M1 New Section of D3 (three lanes) at Swords

Carawaystick

kravmaga wrote: »

M1 is 80kmph from Port tunnel section to Airport interchange and has been set for a reason by the relevant authorities.

What's the reason though? The limits 60 from the Airport east to the mainline, and that's definitely not for safety.

The limit is set by Co Councillors, not all of whom may be as pure as the snow. You may have heard one former councillor, the convict Raphael Burke? Or Clare Daly who served her time in the Joy also? Alan Mahon is also looking into certain dodgy dealings in the Fingal area by elected representatives.

Bluetonic

kravmaga wrote: »

M1 is 80kmph from Port tunnel section to Airport interchange and has been set for a reason by the relevant authorities.

It's set to that limit due to Port Tunnel traffic trying to get from right to left, M50 traffic trying to get from left to right combined with airport traffic from the M1 trying to get from right to left at the same time i.e there is a significant amount of merging at three points. Shortcuts in the road program have lead to this and I don't see it's relevance to the discussion on the speed limit at the M1 works.

kravmaga

Bluetonic wrote: »

I would imagine there have been no major pile ups yet as doing 120 through this section is quite safe.

It's not doing 120 or 60 that cause pile ups, it's stupidity. You still get that no matter what the speed limit, and whilst speed does decrease reaction times it doesn't detract from the point.

Just to make the point again I cannot agree with you that 120km/h is a safe speed during the construction works on the M1.

Of course speed decreases reaction time.

The amount of idiots cutting across from the fast lane to lane 1 NB to exit at Drynam up-ramp at the last minute is staggering.

So in my opinion 120km/h in a 60km/h Construction zone is crazy, its your licence after all.

sk8board

back on topic,

does anyone know what the expected completion date is for this project?

I seem to remember Feb being mentioned back at the start. from what I could see yesterday, they have pretty much cleared all clay from the site, and are putting down the foundations for the extra lane

Bluetonic

kravmaga wrote: »

So in my opinion 120km/h in a 60km/h Construction zone is crazy, its your licence after all.

Of course you're fully entitled to your opinion, however the fact remains that even with people still driving at 120km/h and higher there has been no increase whatsoever in the number of accidents in this spot.

If it was crazy then surely there would have been a significant number of serious, if not fatal, accidents?

Bluetonic

sk8board wrote: »

does anyone know what the expected completion date is for this project?

Only FCC will be able to give you that answer.

They haven't even moved all the services yet for the full length southbound. Northbound only the top soil has been removed.

cargo

Bluetonic wrote: »

Only FCC will be able to give you that answer.

They haven't even moved all the services yet for the full length southbound. Northbound only the top soil has been removed.

Looks like a fleet of trucks got rid of all the piled up spoil in a day NB. It's all back down to the hardcore level they were at before they started digging SB and piling all the waste on the NB side. They then prepared a single strip of SB for filling back in and were busy compacting and putting down levels at the end of last week. This am the first paver was on-site starting to lay the CBM layer I think it's know as. (wet-mix type material).

Looks like they are going to finish a SB lane and move traffic about. Can't see any other reason for doing it this way as it looks quite awkward to work in a confined area like this.

Pity we can't get updates on it as I'd say they are working towards some new traffic layouts in the next few weeks.

celticbest

cargo wrote: »

Looks like a fleet of trucks got rid of all the piled up spoil in a day NB. It's all back down to the hardcore level they were at before they started digging SB and piling all the waste on the NB side. They then prepared a single strip of SB for filling back in and were busy compacting and putting down levels at the end of last week. This am the first paver was on-site starting to lay the CBM layer I think it's know as. (wet-mix type material).

Passing by NB last night it looks like all the Muck is now gone that was piled up behind the barriers on that side of the motorway. Lets hope they start digging for the Third lane extension NB soon.

cargo wrote: »

Looks like they are going to finish a SB lane and move traffic about. Can't see any other reason for doing it this way as it looks quite awkward to work in a confined area like this.

There is plenty of room to do both extra lane at the same time on this section of the M1, just think back to how they did the M50.

cargo wrote: »

Pity we can't get updates on it as I'd say they are working towards some new traffic layouts in the next few weeks.

+1 the updates.....or lack of them is really disappointing although I'd say the traffic layout will remain as is 2+2 until the final top is being applied in both directions which I would guess is still a bit away.

cargo

They had started digging the NB out this am when I was heading down and were still progressing with it when I was passing abck at 6pm this evening.

Yeah i was looking at it wrong for some reason and had a different idea as to how they might e doing it but no you are right CB, they are just simply digging out a new lane into the central median both NB and SB.

SB now had the CBM layer about 70% of way (as of 8am this am) and NB is dug out about 25% of way.

I'd expect CBM to be finished on SB and NB to be dug out by the end of the week.

For some reason I thought they'd need to do the full width of the median and put a concrete barrier down the middle (aka the M50 upgrade).

cargo

Anyone have anymore progress reports for the end of the week? Are they finished laying CBM SB or digging NB yet?

Carawaystick

I'd say the CBM southbound is complete and there's some tarmac* layer (sub wearing course) down for about half of the way on the southbound side, starting from the northbound end

* It's black and has an oily sheen, unsure what it;s called exactly, but it;s laid on the cbm



Is cbm a dry mix concrete? with portland cement or some similar cement mixed with aggregate (gravel)

cargo

Carawaystick wrote: »

I'd say the CBM southbound is complete and there's some tarmac* layer (sub wearing course) down for about half of the way on the southbound side, starting from the northbound end

* It's black and has an oily sheen, unsure what it;s called exactly, but it;s laid on the cbm



Is cbm a dry mix concrete? with portland cement or some similar cement mixed with aggregate (gravel)

Well whatever the black stuff with the oily sheen is there's 2 layers of it SB now!!

Yeah I think thats what the CBM is or something similar. There was a load f info from a roads guy in one of the Mway threads a while ago while the building was in full swing. He even posted up vids of the machine in action.

NB digging well progressed also.

Carawaystick

I was heading southbound at half 8 this tonight, and it seemed that the asphalt was down all the way to the roundabout at the M1/M1 junction southbound. and Northbound there was either the subbase hardcore or cbm down - i was dark so I can't be totally sure
Dunno how the frost or salt will affect laying the higher courses up to wearing course and if the whole carriageways will be resurfaced.

L1011

Can't lay the asphalt concrete unless its slightly above freezing and getting warmer so the layable time per day is reduced at the moment.

Amtmann

Carawaystick wrote: »

* It's black and has an oily sheen, unsure what it;s called exactly, but it;s laid on the cbm

cargo wrote: »

Well whatever the black stuff with the oily sheen is there's 2 layers of it SB now!!

I think it's bitumen, seen here. It's sprayed on the CBM like a slurry.

Carawaystick

Tremelo wrote: »

I think it's bitumen, seen here. It's sprayed on the CBM like a slurry.

THere's another layer of asphalt on southbound now and it's looking closer to getting the wearing coarse type of height difference between the new and old sections.

cargo

Carawaystick wrote: »

THere's another layer of asphalt on southbound now and it's looking closer to getting the wearing coarse type of height difference between the new and old sections.

Thats the 2 layers I was referring to in the post above. It's been down a few days. About 50mm left now for the wearing course I presume.

Still just compacted on the NB side and not fully dug out yet. Bit messy as they come back towards the airport but they seemed to be going at it yesterday evening so hopefully they'll get the rest of the digging done over the weekend.

Carawaystick

half of the southbound is now laid to the layer just below wearing coarse.

Amtmann

I presume they'll be installing a concrete barrier to fully replace the grass median?

amacachi

How far out is the extra lane going, just the airport junction?

Carawaystick

amacachi wrote: »

How far out is the extra lane going, just the airport junction?

THe extra lane is going from the Airport north to just beyond the Holywell Junction, i.e. about 2km

And vice versa on the southbound direction.


There will be about 4m or so median between the carriageways after the extra lane is built, so don't know about what barrier type Tremelo.

amacachi

Carawaystick wrote: »

THe extra lane is going from the Airport north to just beyond the Holywell Junction, i.e. about 2km

And vice versa on the southbound direction.

Ah yeah sorry, wasn't thinking right, which is the Holywell Junction?

Carawaystick

It's the restricted south access/exit only junction, I guess it's junction4. It's the one built some years after the M1 fully opened. The dual carriageway it leads to/from is the r125.

amacachi

Carawaystick wrote: »

It's the restricted south access/exit only junction, I guess it's junction4. It's the one built some years after the M1 fully opened. The dual carriageway it leads to/from is the r125.

Ah right. If the extra lane southbound ran from the Donabate junction it'd leave the road perfect IMO.

Jayuu

Carawaystick wrote: »

It's the restricted south access/exit only junction, I guess it's junction4. It's the one built some years after the M1 fully opened. The dual carriageway it leads to/from is the r125.

Junction 3 actually.
Junction 4 is Rush/Lusk/Skerries (this is where the widening should have gone to!).

cargo

Carawaystick wrote: »

half of the southbound is now laid to the layer just below wearing coarse.

Almost there SB now. Working on the end / rejoin of the lanes this am. A lot of clean-up after happening along the works also.

Tremelo wrote: »

I presume they'll be installing a concrete barrier to fully replace the grass median?

Don't think so as it's very wide and they haven't removed the soil from the centre of the works. In fact they look to have raised the level of the centre and have shaped it off over the past few days on the SB side (still digging NB). At this stage I'd say a steel armco along the edge of the new road is more likely. The lane markings will be back in a bit from it then.

Must go look at some of the plans that were on this thread earlier.

Yeah if you take a look at the very first post in the thread you'll even see mention of the proposed barrier in the text without looking at the drawings.. Similar to what i mentioned above except it's a concrete barrier at the edge of the new lanes so very similar to parts of the new M50 you'll be travelling beside a new concrete barrier and the traffic on the other carriageway will be behind another concrete barrier with a big empty gap (with grass presumably) between you.

KevR

Would it not be really difficult to maintain/cut grass if it is inbetween 2 concrete barriers? They'll have to leave a few gaps in one of the barriers to facilitate cutting or just not have any grass in the median at all..

celticbest

If they go with the original plans attached below the central median behind the barriers will vary in width although the black Top will go beyond the barrier by 0.10m (10cm's), it looks as if they will use the same style concrete barrier as is use on the M50 & other recently opened Motorways.



It looks like the NB side will be left with a gap between the concrete & the wire barriers to allow grass cutting machinery access if required while the SB carriageway barrier will be tied into the existing wire central median that is currently in place.

BMD

When is this work due to finish and why are they not going out as far as donabate? I heard it was until May but sure it looks like its almost done

Irish and Proud

BMD wrote: »

When is this work due to finish and why are they not going out as far as donabate? I heard it was until May but sure it looks like its almost done

I haven't posted on this thread for a while, but looking at the descriptions here of where the works are at, I guess that the job will be done well before April let alone May. I saw the widening being done on the M1 NB (Jct 1 to 2) and it was done very quickly if I remember correctly.

However, I do agree that the M1 should be widened to as far as Lissenhall at the very least - it should be made a priority in the programme for the next government. I had started travelling by bus when the Malahide Rail Viaduct collapsed, and continued to do so even after the viaduct re-opened, but I got a bit fed up of sitting in bumper to bumper traffic at Lissenhall and started using the train again - in fact, I had a clear view this morning of the M1 viaduct (from the Malahide Rail Viaduct) in the distance and could see very clearly, trucks inching along as we sped by!

If Labour gets any idea that this is a good thing as it will encourage public transport usage, then they should travel by train to see how crowded the 8 car trains become during the morning peak! Also, it discourages travel by bus (even the old road (R132) is bumper to bumper in places) and thereby undermines competition in the public transport sector. If they are afraid that building more roads would mean more cars (I doubt there would be much of that in this climate! ), then the extra M1 lane SB could be reserved for buses during the AM peak - this would require an 80k limit and overhead electronic traffic management systems. The same could apply NB during the PM peak.

Regards!