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

whitey1

Used the new motorway for the first time last month.  
What a game changer for those travelling to Shannon from Mayo and points further North. While the old road took about 2 1/2 hours, you had to leave yourself 3 1/2 hours due to the bottleneck at Claregalway. I went from the Kilkenny Cross roundabout in Castlebar to the Shannon Airport exit in 1 hour 40 minutes, taking it very handy. The kids didn't even need a bathroom break
Westport would now be about 2 hours from Shannon and Ballina would be about 2 hours 15 minutes

Shyboy

m17 wrote: »

The m18 at raheen with the new phone mast on the left hand side 04/05/18

All that's left is the mast at Annagh hill and then there will be 100% coverage on the m17/m18

I wonder when the mast at Annagh Hill is due to go up? I see that the planning has finally been given last month despite heavy objections in the area.

m17

M6 junction 17 06/09/18

veryangryman

Accident on this at the weekend.

RIP the poor party involved; It does make me ponder what has people walking on a Motorway for though. The road is almost a year old.

Same occurred on M6 around exit 13 2 weeks after it opened, which i'm putting down to (a) the newness of the road and (b) the age and possible mental state of the person involved.

Pereplyotchik

veryangryman wrote: »

Accident on this at the weekend.

RIP the poor party involved; It does make me ponder what has people walking on a Motorway for though. The road is almost a year old.

Same occurred on M6 around exit 13 2 weeks after it opened, which i'm putting down to (a) the newness of the road and (b) the age and possible mental state of the person involved.

Let's NOT speculate on these matters, someone is dead and that's a tragedy. Speculating on the cause or attributing it to the victims age or well being may not be the right thing at this time...
I'm not looking for a battle or accusing you of anything or suggesting that you're wrong or anything like that etc. etc. let's just leave this one to the Gardaí / TII to investigate eh?

mikeingalway

Still no sign of coverage improvements in Annagh area ... I had No Service at all on Vodafone for about two mins other day.

m17

Rathmorrisy

Kermit.de.frog

Embarrassing.

BelfastVanMan

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Embarrassing.

What's wrong with you now, fella?

Henryhill2

Is the signage going to be improved going from old roads onto new roads.

I was up around claregalway and oranmore yesterday and it's a dog's dinner of a job with roundabouts and traffic lights

riddlinrussell

To be fair this is one time I'm inclined to agree with Kermit, there were far better designs to use for that junction, having used the roundabout a few times its kind of weirdly laid out, even repainting the lines to 'Turbo' the main movements would help.

MayoSalmon

Agreed have used it a number of times...nonsense design and fairly dangerous

Donegal Storm

Same, coming from Tuam and going toward Galway you have to lean forward and turn your head more than 90 degrees to see if there's any traffic coming and you're blinded by the bridge until you're right on the white line.

obi604

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Embarrassing.

Just curious, maybe I’m thick, but why is it embarrassing?


To the normal joe soap, I don’t see why it’s embarrassing

SeanW

It's a half-baked, over-sized ****e design. A massive roundabout connecting key motorways, on M-to-M junctions.

Better practice would have been to make this junction free-flowing, so that there would be no need for drivers to stop or yield when merging between motorways.

This ****e design is like the M1-Airport junction. A half-baked roundabout with conflicting movements used at greater cost in preference to a better solution of freeflow movements (that would be cheaper) for utterly retarded reasons.

I don't agree with Kermit about any of the stuff about spaghetti junctions and 12 lane motorways, but he's right about this. It's a pathetic joke.

SeanW

SeanW wrote: »

It's a half-baked, over-sized ****e design. A massive roundabout connecting key motorways, on M-to-M junctions.

Better practice would have been to make this junction free-flowing, so that there would be no need for drivers to stop or yield when merging between motorways.

This ****e design is like the M1-Airport junction. A half-baked roundabout with conflicting movements used at greater cost in preference to a better solution of freeflow movements (that would be cheaper) for utterly retarded reasons.

I don't agree with Kermit about any of the stuff about spaghetti junctions and 12 lane motorways, but he's right about this. It's a pathetic joke.

All it needs is a bit of paint and it can be easily made free-flowing, just paint an auxiliary lane between exits.
SImples!

flazio

How would that work going from north bound to east bound or south bound to west bound?

Sam Russell

obi604 wrote: »

Just curious, maybe I’m thick, but why is it embarrassing?


To the normal joe soap, I don’t see why it’s embarrassing

I would have thought the complete absence of traffic would be an embarrassment. I think the M20 (which should have been built instead) would not have such a dirth of traffic.

flazio

flazio wrote: »

How would that work going from north bound to east bound or south bound to west bound?

Weaving lanes, just imagine it being like the M50.
You have an aux lane between where traffic joins the roundabout and where it leaves at the next exit. the actual roundabout is like the driving lane of the motorway.
Drivers weave on to the driving lane go 270 degrees (slightly less that that for the pendants) then weave to the aux lane and off.

Very simple and all it needs is some paint and signs.

Kermit.de.frog

They could have built a full cloverleaf (standard EU practice) and it would have been superior and cheaper to do so. That's another reason to be angry. Not only inferior/worst design but more expensive!

What we have here is some eejit in a design office from down the country most likely who went over to Blighty - came across the single dumbest design on a British motorway (that they themselves hate and don't want to use) and said "that'll do".

I come back to my central point.

Just do things properly and use best practice. It's not too much to ask. That is not a proper design for a motorway to motorway interchange.

We are paying a lot of money for infrastructure. We need to demand that money is spent properly.

These are roads but they are also assets and we are selling ourselves short with nonsense like this.

Cantona's Collars

When All Is Ruin Once Again will be doing the rounds on the film festival circuit.
It's about the M17/18 and it's impact on communities and people along it's route.

m17

The m17 at cloondrone looking towards tuam 23/9/18

Cloondrone looking towards rathmorrisy

revsperminute

Totally agree that the design of the M6/M17/M18 junction is terrible.

Was travelling back to Galway city last night approx. 9pm and met a car going the wrong way around the roundabout, a VM Polo, dark coloured but couldn't see the number plate because of his lights, he or she came under the southern bridge of the M18/M17 towards traffic and turned onto the on slip towards Limerick as I was coming around past the off-slip from the M6.. crazy..

Also, but why isn't the entire motorway designated the M18 all the way to Tuam

BelfastVanMan

revsperminute wrote: »

Totally agree that the design of the M6/M17/M18 junction is terrible.

Was travelling back to Galway city last night approx. 9pm and met a car going the wrong way around the roundabout, a VM Polo, dark coloured but couldn't see the number plate because of his lights, he or she came under the southern bridge of the M18/M17 towards traffic and turned onto the on slip towards Limerick as I was coming around past the off-slip from the M6.. crazy..

Also, but why isn't the entire motorway designated the M18 all the way to Tuam

National Route 18 is designated Galway to Limerick, whereas National Route 17 is designated Galway to Sligo, hence the numbering.

marno21

revsperminute wrote: »

Also, but why isn't the entire motorway designated the M18 all the way to Tuam

Someone about 15 years ago had the idea that you could build a motorway to Galway from Tuam via Athenry and everyone who uses the N17 would divert to this new motorway.

As we can see, that is not how things have worked out in reality.

kippy

marno21 wrote: »

Someone about 15 years ago had the idea that you could build a motorway to Galway from Tuam via Athenry and everyone who uses the N17 would divert to this new motorway.

As we can see, that is not how things have worked out in reality.

I don't think that was the main intention.

BelfastVanMan

kippy wrote: »

marno21 wrote: »

Someone about 15 years ago had the idea that you could build a motorway to Galway from Tuam via Athenry and everyone who uses the N17 would divert to this new motorway.

As we can see, that is not how things have worked out in reality.

I don't think that was the main intention.

No, but it is certainly what happened.

veryangryman

Who is this "someone"?  The N18 (as it used to be) was a North-South road. This replaced it a couple of KM further west (despite it's ridiculous M17 name). The clue is in the junction numbers continuing.
Galway is getting a bypass which i'm sure will increase people using the new road as they'll get a freer run towards it.

Finally, if you think the main function of a Motorway is for car-commuting, you are deluded. If only it was as packed as the M50, i'm sure you are wishing.

ELCAT2009

Spotted a crane and a new Tower mast at Annagh Hill yesterday eve. I presume that it is the new mobile phone mast. I was surprised this morning to see a little red light already working on top! I wonder how long before the mobile signal becomes live and do we know what phone networks or will they all share the one mast so all phone networks have coverage. Its like a birthday present to the motorway since this day last year was the grand opening!

L1011

Three and Vodafone frequently share towers. It probably isn't on comregs sitefinder yet but it's worth checking. Also planning permission may show who built it