Looking forward to M3?

anotherlostie

For those that regularly travel the N3, are you looking forward to the opening of the motorway though Meath? Or will the €5.60 cost of a return journey mean you stick to the old route (it is €1.40 per toll, one at Dunshaughlin, one at Kells).

Personally I cannot wait til it opens and I no longer have to endure the Navan 'relief road' and its multiple traffic lights, along with Friday evening Dunshaughlin and Kells. I am a little worried about how the resulting traffic will be in Virginia though, and I would not like to be someone trying to get out from the Ballyjamesduff Road at that time. I imagine traffic lights could become necessary at that junction.

Estimated opening is the June bank holiday weekend according to someone in the Infrastructure forum. Unfortunately there will be a few month's lag before the M50 freeflow junction opens and really improves getting around Dublin.

meercat

thats for a car.A van 3.80 per toll.Thats 15.20 return.Total 76 euro per week.Think i will stick to old road especially as the traffic is lighter now.By the way the government has to pay the toll company if enough traffic doesnt use the toll road.What a mess

anotherlostie

meercat wrote: »

thats for a car.A van 3.80 per toll.Thats 15.20 return.Total 76 euro per week.Think i will stick to old road especially as the traffic is lighter now.By the way the government has to pay the toll company if enough traffic doesnt use the toll road.What a mess

Where do you get that figure from? According to the draft toll document on the NRA site, the cost for a goods vehicle under 3500kg is €2.

meercat

sorry .just assumed they would charge the same as the other tolls.still 8euro round trip.40euro per week.thats before i get to m50 toll.traffic much lighter lately.have to see what the time saving is.maybe less traffic on old route when m3 opens.thanks for toll price info

celt262

I have heard that the N3 will be down graded to a Regional road and will have a 80Kmph speed limit. Anyone know if any of the other N roads have being downgraded where there are motorways now in place?

baalthor

celt262 wrote: »

I have heard that the N3 will be down graded to a Regional road and will have a 80Kmph speed limit. Anyone know if any of the other N roads have being downgraded where there are motorways now in place?

They all have; the M3 is now the primary road so no need for another one beside it. It doesn't follow that the speed has to be reduced but it has been in all the downgraded roads AFAIK

shannon82

the speed limit was reduced from kinnegad to dublin from 100 to 80.

Also i heard that it now wont be opened the June Bank holiday. The contracter apparently got another job and took alot of his people off the M3, but it will open on the expected date in Sept!

unclebill98

I can not wait for it, but I a sure this has been talked about on other post but we on earth have they put up 2 tolls with barriers.... When Barrier Free Tolling is working very well on the M50.

F'in stupid.

sarahinnavan

I'm really looking forward to it. The N3 is a pain in the a**e. Epecially with all the changes to facilitate the building of the new road. Can't wait for it to be finished

M three

unclebill98 wrote: »

I can not wait for it, but I a sure this has been talked about on other post but we on earth have they put up 2 tolls with barriers.... When Barrier Free Tolling is working very well on the M50.

F'in stupid.

true. completely ridiculous. why didnt they utilise the technology currently used only a few miles up the road.

who was responsible for this brainwave??

bauderline

I cannot wait for this to open, it will chop my commute time in half, and will make trips to the mother in laws (childminder) a good deal handier....

Pissed off though they are stringing this out to September....

_Kaiser_

unclebill98 wrote: »

I can not wait for it, but I a sure this has been talked about on other post but we on earth have they put up 2 tolls with barriers.... When Barrier Free Tolling is working very well on the M50.

F'in stupid.

M three wrote: »

true. completely ridiculous. why didnt they utilise the technology currently used only a few miles up the road.

who was responsible for this brainwave??

It's simple really...

In years to come they'll decide to go "barrier free" to much applause and headlines.. it'll cost a fortune, cost massive disruption, and the contractor will make a fortune in the process.

Good ole Ireland eh! :rolleyes:

(oh and I hear there ARE traffic lights due to be installed in Virginia at the Baileborough junction - about time too! Now if they could sort out that garage on the same corner.. the way idiots cut in and out of the forecourt there is lethal!)

spacetweek

I assume there will be a freeflow lane for people with tags? Every other toll plaza in the country has them.

So it is freeflow, then.

FYI, completely removing barriers is usually only done on urban distributor roads like the M50 (The M50 is not a bypass). Everyone using the M50 lives in Dublin and isn't inconveniced by having to get a tag.

The M3, on the other hand, is a long distance trunk road and a lot of the traffic mightn't live anywhere in the area and is just passing through. In which case having to get a tag would be annoying as you'd hardly ever use it. So cash needs to be accepted.

M three

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

It's simple really...

In years to come they'll decide to go "barrier free" to much applause and headlines.. it'll cost a fortune, cost massive disruption, and the contractor will make a fortune in the process.

Good ole Ireland eh! :rolleyes:

(oh and I hear there ARE traffic lights due to be installed in Virginia at the Baileborough junction - about time too! Now if they could sort out that garage on the same corner.. the way idiots cut in and out of the forecourt there is lethal!)

not much they can do about that filling station. they gave planning permission for it in the first place. unless they bought it of the guy for a fortune and that'd cause some fuss!

anotherlostie

The Irish Times yesterday confirmed the M3 is opening on June 4th and that the toll would be €1.30, so it will be 10c less than originally proposed. Looking forward to using it now!

taffy1973

Signs last week put up on the M3 at fairyhouse said 1.90 for car and 3.80 for vans but were then covered with grey paint, think the 1.30 for car and 2.00 for van is only until the end of the year as a sweetener to reel you into using this road all the time, plus there are 2 tolls, one at fairyhouse and another north of kells so i am told, can anyone confirm this?????

cournioni

taffy1973 wrote: »

Signs last week put up on the M3 at fairyhouse said 1.90 for car and 3.80 for vans but were then covered with grey paint, think the 1.30 for car and 2.00 for van is only until the end of the year as a sweetener to reel you into using this road all the time, plus there are 2 tolls, one at fairyhouse and another north of kells so i am told, can anyone confirm this?????

Yes, that is true and is an absolute disgrace.

unclebill98

Yes its a farce tbh. I bet the aul truckers will still use the old road.... and rightly so.

So it will be over 23 euro to go from Cavan to Tallaght and back.

M three

You'll find that a number of changes will probably be made to the old road to "encourage" drivers to use the tolled motorway
- speed limits will be decreased on the old road
- more traffic lights and pedestrian crossings will be erected on the old route
- traffic lights on the old route will be programmed in favour of local roads, around navan etc
the street in kells will probably be dug up and redone. this needed to be done for years but couldnt due to volume of through traffic

all in all even allowing for toll, the vast majority of people will use the tolled motorway. truckers will save fuel on the motorway which in some way negates the toll charge

unclebill98

M three wrote: »

You'll find that a number of changes will probably be made to the old road to "encourage" drivers to use the tolled motorway
- speed limits will be decreased on the old road
- more traffic lights and pedestrian crossings will be erected on the old route
- traffic lights on the old route will be programmed in favour of local roads, around navan etc
the street in kells will probably be dug up and redone. this needed to be done for years but couldnt due to volume of through traffic

all in all even allowing for toll, the vast majority of people will use the tolled motorway. truckers will save fuel on the motorway which in some way negates the toll charge

A feck you, you right in what you say... after all your the roads named after you.

There is many sections of the road that need to be re-done, in Navan at the tracks is shocking.

munchkin_utd

unclebill98 wrote: »

Yes its a farce tbh. I bet the aul truckers will still use the old road.... and rightly so.

So it will be over 23 euro to go from Cavan to Tallaght and back.

Free though if you go via Mullingar (and Kinnegad town rather than tolled motorway bypass) and hit the M50 south of the toll bridge!!

With a truck theres no big time saving to be on a motorway seeing as they cant take advantage of the 120kmh anyhow.

M three

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Free though if you go via Mullingar (and Kinnegad town rather than tolled motorway bypass) and hit the M50 south of the toll bridge!!

With a truck theres no big time saving to be on a motorway seeing as they cant take advantage of the 120kmh anyhow.

Not sure about that. there's a time saving even for lorries using a motorway or bypass, far less or almost no slowing down at junctions, towns, schools, lights etc etc

our lorries go from dublin to cavan during work hours and average a speed of 35mph. they will average 60 mph on that route now with the M3

unclebill98

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Free though if you go via Mullingar (and Kinnegad town rather than tolled motorway bypass) and hit the M50 south of the toll bridge!!

With a truck theres no big time saving to be on a motorway seeing as they cant take advantage of the 120kmh anyhow.

yes, going far out of the way would be the best option..... :rolleyes:

_Kaiser_

Just under a week to go, and from looking at the thread over in Infrastructure it seems there's a fair bit to be done yet!

I'm predicting traffic in Virginia will be chaos when this opens. It's bad enough during school start/finish and peak commuting hours, but with all this motorway traffic about to be dumped on the town (where previously it would have been staggered by Dunshaughlin, Navan and Kells), I can already see the massive tailbacks that will result

Two tolls on the road is a massive disincentive - as has already been noted it's not too bad if you're only going as far as Navan say, but if you're going across the M50 as well the money will soon add up!

I'll be out next weekend for the spin anyway, but I'd imagine a lot of traffic will continue to use the old road once the novelty wears off and the costs go up.

unclebill98

People are going to avoid the M3 for the tolls. I'm looking forward to using it.

IIRC there is only 2 tolls from the M50 to the Jack Lynch tunnel and that road has got to be at least twice the lenght of the m3 if not longer, that is hit with 2 also. Somethings not right with that.

Its very unfair and its not barrier free!

Virginia will be a nightmere and as mentioned and it seems like a logical thing to do, extra traffic lights in Virginia are due and thats not going to help things.

Does any know where the 2nd toll is located? Can you head from Cavan to Kells and then join the M3 to avoid the 2nd toll?

Also, from a service point of view. I'm no longer going to come off at Navan to use the 24hr garage or the one outside Dunshaighlan, So its a petrol station before the M50 round about or then Cavan town. Not very good....

anotherlostie

Until services are built on the route, people should try and toll dodge when they need to get petrol/ pee/ eat. I'm sure the two stations at Maghera are delighted - they'll be the first stations after the Esso just before the M50 junction on the route. And I wonder will the likes of the Emo between Dunshaughlin and Clonee survive (it looks very isolated from driving on the final stretch of the motorway last night).

I think the tolling is fairer than on the M4, where you pay €2.90 at a single point, regardless of how long you're using the road for. This way you'll pay €1.30 if you only use some of it, and €2.60 if you travel the length of it. I haven't heard about these being 'special 2010 rates' anywhere other than here. I hope it's not true. As for toll dodging, I'm sure it will probably cost more in petrol sitting in traffic at lights in the various towns (not to mention crawling through Carnaross and Rathbeggan). They've already installed a pedestrian crossing by the Super Valu in Kells, and I'm sure more changes will follow to give preference to the crossing traffic. No doubt Virginia awaits Friday evening with interest!

unclebill98

Yeah, the garage at the end has started a small chip van..!!! Wishful thinking tbh!

Whats the price for vans? Under 3.5ton.

munchkin_utd

unclebill98 wrote: »

Yeah, the garage at the end has started a small chip van..!!! Wishful thinking tbh!

Whats the price for vans? Under 3.5ton.

goods vehicles up to 3.5 ton is 2 euro per toll

http://www.nra.ie/Publications/DownloadableDocumentation/PublicPrivatePartnership/file,17145,en.pdf

_Kaiser_

Just to note that they were out this evening between the Silver Tankard (Navan) and the new roundabout on the Meath/Cavan border taking down all the 100 km/h signs and replacing them with 80s

Not sure if these are "legal" yet but be warned!

unclebill98

Well in all fairness, I have clocked up over 200,000km on the N3 over the years and the people i see don't stick to the 100km limit anyhow.

Not long now...

Does anyone know from the start in Carnaross to the M50 interchange exactly how long it will take? Also, does the quicklane only allow cars? I drive a van...

M three

i wouldnt forsee an issue Unclebill driving a van in the quicklane. so long as you are going quick and not getting in someone else's way. as you point out no body pays any attention to the speeds on the N3.

Is new road definately opening this Friday after the local politicians stick their fat faces in front of the cameras? The NRA website is still saying July and the contractors website doesnt mention a specific open date.