Celebrations for opening of M3?

CUCINA

I see that towns in Co. Laois are organising a celebration of the opening of the M7/M8 roads that are bypassing their towns and villages, and it seems like a very good idea to me.
The message being given to passing motorists is along the lines of: "You may not have to drive through the town anymore, but you are always welcome to turn off the motorway and re-visit us for refreshment , food etc."
I assume that their chamber of commerce would have been involved in this.
I wonder if Navan Chamber of Commerce are considering doing something similar for the towns that are being by-passed in Meath, with the opening of the M3 next month? I sent an email to them earlier today, asking this question, to which I may or may not get a response.

gazzer

I cant wait to not have to drive through the 'town of the million traffic lights' aka Navan.

Dubh Geannain

Navan's kind of already by-passed or would through-passed be more suitable.
Coming from Dublin I think Maxol and the pub who's name escapes me is all you pass by.

Edit: Actually there was the recent addition of the retail park with B&Q and a few others in it. But there are no indigenous businesses there either.

greendom

Dubh Geannain wrote: »

Navan's kind of already by-passed or would through-passed be more suitable.
Coming from Dublin I think Maxol and the pub who's name escapes me is all you pass by.

Edit: Actually there was the recent addition of the retail park with B&Q and a few others in it. But there are no indigenous businesses there either.

If you're talking about the Blackwater retail park it's Woodies not B&Q so at least one Irish store anyway.

Skrynesaver

Looking forward to Dunshaughlin becoming a usable village. Should have been bypassed years ago - but that's a different discussion.

The possibility of walking across the road, getting out of a car park generally being able to use the village as though people were the reason for it's existence rather than the road is something to welcome.

greendom

Skrynesaver wrote: »

Looking forward to Dunshaughlin becoming a usable village. Should have been bypassed years ago - but that's a different discussion.

The possibility of walking across the road, getting out of a car park generally being able to use the village as though people were the reason for it's existence rather than the road is something to welcome.

I'd share your optimism if the M3 wasn't tolled

Froggyplait

The M3 goes through the field behind my house - Never thought I'd see the day, that the house we build 3miles from the town, out in the countryside, would have a motorway behind it. A motorway that we will NEVER have to use!
I think Dunshaughlin will be the only ones celebrating.

Lucifer-0

Froggyplait wrote: »

The M3 goes through the field behind my house - Never thought I'd see the day, that the house we build 3miles from the town, out in the countryside, would have a motorway behind it. A motorway that we will NEVER have to use!
I think Dunshaughlin will be the only ones celebrating.

Hope you don't mind me asking, but did you get some sort of compensation for that?

Froggyplait

No, unfortunately I don't own the field behind my house.

kc66

I live in Kells. I regularly travel to Navan and Dublin. Navan is roughly 10 miles away. Its a great thing to have a motorway closeby but unfortunately I will never use it. I pay so much tax on my car already without a few more euro every time I want to travel to Navan. I am sure there are many more like me.

mcwhirter

Might have celebrated if the road was free to use.

stomprockin

I also might have celebrated the construction of the motorway if it was no where near the Hill of Tara!

I heard yesterday that there is going to be two toll booths charging €1.40 for cars?

cournioni

stomprockin wrote: »

I also might have celebrated the construction of the motorway if it was no where near the Hill of Tara!

It's further away from the Hill of Tara than the old N3 road...

chewed

I'll only celebrate when I see the rail line built from Dublin to Navan!

Imbolc57

In the summer of 2007 I joined the protests against the M3 motorway cutting through the Tara Complex. On the protest lines and in the camps I heard about the dark machinations of Capitalism, the one and only reason accepted for the road’s construction.
Yet when I read the NRA, Meath County Council or Government reasons on why this road was being built an exploding population in Meath was always the main reason given.
The population of Meath was indeed exploding and it was caused solely by immigration.
However when I mentioned this on the protest lines, in the camps etc, it was rejected.
People had been programmed to believe that immigration would enhance us.
I did not believe this.
I told people instead that if they accepted the rise in population then they must accept the rise in road building, development etc, but it was inferred that this was racism.
The present jobs problem trots along this exact same line.
Unemployment has been caused as much by the dismantling of borders and mass immigration into here as by banking failure or corruption.
A look into any shop, building site or van will show this. There are still loads of jobs available but they pay only minimum wages; the result of a surplus of workers. Others gain the jobs that we can’t accept and we can’t accept them because they pay wages so low as to be worthless.
Deregulation and open borders leads to rising populations in lands with “opportunities” and long term these bring only problems for the natives of these same lands.
This is precisely what they have brought us.
Mass immigration leads to more roads and shanty towns, collapsing wages, lengthening dole queues and environmental destruction. These problems grin at us now regardless whither we look at them or look away.
Chants of racism cannot hide this just as we cannot hide the road before us now.
That’s what the M3 drives into our lives and that’s what the people who planed it want; a society and populace without roots which cannot resist it aims.
Those with vested interests hide this, those on the “Left” who oppose them hide this truth on rising population too. Both camps carry only dogma. Truth is the enemy of Dogma. We must realize that now!
We must realize too that its along these M3’s that our future is planned; a ribbon development that is for profit only; packed, multicultural and filled with struggles just to keep our heads above water and as long as one person accepts these low conditions then we all must accept them; we are all the same now, existing in the same market.
Our old green land has been sold for profit and for the first time nothing stands behind us.
More people is what we should fear because it will bring more of this, more of what we now have and less of what we once had. This will hold true. I believe that.
So the question that must be asked is this;
Can we really expect solutions to problems when we refuse to factor in the causes?

endplate

kc66 wrote: »

I live in Kells. I regularly travel to Navan and Dublin. Navan is roughly 10 miles away. Its a great thing to have a motorway closeby but unfortunately I will never use it. I pay so much tax on my car already without a few more euro every time I want to travel to Navan. I am sure there are many more like me.

You might as well use the new motorway cos if there isn't enough traffic feeding the tolls we the tax payer will have to pay a penalty to the toll company. Thanks to a very generous deal set up by our Government and this contract is for 45 years

MagicSean

kc66 wrote: »

I live in Kells. I regularly travel to Navan and Dublin. Navan is roughly 10 miles away. Its a great thing to have a motorway closeby but unfortunately I will never use it. I pay so much tax on my car already without a few more euro every time I want to travel to Navan. I am sure there are many more like me.

The €2.60 you pay for a trip will surely be offset by the fuel you conserve not sitting in traffic in Navan and Dunshaughlin. They are very cheap tolls so don't rule them out until you do your math.

kc66

k_mac wrote: »

The €2.60 you pay for a trip will surely be offset by the fuel you conserve not sitting in traffic in Navan and Dunshaughlin. They are very cheap tolls so don't rule them out until you do your math.

It definitely wouldn't cost an extra €2.60 in fuel going through Navan and Dunshaghlin. Of course there is a small saving in fuel. I usually don't find the traffic in either town that bad. I might be sitting at lights in Navan for a few minutes. The worst thing is sitting behind a line of cars going 45-50mph all the way to Dublin. I travelled from Kells to Navan yesterday along the M3 and have to say there was very little time saved either. I won't be using that stretch again.

Gurgle

I went from Trim to Blanchardstown (& back obviously) twice yesterday, once on the old road once on the motorway.
The M3 shaves a whopping 5 minutes off the journey, for €1.30.
That's probably the last time I ever use it.

I still think they should have just by-passed Kells, Navan and Dunshaughlin and built the interchange at the M50. Would have achieved the same, but knocked a huge amount of that 1bn bill.

dixiefly

Gurgle wrote: »

I went from Trim to Blanchardstown (& back obviously) twice yesterday, once on the old road once on the motorway.
The M3 shaves a whopping 5 minutes off the journey, for €1.30.
That's probably the last time I ever use it.

I still think they should have just by-passed Kells, Navan and Dunshaughlin and built the interchange at the M50. Would have achieved the same, but knocked a huge amount of that 1bn bill.[/QUOTE]

I agree and remember saying that quite a long time ago. The money saved could have gone towards improving some of the existing roads. Now we have a situation whe both M3 and N3 will need to be maintained and we still have no rail line or any prospect of getting one.

Bob_Hoskins

Gurgle wrote: »

I went from Trim to Blanchardstown (& back obviously) twice yesterday, once on the old road once on the motorway.
The M3 shaves a whopping 5 minutes off the journey, for €1.30.
That's probably the last time I ever use it.

I still think they should have just by-passed Kells, Navan and Dunshaughlin and built the interchange at the M50. Would have achieved the same, but knocked a huge amount of that 1bn bill.

Trim to Blanchardatown is a great road anyway, so i dont think there will be many drivers migrating from it to the M3. The good thing about the motorway is that none of the offramps are tolled, so in effect it is both a motorway and also a series of bypasses.

My main use will be between Junctions 6 and 9, may not be much of a time saver, but no tolls and easy driving.

Bobeagleburger

I won't miss driving through Kells and Navan.

AnCatDubh

Gurgle wrote: »

I went from Trim to Blanchardstown (& back obviously) twice yesterday, once on the old road once on the motorway.
The M3 shaves a whopping 5 minutes off the journey, for €1.30.
That's probably the last time I ever use it.

But I doubt that the M3 (remembering it is essentially the route of the N3 corridor) has any expectation of serving the people of Trim - that is; for Dublin bound traffic, other than to give them a much easier drive out of the city in the evening time (when travelling the route in the reverse).

Obviously source of Trim and destination Cavan and beyond, it will make sense to Trim people to hook up with it at some point but nah, no one in their right mind would consider it as a viable option on the Trim - Dublin route other than as you have done to try it out for the sake of it.

I still think they should have just by-passed Kells, Navan and Dunshaughlin and built the interchange at the M50. Would have achieved the same, but knocked a huge amount of that 1bn bill.

Yes, I understand your thinking but ultimately I think a single carriage on such a strategic travel corridor wouldn't suffice for the regions needs into the future, and given the improvements elsewhere in the country would surely have left the region at a significant competitive and quality of life disadvantage.

If you simply bypassed, then I think it would serve but relative short term purposes and you would then end up having funded bypasses which in fairness would make some impact but having still to build dual carriageway or motorway standard of road to serve the emerging need.

It is indeed complex.

AnCatDubh

dixiefly wrote: »

Now we have a situation whe both M3 and N3 will need to be maintained and we still have no rail line or any prospect of getting one.

True, but the M3 will be self supporting (via the toll and other contractual agreements) in terms of maintenance and the N3 will presumably require less maintenance as 65000 vehicles less will be using it every day (transferred to the M3 according to the NRA).

The rail is obviously badly needed as critical infrastructure but isn't it full steam ahead? If you travel the N3 you can see the park and ride at Dunboyne/Pace and isn't this due to be open in 2010 - It looks well advanced at the moment to pass it by - so this is an imminent option for commuters.

Then isn't the Navan extension of the line accepted as being economically viable and full steam ahead with route selection completed? Proposed opening of 2015?

(the above according to Transport 21 updated on 11th May, 2010)

Now I can accept that perhaps in the next budget it will kill everything that possibly moves in the country from an infrastructural development perspective if money is no longer available, however I do believe it is an important marker in the sand for people of the region to have it pronounced economically viable.

Imbolc57

We are facing a changing climate, collapsing bio diversity and the turning of a once green and pleasant land into a litter strewn, low cost suburbia.
We are broke, unemployed and in many ways unemployable; our wages are too high they say. Our children will not have the education they need, our old will die on trolley’s, and our teenagers will fester for years on the dole; but we build roads.
That’s what they did over the last fifteen years, that’s where our money went, that’s the template that is still being promoted. On this thread too.
If we continue we are told that in the end this will attract jobs, make life easier and in the end provide us with a quality of life…we were told that fifteen years ago too.
It beggars belief that people can still hold to and believe in all that which has just wrecked us.

greendom

Surely improving the country's infrastructure is a good thing though? Where would Dublin be without the M50 for example?

There is a lot wrong with the country at the moment and you've pointed to a fair few of the problems. But to blame them on the building of a few new roads is a bit unfair I believe.

CUCINA

greendom wrote: »

Surely improving the country's infrastructure is a good thing though? Where would Dublin be without the M50 for example?

There is a lot wrong with the country at the moment and you've pointed to a fair few of the problems. But to blame them on the building of a few new roads is a bit unfair I believe.

+1

With all the pessimism around, one of the positive things going on here is the improvement of our infrastructure. Efficient movement of people and goods is critical to our country.
If you are a sales rep living in Cork and the company HQ is in Dublin, you are going to spend a good deal less time travelling and hopefully have more time and energy to sell...
Another example might be if you live in, say, Naas, and you have to get a flight abroad, you now might consider Cork Airport, now much quicker to get to, and so avoid the hassle and time-wasting that you might endure if you flew out from Dublin.

golucky

I was on the bus on the N3 today and realised how strange it was to have a brand new road alongside the old one, when bypasses would have done just as good a job for most of it. There were only as many cars on the new road as the old one, certainly after navan anyway. I think it was a shame how protesters angry about the choice of a new motorway were called loonies when the truth is there really were alternatives to fixing the awful traffic problems of meath which were ignored. But anyone who went against the mainstream view was called a crank or a weirdo, its a pity the world works like that. And now you have the same tds who supported the motorway being built giving out about the tolls, as if they didnt know that when it was being built.

dixiefly

golucky wrote: »

I was on the bus on the N3 today and realised how strange it was to have a brand new road alongside the old one, when bypasses would have done just as good a job for most of it. There were only as many cars on the new road as the old one, certainly after navan anyway. I think it was a shame how protesters angry about the choice of a new motorway were called loonies when the truth is there really were alternatives to fixing the awful traffic problems of meath which were ignored. But anyone who went against the mainstream view was called a crank or a weirdo, its a pity the world works like that. And now you have the same tds who supported the motorway being built giving out about the tolls, as if they didnt know that when it was being built.

I agree. I also noticed that there are not all that many cars on the new road, definitely way less than the M1. but our clever govt have agreed to compensate the toll operators if they dont make enough.

Borderfox

Dunshaughlin is like a ghost town since the road opened, cant say that I have any need to use it though always found a better breed of driver on the N2 than the dimwits on the N3 (no offence intended to any N3 readers on the thread!! )