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

flazio

Slightly tangentially, but does anyone know why there are blank signs laid out on a stretch of the M6 between Kiltullagh and Athenry?

m17

Cranmore cross 10/4/18

youngblood

Going to sound bizarre, but at a certain point in the motorway when driving on the inside lane I hear the most incredible unnerving sound every time I pass.

Heading from Ennis towards Galway/Dublin once you pass the first bridge after the bat bridge when driving on the inside lane a noise kinda reverberates under the car, sounds like there is a tyre blowing off or something has come loose. The last day it happened I was expecting it but another car had pulled into the left to inspect their car which made me wonder had they experienced the same?

Just wondering if anyone else experienced the same around that spot?

m17

youngblood wrote: »

Going to sound bizarre, but at a certain point in the motorway when driving on the inside lane I hear the most incredible unnerving sound every time I pass.

Heading from Ennis towards Galway/Dublin once you pass the first bridge after the bat bridge when driving on the inside lane a noise kinda reverberates under the car, sounds like there is a tyre blowing off or something has come loose. The last day it happened I was expecting it but another car had pulled into the left to inspect their car which made me wonder had they experienced the same?

Just wondering if anyone else experienced the same around that spot?

That at raheen/kiltartan just after the bat bridge heading northbound

youngblood

Thats exactly it!
But what is the noise?

tacklemore

I was just about to ask the same question. It's really unusual and unnerving. Used to it now though.

youngblood wrote: »

Going to sound bizarre, but at a certain point in the motorway when driving on the inside lane I hear the most incredible unnerving sound every time I pass.

Heading from Ennis towards Galway/Dublin once you pass the first bridge after the bat bridge when driving on the inside lane a noise kinda reverberates under the car, sounds like there is a tyre blowing off or something has come loose. The last day it happened I was expecting it but another car had pulled into the left to inspect their car which made me wonder had they experienced the same?

Just wondering if anyone else experienced the same around that spot?

L1011

The M9 Castledermot Bypass has surfacing that makes an odd whooping noise when you drive about 110km/h (but not below or above - drove it enough to try every option) - possibly something similar here.

mikeingalway

tacklemore wrote: »

I was just about to ask the same question. It's really unusual and unnerving. Used to it now though.

Yes, every time I travel the route I experience the same noise - I would be interested to see what the science is behind it. In my opinion, it’s something to do with a wind tunnel of sorts created in the valley between the two bridges. It’s slightly unnerving at first.

m17

The bat bridge

m17

RATHMORRISSY 24/5/16
11/12/17

frozenfrozen

I've experienced that noise too. Thought I had low tyre pressure

Heartbreak Hank

m17 wrote: »

RATHMORRISSY 24/5/16
11/12/17

Engineers Ireland article

Lord Glentoran

youngblood wrote: »

Thats exactly it!
But what is the noise?

Cars? Doesn't seem to be that many of them..

youngblood

youngblood wrote: »

Thats exactly it!
But what is the noise?

I think it is the surface, the topdressing may be less dense than it is on the rest of the road. The M4 was the same in several places between Kilcock & Kinnegad, they had to resurface several sections of the road to resolve the issue.

Really need someone to take close up images to see for sure.

serfboard

Lord Glentoran wrote: »

Cars? Doesn't seem to be that many of them..

About 12,000 vehicles per day.

Sam Russell

serfboard wrote: »

About 12,000 vehicles per day.

Is that for M17 or M18, and where?

How does that compare with the N20 at say Charleville?

Zzippy

m17 wrote: »

The bat bridge

Ah, I didn't know there was a road crossing there, I thought it was like one of those wildlife corridor bridges they have in the Netherlands. Great to see the aerial view.

Cookiemunster

Sam Russell wrote: »

Is that for M17 or M18, and where?

How does that compare with the N20 at say Charleville?

All that info is available here.

10.1K AADT between Charleville and Mallow.

The most Northerly counter on the M18 between J17 and J18 is 9.6K AADT. Looks to be similar on the M17. Although it is 11.1K AADT between J 16 and J17 on the M18.

serfboard

Sam Russell wrote: »

Is that for M17 or M18, and where?

Be interesting to see how that 11.3K figure changes over the course of 2018.

m17

The bat bridge 15/04/18

m17

The tuam bypass n17
2018 2017
AADT 7924 7636
%HGV 6.0% 5.7%
Coverage 29.3% 26.0%

Corofin m17
2018 2017
AADT 8157 7902
%HGV 6.0% 5.7%
Coverage 29.3% 23.0%

RATHMORRISY M17

2018 2017
AADT 9587 9317
%HGV 5.8% 5.4%
COVERAGE 29.3% 26.0%

THE N18 BETWEEN KILCOLGAN AND CLARINBRIDGE
2018 2017
AADT 3145 16683
%HGV 2.6% 3.8%
COVERAGE 29.0% 99.7%

What does the coverage figure represent? The amount of measurement points?

marno21

Deleted User wrote: »

What does the coverage figure represent? The amount of measurement points?

No.

If there is 24 hours of coverage missing in a full year (e.g. one day) then the coverage = 364/365 = 99.7%. The weird thing is that data is missing for the first 3 months of 2018 in that N18 counter, so the figures are wrong. There are still ~13k vehicles a day passing between Clarinbridge and Kilcolgan (N67). That to me seems that the M18 has failed to live up to its remit.

Yesterday, Thursday 19th April, 19.6k vehicles passed through Claregalway. 11.2k vehicles used the M17 east of Claregalway. Whilst the M17 figure is up 1000 on the equivalent figure from October 2017, in my opinion we can conclude on this data so far that the M17 has failed to live upto its purpose of relieving the N17 and providing a bypass of Claregalway.

frozenfrozen

I have stopped going through clarinbridge anyway! Thank fook for that

marno21

marno21 wrote: »

No.

If there is 24 hours of coverage missing in a full year (e.g. one day) then the coverage = 364/365 = 99.7%. The weird thing is that data is missing for the first 3 months of 2018 in that N18 counter, so the figures are wrong. There are still ~13k vehicles a day passing between Clarinbridge and Kilcolgan (N67). That to me seems that the M18 has failed to live up to its remit.

Yesterday, Thursday 19th April, 19.6k vehicles passed through Claregalway. 11.2k vehicles used the M17 east of Claregalway. Whilst the M17 figure is up 1000 on the equivalent figure from October 2017, in my opinion we can conclude on this data so far that the M17 has failed to live upto its purpose of relieving the N17 and providing a bypass of Claregalway.

Thanks for the explanation

However the mway was never going to be a bypass of Claregalway, at those numbers, the bypass is still needed and, given the previous design for it, would likely drive a significant number to chose the mway

m17

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks for the explanation

However the mway was never going to be a bypass of Claregalway, at those numbers, the bypass is still needed and, given the previous design for it, would likely drive a significant number to chose the mway

Claregalway doesn't need a bypass if your going form tuam to Galway the problem is that the traffic turning right you have to wait behind all the have to do is narrow in the footpaths and job done instead of wasting more money sorry if I have gone off topic a bit

m17

m17 wrote: »

Claregalway doesn't need a bypass if your going form tuam to Galway the problem is that the traffic turning right you have to wait behind all the have to do is narrow in the footpaths and job done instead of wasting more money sorry if I have gone off topic a bit

So instead of bypassing it to improve the lives of everyone living there, the answer is to make it worse by giving even more priority to passing traffic? How does that make any sense

marno21

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks for the explanation

However the mway was never going to be a bypass of Claregalway, at those numbers, the bypass is still needed and, given the previous design for it, would likely drive a significant number to chose the mway

It would have been better if the M17/M18 scheme was designed and built to solve the issues it was supposed to rather than what has happened. The route that was built has significantly less benefits that other potential routings which would have solved the Claregalway issue and saved us spending money on more roads down the line.

They should have built a motorway from Gort that would merge with the M6 near Oranmore and a motorway from the Galway ring road to Tuam, with a 2+2 link road or motorway link road between the two such as below (I have included the Galway ring road too on a rough alignment)



There is an issue somewhere if the M17/M18 scheme as built happened and it should not happen again.

m17

RATHMORRISSY 20/04/18

m17

The m17 at laraghmore