 2004. Totally different from what came out of the M20 studies and probably someone with the crayons.

nordydan

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

I have a map of the then N20 from Mallow to Croom dated 2004. Totally different from what came out of the M20 studies and probably someone with the crayons.

I had a map of this scheme (& others) from 2006 or so which I sent on to a few people. I do not have them anymore but someone else might

Chris_5339762

Might have been you that sent it to me actually. I still have them all saved.

Sponge Bob

...you know the one who cannot geta bypass of Claregalway built and that the only promise he made in the last election

He has a solution to the Claregalway problem seeing as the bypass is nowhere.

The delay between cars going through the traffic lights in Claregalway village is adding to long tailbacks, according to Galway West T.D, Noel Grealish.


The Independent T.D joined Council engineers in Claregalway yesterday to monitor traffic flow which has almost ground to a halt at peak times in the past few days.


Extra volumes of traffic are using the N17 Galway-Tuam road as motorists opt to avoid slippy back roads.


Deputy Grealish says that some cars are leaving too long of a delay

between the car in front going through the lights.

antoobrien

Sponge Bob wrote: »

...you know the one who cannot geta bypass of Claregalway built and that the only promise he made in the last election

He has a solution to the Claregalway problem seeing as the bypass is nowhere.

Nothing new in any of that, he made the same comments after the last general and council election. People being slow, however, doesn't explain the two mile tailback every Saturday there with people trying to get into town (I'd hate to see what this road is like at about 8.30am on a weekday when i'm not around).

Lookin at the figures from 2006-present it's averaging more that 22k vehicles since 2006. In 1997 the road carried just less than 16k average per day. This increased steadily (except 2001) until it peaked in 2007 with over 23.5k (hitting nearly 25k in summer).

This is why I hope they build from athenry north first. On the other hand Gort rarely hits 12k cars per day.

Benbecul97

After the cuts to capital projects in Budget 2011, anyone know/heard if the Gort-Tuam motorway still going ahead?

antoobrien

Benbecul97 wrote: »

After the cuts to capital projects in Budget 2011, anyone know/heard if the Gort-Tuam motorway still going ahead?

None of the budget docs i've had a chance to read mention specifically any projects, just the headline amounts. This was/is due to be a PPP project, so I'm not sure how that shows up in the budget, but the capital spend was outlined in the national recovery plan a couple of weeks back (again nothing specific).

DWCommuter

antoobrien wrote: »

None of the budget docs i've had a chance to read mention specifically any projects, just the headline amounts. This was/is due to be a PPP project, so I'm not sure how that shows up in the budget, but the capital spend was outlined in the national recovery plan a couple of weeks back (again nothing specific).

Its here;

Roads - €1.227 billion

Capital Expenditure: €990 million
The 2011 capital provision for national roadsis €720 million, €394 million down on 2010. This allocation will fund new projects, including the Belturbet, N5 Longford and Tralee bypasses and the Cork Southern Ring Road junctions. Two PPP projects will also commence in 2011; the M17/18 Gort – Tuam PPP and the M11/Newlands Cross PPP bypasses and there also will be funding for rehabilitation and minor works.

antoobrien

DWCommuter wrote: »

Its here;

would you mind linking back to the doc (or at least giving the name)?

Sponge Bob

dept of transport not finance

DWCommuter

antoobrien wrote: »

would you mind linking back to the doc (or at least giving the name)?

http://www.transport.ie/pressRelease.aspx?Id=266

Benbecul97

DWCommuter wrote: »

http://www.transport.ie/pressRelease.aspx?Id=266

Great news! Thanks for posint that link DWCommuter!

I see JHR's support for the budget is rewarded too with his Tralee bypass!