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

m17

M17 is buzing around Corofin good flow of traffic heading for tuam

d1980

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

I've just realized that we now have a full ring of Dual Carriageway/Motorway standard road that links Dublin - Athenry - Limerick - Dublin, comprising of M50, M4, M6, M18, and M7. Pretty cool, not that you'd have any use to traverse that route in one go :pac:

Will be very handy should a 'speed' type scenario with keanu reeves take place and need to keep the bus over 50 throughout....

Roadfan

m17 wrote: »

M17 is buzing around Corofin good flow of traffic heading for tuam

Any word on what it's like in say Clarinbridge. All fallen silent?

fryup

how long before we see donuts ?

snowstreams

fryup wrote: »

how long before we see donuts ?

I sure hope never.
Ive never noticed any on motorways yet.

BENDYBINN

Daft!
Why would anyone use it when u don't know if u can get off it!
Going to galway from gort sure u can get off in tuam
"On a rolling basis" only in ireland!

joedomvince

marno21 wrote: »

What was this on?

I heard Sean O'Neill talking to Ray D'Arcy on his show at around 3:15 PM today. You might find the podcast

Middle Man

BENDYBINN wrote: »

Daft!
Why would anyone use it when u don't know if u can get off it!
Going to galway from gort sure u can get off in tuam
"On a rolling basis" only in ireland!

You can read up about Motorways here - otherwise known as Controlled Access Highways...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled-access_highway

red bull

The M17 opened from Tuam at 2pm I was the second car to get on it drove to Rathmorrissey and back to Tuam 28 mins lovely surface. Well done to all

Middle Man

bonaparte2 wrote: »

Thought I saw a cop car with a hairdryer out the window as I was going southbound somewhere north of kiltartan

Shadow Tolls!

joedomvince

WestCoast2017 wrote: »

Any first hand accounts of driving on it?

Just finished it in my BMW. So smooth and a fantastic stretch of motorway. Thought the Gardai had me for speeding at one stage north of the bat bridge but they never came after me. Phew.

Headed out from Galway merged north onto the M17 up to Tuam around the roundabout and headed southbound to Gort. Got off and headed north again on the M18/M6 and back to the City.

marno21

Northbound traffic is now moving well approaching Claregalway on the N17 Tuam Rd and the N18 Oranmore Rd.

Nice one

Ricta

Went for a jaunt on the Tuam-Rathmorrissey section about half an hour ago, saw a large dark Audi (A6?) pulled in by Guards (blue lights) on northbound carriageway south of Annagh Hill, first penalty points on the new road, I wonder?

m17

Ricta wrote: »

Went for a jaunt on the Tuam-Rathmorrissey section about half an hour ago, saw a large dark Audi (A6?) pulled in by Guards (blue lights) on northbound carriageway south of Annagh Hill, first penalty points on the new road, I wonder?

Was that paul2013

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Easy fodder for the Gardaí, waiting for lads to head out to tear the bag out of it on the new road.

Butter

In all fairness if you had any bit of ''cop'' on you would know that the Guards would be out on a new motorway to lay down the law on day 1. Plus a chance for a member of traffic to get his name in the history books as the first ticket issuer on the stretch of road!

snowstreams

Looks like people are taking the new M17 rather than going through Claregalway, but its adding to traffic coming up to the Briarhill junction it seems.
They might need to adjust the lights?

simulacra75

Due to M17's diligent work over the last 2.5 years I decided to drive the new road as soon as it opened!

I live in Ennis, near the West County hotel. Headed off at 3.47pm today, got onto new motorway at Gort at 4.03pm. Drove all the way to Tuam, arriving at 4.28pm.

Arrived back in Ennis at 5.09pm. No stops.

One thing I'd say about it, they've made the width of it to bare minimum standards, IMHO. The width of the hard shoulder is "just" wide enough to take a car and no more.

Middle Man

snowstreams wrote: »

Looks like people are taking the new M17 rather than going through Claregalway, but its adding to traffic coming up to the Briarhill junction it seems.
They might need to adjust the lights?</snip>

There's always an adjustment period for traffic when a major new road opens - I guess a lot of that eastbound traffic on the N6 is as a result of the novelty effect (a large number of people (myself included) are dying to see what that new road is like).

When the Balbriggan Bypass section of the M1 opened back in 1998, the old road was said to be extremely busy (one would expect the opposite). That traffic however was probably largely made up of curious drivers heading out to drive the new motorway from end to end.

wotzgoingon

I wonder did they configure the traffic lights coming into Claregalway to allow more traffic to flow rather than the old way since there will be less traffic coming from Oranmore.

Middle Man

simulacra75 wrote: »

Due to M17's diligent work over the last 2.5 years I decided to drive the new road as soon as it opened!

I live in Ennis, near the West County hotel. Headed off at 3.47pm today, got onto new motorway at Gort at 4.03pm. Drove all the way to Tuam, arriving at 4.28pm.

Arrived back in Ennis at 5.09pm. No stops.

One thing I'd say about it, they've made the width of it to bare minimum standards, IMHO. The width of the hard shoulder is "just" wide enough to take a car and no more.

The cross sectional dimensions on the motorway are the current standard for rural motorways - the M8, M9 and M6 are all similar.

wotzgoingon

wotzgoingon wrote: »

I wonder did they configure the traffic lights coming into Claregalway to allow more traffic to flow rather than the old way since there will be less traffic coming from Oranmore.

The lights in Claregalway seem to be relatively smart - If there aren't many people waiting on the Oranmore road they will only get a short sequence. There did seem to much less traffic on that side leading to shorter cycles and less traffic ahead of you in the village itself. There was also less traffic coming from Tuam making right turns easier etc.

emfifty

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

I've just realized that we now have a full ring of Dual Carriageway/Motorway standard road that links Dublin - Athenry - Limerick - Dublin, comprising of M50, M4, M6, M18, and M7. Pretty cool, not that you'd have any use to traverse that route in one go :pac:

...and that´s all freeflowing too! No stopping (tolls included)..what would the full distance be I wonder?

wotzgoingon

emfifty wrote: »

...and that´s all freeflowing too! No stopping (tolls included)..what would the full distance be I wonder?

The two tolls on the M6 are not free flowing you have to stop at both.

Middle Man

wotzgoingon wrote: »

The two tolls on the M6 are not free flowing you have to stop at both.

Do they not have a 50kph express lane for electronic tag holders?

wotzgoingon

Middle Man wrote: »

Do they not have a 50kph express lane for electronic tag holders?

Maybe I rarely travel that road but remember the times that I did I had to stop.

emfifty

wotzgoingon wrote: »

The two tolls on the M6 are not free flowing you have to stop at both.

Get yourself one of those fancy tags and you´ll be right.:)

Middle Man

For the Record Books (M17/18 Gort to Tuam):

1. First complete interurban that connects urban centres other than Dublin;

2. First occurrence where two full 120kph motorways cross (at Rathmorrissy);

3. First route in popular culture to cease existence (N17 Tuam to Galway);

4. The first complete free flow circuit involving different routes (anti-clockwise via N/M18, N/M7, M50, N/M4, N/M6);

5. Ireland's largest roundabout circumference (at Rathmorrissy)?

Kermit.de.frog

Middle Man wrote: »

2. First occurrence where two full 120kph motorways cross (at Rathmorrissy);

Should have built a quadruple stack.

But no, as usual we have to go with the lowest acceptable standard - a roundabout.

galwaybabe

What was Clarinbridge like this eve?