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

m17

Headford road junction Galway city 14/03/18

JCX BXC

marno21 wrote: »

If the signposted/official route from Galway to Tuam is regarded as a "lengthy diversion", serious questions need to be asked about how beneficial this motorway is vs how beneficial it could have been.

Fully agreed, scary to think how much money was used in such a way that could have easily been used in a far more beneficial way.

The whole linking the route to the M6 was a brutal idea in my opinion. I don't understand why there's been a move to get all routes to arrive into the one area of the city, the fact that all traffic from the South, East and North all arrive at the one roundabout is bizzare.

Personally I still use the old route N18 from Kiltiernan unless I'm to run into the school run in Clarinbridge. Slightly longer stretch of motorway granted however the rest of it is a waste between Kiltiernan and Athenry. While some merit may be allocated to the Athenry-Tuam section, it could still have been massively more beneficial had it terminated closer to Oranmore.

Benbecul97

marno21 wrote: »

12km tailback from Eyre Square through to Claregalway this evening on the Tuam Road. Absolutely no delays whatosever along the M6/M17 bar the delay at the lights at Briarhill if that counts. The N84 closure north of Ballindooley seems to be a major cause of this

RTE/AA Roadwatch advise the following:

If the signposted/official route from Galway to Tuam is regarded as a "lengthy diversion", serious questions need to be asked about how beneficial this motorway is vs how beneficial it could have been.

With regard to today's incident you've got the wrong end of the stick. The N84 closure north of Ballindooley was the major cause of today's traffic chaos.

The advice from AA Roadwatch was given with regard to N84 traffic. Their preferred routes are 1) N84 2) N83 3) M6/M!7, so with that in mind, option 3 is a "length diversion".

This motorway is very beneficial but more so for Atlantic corridor traffic than regular commuter traffic. We all know this. And we also know that the M6/M17/M18 will not function properly until the Galway Bypass is built.

What was highlighted yet again today is the need for the N84 to be doubled in size with hard shoulders (like the stretch from Corrandulla Barracks to Headford) to allow for emergency services to access accidents, without the need to close the entire road. That's the key point from today - not "length diversions".

marno21

Benbecul97 wrote: »

With regard to today's incident you've got the wrong end of the stick. The N84 closure north of Ballindooley was the major cause of today's traffic chaos.

The advice from AA Roadwatch was given with regard to N84 traffic. Their preferred routes are 1) N84 2) N83 3) M6/M!7, so with that in mind, option 3 is a "length diversion".

This motorway is very beneficial but more so for Atlantic corridor traffic than regular commuter traffic. We all know this. And we also know that the M6/M17/M18 will not function properly until the Galway Bypass is built.

What was highlighted yet again today is the need for the N84 to be doubled in size with hard shoulders (like the stretch from Corrandulla Barracks to Headford) to allow for emergency services to access accidents, without the need to close the entire road. That's the key point from today - not "length diversions".

Today's event on the N84 north of Ballindooley highlights the issues I've described.

The closure of the N84 north of Ballindooley should NOT lead to a 12km tailback from Eyre Square all the way to Claregalway. The Tuam Road should be more than capable of handling the diverting traffic now that it has been bypassed by a motorway.

If the M17 wasn't such a lengthy diversion for Tuam Road traffic then the Tuam Road would've been quiet and the delays on the Tuam Road would've been less today.

Spending €550m on a motorway for the benefits we've received is poor value for money. The volume of traffic using the "Atlantic corridor" doesn't and never has necessitated a direct motorway which completely bypasses Galway to the east. The €550m could've been much better spent to get a best of both worlds result. The M17/M18 has made massive reductions in travel time on the journey between Gort and Tuam but slightly lesser reductions with better results for Galway city traffic would've been a better spend of the money.

flazio

We've had this discussion before. The M17 was never designed to be part of the answer to Galway city's traffic problems. It was designed to be part of the solution to getting haulage and people from the North West of the country (Leitrim, Donegal, Sligo and Mayo) to the South and South West (Clare, Cork, Limerick and Kerry) and the other way quicker.

marno21

flazio wrote: »

We've had this discussion before. The M17 was never designed to be part of the answer to Galway city's traffic problems. It was designed to be part of the solution to getting haulage and people from the North West of the country (Leitrim, Donegal, Sligo and Mayo) to the South and South West (Clare, Cork, Limerick and Kerry) and the other way quicker.

Well in that case there was no need to build a motorway, a 2+2 or less would've sufficed. The M17 is carrying around 9000 vehicles, which means its operating at 15-20% capacity. There will never be substantial volumes of traffic between the north west and the south west.

I never said it would be a solution to Galway city's traffic problems, but it was meant to be a solution to the traffic problems along the existing N17 and N18. These problems remain mostly unsolved.

kippy

marno21 wrote: »

Well in that case there was no need to build a motorway, a 2+2 or less would've sufficed. The M17 is carrying around 9000 vehicles, which means its operating at 15-20% capacity. There will never be substantial volumes of traffic between the north west and the south west.

I never said it would be a solution to Galway city's traffic problems, but it was meant to be a solution to the traffic problems along the existing N17 and N18. These problems remain mostly unsolved.

Your logic is flawed and incorrect. The 550 million was well spent and has lead to varying amounts of improvements in the traffic situations in various villages along it while reducing greatly journey times for those travelling along the north south corridor who no longer have to go within an assessment roar of one of these villages or Galway city itself.
The biggest issue with yesterday is about getting to the new motorway from the city, IE traffic coming out of the city faces numerous pinch points especially when one of the main roads out is closed which is why the city ringroad is needed.

veryangryman

marno21 wrote: »

12km tailback from Eyre Square through to Claregalway this evening on the Tuam Road. Absolutely no delays whatosever along the M6/M17 bar the delay at the lights at Briarhill if that counts. The N84 closure north of Ballindooley seems to be a major cause of this

RTE/AA Roadwatch advise the following:

To avoid these delays, road users could take the M6 and new M17 motorway; while this is a lengthy diversion, it is still currently moving well along this route. 

If the signposted/official route from Galway to Tuam is regarded as a "lengthy diversion", serious questions need to be asked about how beneficial this motorway is vs how beneficial it could have been.

RTE being morons and not moving with the times is not the same as the road not beintlg the recommended route.

If people still want to drive stressful routes then good luck to them. Time will sort this out.

Benbecul97

kippy wrote: »

Your logic is flawed and incorrect. The 550 million was well spent and has lead to varying amounts of improvements in the traffic situations in various villages along it while reducing greatly journey times for those travelling along the north south corridor who no longer have to go within an assessment roar of one of these villages or Galway city itself.
The biggest issue with yesterday is about getting to the new motorway from the city, IE traffic coming out of the city faces numerous pinch points especially when one of the main roads out is closed which is why the city ringroad is needed.

Exactly! The city ring road and the upgrade of the N84 are both essential.

And some drivers also should be made retake their driving tests. Some muppets heading from Eyre Sq out the Tuam Rd completely blocked the Cemetery cross roundabout, thus preventing traffic coming up the Sean Mulvoy Rd going straight through this roundabout towards the Old Dublin Rd. Madness!

Sam Russell

Benbecul97 wrote: »

Exactly! The city ring road and the upgrade of the N84 are both essential.

And some drivers also should be made retake their driving tests. Some muppets heading from Eyre Sq out the Tuam Rd completely blocked the Cemetery cross roundabout, thus preventing traffic coming up the Sean Mulvoy Rd going straight through this roundabout towards the Old Dublin Rd. Madness!

The love affair Galway City has with roundabouts needs to be quashed.

Moneenageisha cross was a traffic lights junction that they converted to a roundabout and back again. Some of the roundabouts on the Tuam Road and Bothar Na d'Treadbh need to be converted to grade separated junctions where possible or as much as possible. Alternatively be controlled with intelligent traffic lights.

Roundabouts are too new an invention to the people of the Wesht.

m17

The m17 at bauilpuil 16/03/18

serfboard

Sam Russell wrote: »

The love affair Galway City has with roundabouts needs to be quashed.

Absolutely. The traffic volumes are simply too great for (some) roundabouts.

Sam Russell wrote: »

Some of the roundabouts on the Tuam Road and Bothar Na d'Treadbh need to be converted to grade separated junctions where possible or as much as possible.

Will never happen.

Sam Russell wrote: »

Alternatively be controlled with intelligent traffic lights.

Agree.

Sam Russell wrote: »

Roundabouts are too new an invention to the people of the Wesht.

I'm presuming this is meant to be humourous, but the problem with roundabouts in Galway is simply that the traffic volume is too great for roundabouts.

The back of the hospital, the Headford Road and Cemetry Cross roundabouts all need to be removed ASAP.

The reason why they still exist is that all three are five-arm roundabouts and thus don't lend themselves easily to straight conversion to lights. One arm has to lose out - the question is which one? And how are you going to deal with the protests?

Me, I'd remove the Sandy Road arm at Cemetry Cross, the Tirellan arm at the Headford Road and the Upper Seamus Quirke Road ( from the hospital to the Newcastle Road) arm at the back of the hospital.

The roads that lose out can be re-routed (as is being proposed in the new Headford Road junction) and the roundabouts replaced with lights. Would make somewhat of a difference.

marno21

Christ I've hit a few nerves.

kippy wrote: »

Your logic is flawed and incorrect. The 550 million was well spent and has lead to varying amounts of improvements in the traffic situations in various villages along it while reducing greatly journey times for those travelling along the north south corridor who no longer have to go within an assessment roar of one of these villages or Galway city itself.
The biggest issue with yesterday is about getting to the new motorway from the city, IE traffic coming out of the city faces numerous pinch points especially when one of the main roads out is closed which is why the city ringroad is needed.

My logic is flawed? Spending over half a billion euro on a motorway that doesn't really solve the issues it was supposedly going to solve was well spent?

For the money that was spent on this motorway you could have built it closer to the city and taken a lot more traffic off the local roads/regional roads. The fact is that Claregalway is still jammed and there is still a ridiculous amount of trafic going through Clarinbridge given that it's been bypassed by a motorway.

The traffic volumes travelling north/south on the N17/N18 corridor do not justify the construction of a full motorway exclusively for their use.

veryangryman wrote: »

RTE being morons and not moving with the times is not the same as the road not beintlg the recommended route.

If people still want to drive stressful routes then good luck to them. Time will sort this out.

The other routes may be stressful but the M17 is quite a diversion.

Benbecul97 wrote: »

Exactly! The city ring road and the upgrade of the N84 are both essential.

And some drivers also should be made retake their driving tests. Some muppets heading from Eyre Sq out the Tuam Rd completely blocked the Cemetery cross roundabout, thus preventing traffic coming up the Sean Mulvoy Rd going straight through this roundabout towards the Old Dublin Rd. Madness!

The upgrade of the N84 is not happening any time soon. If the M17 was built with Galway in mind more Castlebar-Galway traffic might have used the M17 thereby reducing traffic on the N84.

Middle Man

marno21 wrote: »

Christ I've hit a few nerves.



My logic is flawed? Spending over half a billion euro on a motorway that doesn't really solve the issues it was supposedly going to solve was well spent?

For the money that was spent on this motorway you could have built it closer to the city and taken a lot more traffic off the local roads/regional roads. The fact is that Claregalway is still jammed and there is still a ridiculous amount of trafic going through Clarinbridge given that it's been bypassed by a motorway.

The traffic volumes travelling north/south on the N17/N18 corridor do not justify the construction of a full motorway exclusively for their use.



The other routes may be stressful but the M17 is quite a diversion.



The upgrade of the N84 is not happening any time soon. If the M17 was built with Galway in mind more Castlebar-Galway traffic might have used the M17 thereby reducing traffic on the N84.

Indeed - I guess the reason for the easterly route was all the one off houses that are just scattered all over the place near the original route. Indeed, they should have just ploughed through all that bad planning to make way for correctly placed major infrastructure while at the same time, knocking down all that inefficient housing stock and building it back up the right way (perhaps a couple of complete new villages with proper facilities serviceable by public transport). That said, I do think the M17/M18 will eventually justify itself (economic magnet effect), but it could have been aligned in a much more efficient way if we weren't so obsessed with property!

Benbecul97

marno21 wrote: »

Christ I've hit a few nerves.

My logic is flawed? Spending over half a billion euro on a motorway that doesn't really solve the issues it was supposedly going to solve was well spent?

Issues it was supposedly going to solve?? Provide a motorway link between Gort and Tuam (and beyond) I think it solved that.

Ask the people of Ardrahan, Kilcolgan, Clarinbridge if it was money well spent!

For the money that was spent on this motorway you could have built it closer to the city and taken a lot more traffic off the local roads/regional roads. The fact is that Claregalway is still jammed and there is still a ridiculous amount of trafic going through Clarinbridge given that it's been bypassed by a motorway.

The traffic volumes travelling north/south on the N17/N18 corridor do not justify the construction of a full motorway exclusively for their use.



The other routes may be stressful but the M17 is quite a diversion.



The upgrade of the N84 is not happening any time soon. If the M17 was built with Galway in mind more Castlebar-Galway traffic might have used the M17 thereby reducing traffic on the N84.

Correct, it didn't even appear in the recent Government 2040 Infrastructure plan. And how would you build the M17 with Galway in mind more - ram it in between the N84 and N83?? Good luck with that

Sam Russell

The major problem with the M17/M18 motorway is not that it was built too far east, but too far North. It should have been built between Limerick and Cork.

A dual carriageway like the Tuam bypass would have sufficed for the M17/M18, but without the roundabouts.

marno21

Middle Man wrote: »

Indeed - I guess the reason for the easterly route was all the one off houses that are just scattered all over the place near the original route. Indeed, they should have just ploughed through all that bad planning to make way for correctly placed major infrastructure while at the same time, knocking down all that inefficient housing stock and building it back up the right way (perhaps a couple of complete new villages with proper facilities serviceable by public transport). That said, I do think the M17/M18 will eventually justify itself (economic magnet effect), but it could have been aligned in a much more efficient way if we weren't so obsessed with property!

Fully agree here. Hopefully there won't be planning disasters that encourage sprawl further out towards the M17/M18 corridor.

Benbecul97 wrote: »

Issues it was supposedly going to solve?? Provide a motorway link between Gort and Tuam (and beyond) I think it solved that.

Ask the people of Ardrahan, Kilcolgan, Clarinbridge if it was money well spent!



Correct, it didn't even appear in the recent Government 2040 Infrastructure plan. And how would you build the M17 with Galway in mind more - ram it in between the N84 and N83?? Good luck with that

The M17/M18 scheme came out of two seperate schemes, the N17 Tuam-Galway and N18 Oranmore-Gort schemes. Both of these schemes were originally devised to provide relief for the two existing routes.

The 1998 Roads Needs Study invisages a dual carriageway between Tuam-Claregalway needed at that time with a dual carriageway from Galway to Tuam required in the short term (at the time). There was also a requirement for a dual carriageway from Oranmore-Gort (with WS2 planned from Gort to Barefield) and a standard single carriageway from Oranmore to Claregalway (what has been built as the M17/M18 only further out).

The 1998 Road Needs Study declared the need for a DC from Oranmore to Gort and a wide single carriageway from Gort to Barefield (J14). The fact that since the new motorway opened that Gort-Barefield is busier than Oranmore-Gort says that the new motorway isn't really doing the job it should be doing. The predominant flow on the N18 corridor north of Ennis is to and from Galway and the road should have been built to reflect this. This is independent of commuter traffic.

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The m17 at annagh hill footbridge looking towards tuam 16/03/18
looking towards rathmorrissy

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The kilmore roundabout tuam

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Annagh hill

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The annagh hill interchange 19/03/18annagh hill looking towards rathmorrissyannagh hill looking towards tuam

jj72

Whats everyones thoughts on Claregalway since the motorway opened? I think traffic has reduced massively since the turn of the year. Morning times generally only have tailbacks on a Monday and evening times are a huge improvement...altho can still be a bit of a lottery from time to time. Cregboy road traffic causes an issue some mornings too but defo a big improvement imo

m17

RATHMORRISSY 03/08/1520/03/18

what_traffic

jj72 wrote: »

Whats everyones thoughts on Claregalway since the motorway opened? I think traffic has reduced massively since the turn of the year. Morning times generally only have tailbacks on a Monday and evening times are a huge improvement...altho can still be a bit of a lottery from time to time. Cregboy road traffic causes an issue some mornings too but defo a big improvement imo

It still needs a bypass. Volume of cars through the centre of the village is still killing it as place to live.

jj72

jj72 wrote: »

Whats everyones thoughts on Claregalway since the motorway opened? I think traffic has reduced massively since the turn of the year. Morning times generally only have tailbacks on a Monday and evening times are a huge improvement...altho can still be a bit of a lottery from time to time. Cregboy road traffic causes an issue some mornings too but defo a big improvement imo

It has double / triple / quadruple the AADT of other places being bypassed. A bypass was proposed long ago but was put on hold until the motorway was finished. It needs to be looked at again and a proper assessment completed. This will provide all the justification needed to fund it.

It's a miserable place to live with all the traffic, I know, I lived there. I didn't last more than a few months before deciding to get the hell out of there

Morebypasses

When travelling from Limerick To Galway what exit off motorway is best?? I assume you do not go all the way to Rathmorrisey as aarouteplanner suggets!!!

m17

Morebypasses wrote: »

When travelling from Limerick To Galway what exit off motorway is best?? I assume you do not go all the way to Rathmorrisey as aarouteplanner suggets!!!

Get off at kiltiernan m18 junction 17

m17

The m17 at bauilpuil 18/07/1523/03/18

serfboard

Morebypasses wrote: »

When travelling from Limerick To Galway what exit off motorway is best?? I assume you do not go all the way to Rathmorrisey as aarouteplanner suggets!!!

It depends on whether you want safe, stress-free driving @ 120km/h or less safe, more stressful driving @ an average of 60 km/h.

Granted the distance is longer, but you get a safer and less stressful journey for what I imagine is not a big saving in time.

Coming from the other side I use the M17 100% of the time, even though the distance is longer, for the reasons given above.

Pereplyotchik

I have to agree.... for me the shorter distance achieved against the time/hassle saved by going the longer M18/M6 route doesn't come into consideration for a short distance like this....
I use the M17 both ways every day, longer but quicker and easier and less likely to end up being a hostage to trucks or tractors or casual drivers taking their sweet time... if I was doing Limerick to Galway I'd go motorway too, yeah it's maybe 10kms shorter to go what was the old M18 from Kiltiernan but it's a roll of the dice vs the M18/M6