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

what_traffic

m17 wrote: »

That's a concrete bollard it's to keep the locals out because some of them were driving there tractors over the footbridge as a short cut

Thanks.
I know your not joking.
Any idea if "proper" anti-tractor countermeasures are to be installed?

Pereplyotchik

m17 wrote: »

That's a concrete bollard it's to keep the locals out because some of them were driving there tractors over the footbridge as a short cut

you're kidding me? please tell me you're kidding.....

Pereplyotchik

m17 wrote: »

That's a concrete bollard it's to keep the locals out because some of them were driving there tractors over the footbridge as a short cut

mrsoundie wrote: »

Went to Renmore through Kilcolgan today from Shannon and came back through M6 onto M18. Really enjoyed the drive on it, but the road after the Bat Bridge frightened me a bit, reminded me of driving through a multi-storey car park with wet tyres.

It's great not to be stuck behind some slow coach and there are a few still on the motorway. All though I did see two tractors on the motorway this evening, one around the Tulla exit heading North and the other around the Shannon Airport exit heading South.

I have seen tractors on the M18 on a number of occasions, mainly around the southern end of the new part of the M18. I know that some tractors are quick but even at 60-70kph they essentially act as a roundabout and they create a tailback really quickly. all it takes is 1 or 2 nervous Nellies who won't overtake without 5 kms of completely clear road behind them to build up traffic...

Can't believe some lad saw a footbridge and thought.. "I'll get me tractor across that" we can't play anything straight without trying to game the system..

Cookiemunster

Pereplyotchik wrote: »

I have seen tractors on the M18 on a number of occasions, mainly around the southern end of the new part of the M18. I know that some tractors are quick but even at 60-70kph they essentially act as a roundabout and they create a tailback really quickly. all it takes is 1 or 2 nervous Nellies who won't overtake without 5 kms of completely clear road behind them to build up traffic...

Can't believe some lad saw a footbridge and thought.. "I'll get me tractor across that" we can't play anything straight without trying to game the system..

Any vehicle that has an engine larger than 50CC, can travel at least 50kmph and has pneumatic tires is allowed on a motorway. So tractors that can travel at 60-70kmph are entitled to be there. If there's slow moving traffic on the driving lane, then change lane and overtake it. You don't get single lane tailbacks behind slow moving vehicles on motorways.

what_traffic

The tractors mentioned earlier here are NOT using the motorway - they are just crossing over it. Some were using the pedestrian crossing rather than the R354 and N63.

L1011

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Any vehicle that has an engine larger than 50CC, can travel at least 50kmph and has pneumatic tires is allowed on a motorway. So tractors that can travel at 60-70kmph are entitled to be there. If there's slow moving traffic on the driving lane, then change lane and overtake it. You don't get single lane tailbacks behind slow moving vehicles on motorways.

They need to be on road diesel or else they aren't legally capable of doing 50km/h.

Good luck finding a farmer using road diesel... Seeing as they don't need to for any other road

Pereplyotchik

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Any vehicle that has an engine larger than 50CC, can travel at least 50kmph and has pneumatic tires is allowed on a motorway. So tractors that can travel at 60-70kmph are entitled to be there. If there's slow moving traffic on the driving lane, then change lane and overtake it. You don't get single lane tailbacks behind slow moving vehicles on motorways.

You'd think that wouldn't you.... I've seen it too many times, some moron is on his phone or cruising at 70 kph and other people forget that they can overtake and and then lane 2 gets clogged by some other Einstein... ends up looking like a rolling road block like the cops do... saw it last week M6 out of Galway... guy in a pick up on his phone slowing down lane 1 and the local chapter of Mensa in lane 2 doing all of 2 KPH more than him, created a nice block of 20 odd cars with brake lights blinking like fairy lights..

m17

The ballygaddy road flyover on the tuam bypass

m17

The m18 at coldwood 3kms to the west was supposed to be apples new data center with three motorways on there door step it's a missed opportunity for them and the people of athenry and surrounding areas pity

m17

m17 wrote: »

The m18 at coldwood, 3kms to the west was supposed to be apples new data center with three motorways on there door step it's a missed opportunity for them and the people of athenry and surrounding areas pity

I suspect that the data traffic would go faster along the fibres , but the provision of a data centre would have brought a small amount of employment to the area as well as act as a potential magnet for future businesses.

marno21

m17 wrote: »

The ballygaddy road flyover on the tuam bypass

You can really tell from this photo that this was originally to be a roundabout with the flyover tacked on after.

Deleted User wrote: »

I suspect that the data traffic would go faster along the fibres , but the provision of a data centre would have brought a small amount of employment to the area as well as act as a potential magnet for future businesses.

Lot more beneficial to have the data centre than the wasteland that's there instead. Typical of the Irish planning process though.

m17

Kiltiernan 11/05/1611/05/1811/05/18

what_traffic

marno21 wrote: »

Lot more beneficial to have the data centre than the wasteland that's there instead. Typical of the Irish planning process though.

What "wasteland"?
If they were building on top of the Killconnell dump ya might have a point.

Geogregor

So it is some time since opening, how is Rathmorrissy Interchange functioning? There were voices that it will struggle. How does it cope in peak times?

marno21

what_traffic wrote: »

What "wasteland"?
If they were building on top of the Killconnell dump ya might have a point.

The land as is is of no economic value to the area if it's not being used, hence the term wasteland which might have been a bit hyperbolic

Geogregor wrote: »

So it is some time since opening, how is Rathmorrissy Interchange functioning? There were voices that it will struggle. How does it cope in peak times?

It's functioning fine. If it was an at grade roundabout on the M17/M18 it would still probably fine.

Reuben1210

marno21 wrote: »

You can really tell from this photo that this was originally to be a roundabout with the flyover tacked on after.

I wonder, looking at that interchange, how is that motorway standard? (just looking at the short filter on/off lanes, and they don't look much better than the dangerous and short Bray junction ones on the N11?)

marno21

Reuben1210 wrote: »

I wonder, looking at that interchange, how is that motorway standard? (just looking at the short filter on/off lanes, and they don't look much better than the dangerous and short Bray junction ones on the N11?)

It's not a motorway which helps, it's only 2+2 which to my knowledge doesn't have strictly defined rules for junctions.

The junction could be better designed though, especially the proximity of the roundabout to the northbound carriageway

Reuben1210

marno21 wrote: »

It's not a motorway which helps, it's only 2+2 which to my knowledge doesn't have strictly defined rules for junctions.

The junction could be better designed though, especially the proximity of the roundabout to the northbound carriageway

Apologies, I was thinking this was a junction on the M17/M18 section.

Still though, they could definitely do better(safer), and would it cost all that much more? It's pretty much grade separated anyway!

m17

Reuben1210 wrote: »

Apologies, I was thinking this was a junction on the M17/M18 section.

Still though, they could definitely do better(safer), and would it cost all that much more? It'sy much grade separated anyway!

There's no need to apologise this is how it is this project is 57.2 kms long it goes form gort to tuam 53kms of motorway and 4.2kms of the tuam bypass langans did the frist section gort to coldwood 21kms sisk did the second section coldwood to the abbert river 21kms and roadbridge did the 3rd section 11kms of motorway and the tuam bypass
Ballygaddey junction on the tuam bypass

ELCAT2009

Geogregor wrote: »

So it is some time since opening, how is Rathmorrissy Interchange functioning? There were voices that it will struggle. How does it cope in peak times?

I travel its daily coming from tuam direction to the city in morning and reverse in the evening. No issues with traffic volumes. Main issues i see with it are the fact there are 2 lane on the roundabout which just seems to confuse people. Coming from Tuam to head to the city, I take the inner lane as i am taking the 3rd exit (anybody entering the roundabout should be using the inner lane as they should be taking the 3rd exit as there are slips roads for all the first exits) and the amount of times i have been undertaken is ridiculous. One day as i moved over to the outer lane as i came up close to my exit, a guy flew up the outside lane. They should really just have one lane all the way around the roundabout to stop these issues.
Other issue i have is the design of the slip lane coming from the city to go north to tuam where the lane from the city stops quite suddenly and you have to veer over to lane coming from roundabout. They had the room to have both lanes merge in a straight line with the main M17 but they didnt? I have emailed TII who directed me to Directroute about it. Their response was "the design of the slip roads at Rathmorrissy has been carried out in accordance with the design and construction requirements of our contract. The alignment of the lanes and how they merge is in accordance with the required standards and are thus designed within the stipulated speed limit of 65km/h and merge signage, so drivers should have sufficient time to make the necessary manoeuvres safely." Cant say i agree with them. Emailed TII again but they just forwarded to directroute so basically washing their hands of it.

m17

ELCAT2009 wrote: »

I travel its daily coming from tuam direction to the city in morning and reverse in the evening. No issues with traffic volumes. Main issues i see with it are the fact there are 2 lane on the roundabout which just seems to confuse people. Coming from Tuam to head to the city, I take the inner lane as i am taking the 3rd exit (anybody entering the roundabout should be using the inner lane as they should be taking the 3rd exit as there are slips roads for all the first exits) and the amount of times i have been undertaken is ridiculous. One day as i moved over to the outer lane as i came up close to my exit, a guy flew up the outside lane. They should really just have one lane all the way around the roundabout to stop these issues.
Other issue i have is the design of the slip lane coming from the city to go north to tuam where the lane from the city stops quite suddenly and you have to veer over to lane coming from roundabout. They had the room to have both lanes merge in a straight line with the main M17 but they didnt? I have emailed TII who directed me to Directroute about it. Their response was "the design of the slip roads at Rathmorrissy has been carried out in accordance with the design and construction requirements of our contract. The alignment of the lanes and how they merge is in accordance with the required standards and are thus designed within the stipulated speed limit of 65km/h and merge signage, so drivers should have sufficient time to make the necessary manoeuvres safely." Cant say i agree with them. Emailed TII again but they just forwarded to directroute so basically washing their hands of it.

65kph slip road coming form the m6 to the m17the slip road heading for the m17the roundaboutthe slip road coming form the m18 to the m6

AugustusMinimus

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Any vehicle that has an engine larger than 50CC, can travel at least 50kmph and has pneumatic tires is allowed on a motorway. So tractors that can travel at 60-70kmph are entitled to be there. If there's slow moving traffic on the driving lane, then change lane and overtake it. You don't get single lane tailbacks behind slow moving vehicles on motorways.

That’s just a plain lie. If traffic is heavy enough a slow moving vehicle will cause chaos on a motorway.

AugustusMinimus

I still think Rsthmorrisey is the most stupid junction design ever. An incredibly costly design which isn’t free flow. A partially unrolled cloverleaf could have been built for less cost and a smaller land take.

Other countries would just automatically have put a stack here. But this is Ireland where junctions are an afterthought.

AugustusMinimus

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

I still think Rsthmorrisey is the most stupid junction design ever. An incredibly costly design which isn’t free flow. A partially unrolled cloverleaf could have been built for less cost and a smaller land take.

Other countries would just automatically have put a stack here. But this is Ireland where junctions are an afterthought.

A small paint job at the junctions any you can easily make it freeflow.

Sam Russell

Deleted User wrote: »

A small paint job at the junctions any you can easily make it freeflow.

It should be made free flow. It might require a bit of tar here and there as well as paint, but not much. It is not as if it is a busy junction.

AugustusMinimus

[Deleted User] wrote: »

A small paint job at the junctions any you can easily make it freeflow.

Turn it into a turbo Roundabout? Any easy solution. Still should have done this junction properly day 1 though.

Cookiemunster

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

That’s just a plain lie. If traffic is heavy enough a slow moving vehicle will cause chaos on a motorway.

On the M17/M18? I doubt we'll ever get enough traffic to create a situation like that.

AugustusMinimus

Cookiemunster wrote: »

On the M17/M18? I doubt we'll ever get enough traffic to create a situation like that.

You never specified the M17/M18 though. Just motorways.

AugustusMinimus

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

You never specified the M17/M18 though. Just motorways.

Check the thread title

AugustusMinimus

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Check the thread title

Are you saying that any mention of the word motorway or motorways must automatically mean M17 or M18 as that’s the thread title? Seriously?

“You don't get single lane tailbacks behind slow moving vehicles on motorways.”