N7 - Newlands Cross upgrade

MJohnston

MJohnston wrote: »

I'd like to know if anyone has ever been in a country with discipline, because I'll be honest, I've never seen it in all my travels.

Singapore!

Guy:Incognito

Stupid phone autocorrecting :-)

regedit

MJohnston wrote: »

I'd like to know if anyone has ever been in a country with discipline, because I'll be honest, I've never seen it in all my travels.

Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Scandic. In fact, our driving culture is quite poor

spacetweek

regedit wrote: »

Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Scandic. In fact, our driving culture is quite poor

I've driven in many countries of the world both developed and developing and I'd rate us about mid-range.

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Then you've the people coming off the m50 northbound that are continuing on past the liffey valley exit but god forbid they just stay in the lane that takes them.up off the slip and leave a gap from traffic to merge in from the right. They all have to change lanes to the middle and outside lanes instead.

All this results in a free flow junction that doesn't really flow.

Nope - they should indeed be getting into the middle/outside lanes in order to leave the lefthand lane free for traffic trying to exit at Liffey Valley as you also have a bus lane in the mix. In fact that bus lane starts far too close to the M50 and should be moved west.

MJohnston

spacetweek wrote: »

I've driven in many countries of the world both developed and developing and I'd rate us about mid-range.

Yeah, I've seen much worse in basically all the US states I've visited (about 12), and generally worse in the likes of Italy and Spain.

One thing I will say about Irish ill-discipline is that at least it tends to occur at slower speeds, with "Sunday driver" types - there's nothing more disconcerting than driving on a 4 lane Californian highway to be undertook by a giant Escalade doing 90 in a 60.

Guy:Incognito

spacetweek wrote: »

I've driven in many countries of the world both developed and developing and I'd rate us about mid-range.

Nope - they should indeed be getting into the middle/outside lanes in order to leave the lefthand lane free for traffic trying to exit at Liffey Valley as you also have a bus lane in the mix. In fact that bus lane starts far too close to the M50 and should be moved west.

20 people merging from the left while 20 people merge from the right is a lot more disruptive than the 20 on the left staying in their lane and leaving proper gaps from the ones from the right to merge in to. The lane continues on straight to allow you to stay where you are and conrinue down towards lucan


It ends up as 2 lanes of people trying to compete to see who can brake to the slowest speed to change lanes then accelerate hard once they do so.

Sheldons Brain

Deleted User wrote: »

Well, the vehicles that brake are one thing it's the ones that break that cause the real problems. :pac:

I blame people's inability to dive.

L1011

I very much doubt there'll be an opening ceremony until the scheme is finished - which is months away. This is only a partial opening.

Synode

L1011 wrote: »

I very much doubt there'll be an opening ceremony until the scheme is finished - which is months away. This is only a partial opening.

What do you mean partial opening? Surely when it's finished it's finished?

KCAccidental

Synode wrote: »

What do you mean partial opening? Surely when it's finished it's finished?

it's not finished. There is still work to do in the area surrounding the flyover as well as tidying up etc.

Cookiemunster

Synode wrote: »

What do you mean partial opening? Surely when it's finished it's finished?

The flyover will open, but the sideroads won't be ready. The temporary outbound lanes have to be removed and landscaped and the new road layout below the flyover has to be finished.

ongarboy

Drove inbound last night from Naas for the first time in the area in months (as i normally use the Grange Castle exit to get home bypassing the dreaded traffic lights) and have to say it looks fantastic from the vantage point of the old/diversion lanes. The stone cladding they use along the high walls looks really impressive. Looking forward to using it properly soon when it opens!

SeanF

Does anyone know when the proposed widening of the road from 2 to 3 lanes (between the Naas exit and the Waterford/Kilkenny exit) begins?

omicron

SeanF wrote: »

Does anyone know when the proposed widening of the road from 2 to 3 lanes (between the Naas exit and the Waterford/Kilkenny exit) begins?

No date set as there is no funding for it yet, just planning permission.

smokie72

As pad199207 said a few days ago the new gantry is been installed tonight on the new flyover. I saw it been installed myself a few minutes ago. It's just before joels.

Victor

Folks, constructive posts only please.

Trash-talk deleted.

Moderator

pad199207

OFFICIALLY OPENING THIS LUNCHTIME!!

rameire

Just heard it on kfm. Pascal donoghue is the minister opening it.

screamer

And the biggest chokepoint in the country is set to move to Kill, when traffic chokes at Naas as 3 lanes become 2, and no one in the NRA had to foresight to upgrade that before now, freeflow my ass.

Still, it will improve things!

pad199207

Not opened to drivers till Thursday christ sake

sonnyblack

pad199207 wrote: »

Not opened to drivers till Thursday christ sake

Being opened today by Varadkar according to the the radio this morning. Need a bit of PR after the recent water charges debacle I guess. I wonder if there will be any protestors out

Cap1

It's not open until Thursday morning. It's just a ribbon cutting I'd say.

gilly0512

screamer wrote: »

And the biggest chokepoint in the country is set to move to Kill, when traffic chokes at Naas as 3 lanes become 2, and no one in the NRA had to foresight to upgrade that before now, freeflow my ass.

Yeah I heard on the radio this morning that it would be officially opened today, although it seems quite strange that the road would then not be opened to traffic for another two days? It will be very interesting to see how much worse the traffic gets between Kill and the M9 turnoff as a result of freeflow through Newlands, as you say it would have made perfect sense to carry out the two projects in tandem, widen the M7 from Naas North (J9) to the M9 turnoff (J11), and build the Newlands cross flyover. However we don't do foresight in this country, which is why we are building our motorways, flyovers, bypasses etc thirty years after every other country.

_Kaiser_

sonnyblack wrote: »

Being opened today by Varadkar according to the the radio this morning. Need a bit of PR after the recent water charges debacle I guess. I wonder if there will be any protestors out

Not Vardakar anymore - here you go:

The Newlands Cross upgrade on the N7 will be officially opened by Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe later.

The junction will open to traffic on Thursday.

jd

gilly2308 wrote: »

Yeah I heard on the radio this morning that it would be officially opened today, although it seems quite strange that the road would then not be opened to traffic for another two days? It will be very interesting to see how much worse the traffic gets between Kill and the M9 turnoff as a result of freeflow through Newlands, as you say it would have made perfect sense to carry out the two projects in tandem, widen the M7 from Naas North (J9) to the M9 turnoff (J11), and build the Newlands cross flyover. However we don't do foresight in this country, which is why we are building our motorways, flyovers, bypasses etc thirty years after every other country.

Why would free flow make the traffic worse? There'll be a steady stream of traffic, rather than large waves as the lights change between red and green. The upgrade to 3 lanes is in planning, and can't be commenced until the government approves funding to the NRA.

Officially open today, so that means that they've got two days to release the captive minister and remove the blockades caused by the protests and subsequent clear up operation before being open to traffic. :pac:

jd

Deleted User wrote: »

subsequent clear up operation

Did someone mention the water?

Mrs Dempsey

screamer wrote: »

And the biggest chokepoint in the country is set to move to Kill, when traffic chokes at Naas as 3 lanes become 2, and no one in the NRA had to foresight to upgrade that before now, freeflow my ass.

In an imperfect world progress is exchanging one problem for another - kicking the can down the road; it was always thus. The motorway to Patrick's Well exacerbated issues in Adare - there are other examples & there will be more but it is progress - in an imperfect world.

ongarboy

There was a clip about the opening on Morning Ireland this morning just before the weather (around 7:45am) where it was discussed along with the topic of PPPs not necessarily meaning tolls. You probably can catch it on RTE Radio Player. They also confirmed Thursday opening to the public with the ceremonial opening today.