N7 - Newlands Cross upgrade

D Trent

smellmepower wrote: »

I'll miss my quiet cycles down here in the mornings,will be choked with two lanes of traffic from Sunday!

How were they quiet cycles? Wasn't that the hard shoulder of N7

smellmepower

That bit of road has been closed off to traffic for the last few months because the N7 inbound has been moved to temporary lanes for the bridge construction.The new bridge ramp blocked off the view/noise of the N7,usually just myself and a few construction lads there in the early mornings!

satguy

It will be better in the end, as it has the whole east / west commute wrecked.

How did it ever get this bad. When I started driving I lived in Clondalkin, and Newlands Cross only had light traffic,, OH and The Boot Road had no traffic lights at all. You just pulled out to half way across and waited in the middle of the duel carriage way for a gap.

spacetweek

satguy wrote: »

You just pulled out to half way across and waited in the middle of the duel carriage way for a gap.

Sounds really dangerous, glad they got rid of that.

NedNew2

There's loads of good aerial photos and proposed traffic changes now on www.n7n11.ie/n7-update/.

eamonnq

satguy wrote: »

It will be better in the end, as it has the whole east / west commute wrecked.

How did it ever get this bad. When I started driving I lived in Clondalkin, and Newlands Cross only had light traffic,, OH and The Boot Road had no traffic lights at all. You just pulled out to half way across and waited in the middle of the duel carriage way for a gap.

Absolutely lethal junction when it was like that, traffic coming from the Boot Road, trying to get across while traffic from the Naas Road Southbound was trying to get down the Boot Road.

Roryhy

IMAG0017
This evening, cranes in place!

finnharpsboy

the middle bit has started to be put in place

smellmepower

Weird seeing the bridge finally come together,construction wasn't too noisy last night either.

rameire

thanks for that pic.
It was wrecking my head wondering what the temp walkway platforms were for that they have had on site the last week.
now I know they are for the side of the bridge beams.

They have done a good bit of tidy up on the boot road junction,
they have painted road markings and they have raked and levelled the kerbside soil areas.

rameire

this traffic camera is pointing in the right direction for the weekend.

http://traffic.southdublin.ie/TrafficCamImages/Greenisle/snap.jpg

trellheim

I drove through this last night. There was no signposting of the lane diversions for the bridge lift which led to everyone franticallly braking and lane changing in a very very dangerous place leading to a 1/2 mile along a dark lane that is along the northern side of the embankment. if you wanted to get to the Belgard road you were up the creek and had to go down the M50 Whoever did the traffic management plan should be taken out and shot because they have no idea at all how to do a plan

bg07

More beams arriving tonight

AndrewMc

From tonight the N7 inbound will split before Newlands Cross. "The two lanes to the left will cater for N7 city bound traffic, M50 bound traffic as well as Boot Road, Fonthill Road and local business traffic at Newlands Cross.".

I managed to get these photos this evening just outside Joel's, which is on these left-hand lanes after Newlands Cross inbound.

Looking back towards Newlands Cross:


Looking forwards:


From this it looks like the two lanes split right at the entrance to Joel's/Esso, and only the right-hand lane of the two leads back onto the main N7. When we drove this evening in the left-hand lane, there was no way back onto the main road.

I'll be driving this way again tomorrow afternoon, probably, and will be able to see for sure.

smellmepower

Traffic trying to join the N7 from the Boot Road junction is horrendous at 11.40am on a Sunday morning!

Can only imagine how bad it will be at rush hour tomorrow.

sidcon

Aerial view of Newlands cross this morning by @gardatraffic

BMJD

Travel time from Naas to the M50 at the moment is 75 minutes. Bit of a disaster methinks.

Hotblack Desiato

Any reason for that other than driver stupidity? There should be the usual number of lanes open.

BMJD

No idea, I went off at kill and went via the m4 to avoid it

trellheim

Once again more stupidity from these halfwits. No warning of these, no traffic management plan, no advance notice of the changes, and no signage as you get near. Cue massive tailbacks to Citywest and before on a Sunday morning before "Not My Job" halfwits decide to do THEIR bit . Complain to everyone.

Arbiter of Good Taste

To be fair, there was some (a little) advance notice. I just can't remember where I read/heard it earlier in the week.

Is it going to be hell on earth for the bank holiday traffic in a couple of weeks? I will be travelling that way.

AndrewMc

The attached sign is placed on both sides of the road twice or three times after J2.

There is a bus lane and three traffic lanes from J2 until the Green Isle. At the Green Isle the bus lane becomes a traffic lane, the leftmost of the ones on the sign. The lanes split as shown in the sign very shortly after the Green Isle.

There are barriers intermittently between lanes 1 and 2 from the Green Isle to Newlands Cross, but after that it should be easy enough to change lane until Joel's. At Joel's the lanes split again.

Lanes three and four I didn't see, but it seems that only lane three continues straight ahead, and lane four is a right turn lane for Belgard Road.

Shortly before the Red Cow the three lanes come together as a single 3-lane road again (no actual merging required if you're already on the right lane), and lanes onto the M50 or Naas Road are as usual.

If everyone gets in lane early it should flow well. Today, though, on a Sunday afternoon it was packed solid back to J3 taking 40 minutes to get through.

Tomorrow morning will be mental.

2sounds

Have to agree with andrewmc. Got caught heading inbound today for an hour at around 3pm. Green light sequence only about 30 seconds for inbound traffic. Long periods of idle green time crossing the junction in the belgard direction. It was move 100 meters, wait 4 mins, move 100 meters, wait 4 mins, repeat etc.As a regular rush hour commuter ive been generally relieved with the limited disruption so far. If the light sequence isnt sorted for rush hour tomorrow am its going to be hell.

rameire

i have a friend stuck in the traffic at the moment, its going nowhere fast,
down to 1 lane, so they must be putting in the remaining bridge beams.
avoid at all costs tonight and in the morning at rush hour.

TheScoringGoal

I drove it inbound today. About 3:25 I passed the Tallaght exit. I got to the M50 just after 4. There are signs although they could possibly be clearer. The big issue is inconsiderate drivers who are accustomed to changing lanes at the last minute. It's even more dangerous now as they are in lanes to turn onto Belgard road but feel that by putting on the indicator they can cut across the lane of traffic that queued up correctly and be rewarded for such dangerous manouevers by getting through the junction quicker. I would have genuine safety fears for the traffic tomorrow morning and the bank holiday weekend if there are no authorities present.

smellmepower

sidcon wrote: »

Aerial view of Newlands cross this morning by @gardatraffic

That's why the Garda helicopter was hovering so low and driving the dog mad at 10 this morning so!

Hotblack Desiato

:rolleyes: this sort of thing really exposes the 'can't walk and chew gum at the same time' drivers.

HydeRoad

My observation of it all yesterday was hordes of drivers queuing from well back, all indicating right, all trying to merge into the one available straight ahead lane to the right of the roadworks. It appears that everyone was afraid of keeping left, and ending up trapped into a left turn only at Boot Road or Fonthill.

If one kept one's nerve, and squeezed through on the left of all the right-indicating morons, one had a clear, empty run right up to the traffic lights, and a clear run thereafter through to the merge with everyone else.

The signage wasn't clear that keeping left to go straight was an option. But as 90% of motorists pay no attention to anything, it probably would have made little difference.


EDIT - Actually, it was a great arrangement, as if we could have a permanent freeflow for the few drivers who pay attention, and a great, heaving morass to trap all the drooling idiots who don't pay attention, then that would actually be a good thing. For me, anyway...

BuzzFish

HydeRoad wrote: »

My observation of it all yesterday was hordes of drivers queuing from well back, all indicating right, all trying to merge into the one available straight ahead lane to the right of the roadworks. It appears that everyone was afraid of keeping left, and ending up trapped into a left turn only at Boot Road or Fonthill.

I had this spotted 16 pages back. Amazing BAM hadn't....
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=87473691&postcount=656

BMJD

How was this morning?