Access to the city via M20 to close 21st June.

xi

Were you sent here by the devil?

kojack

xi wrote: »

Were you sent here by the devil?

No, good sir, I'm on the level.

source

The ring came off my pudding can.

Insect Overlord

Take my pen-knife, my good man!

xi

I say its Spiringfeild's only choice

the drifter

Throw up your hands and raise your voice!

zuroph

well this thread became de-railed...

Insect Overlord

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q44IDYpEeso

Raiser

Closest Limerick ever came to the Monorail was the €83,000,000 the City Council spent on their "Underground System"

- But its all water under the Sewer now........

jonski

A couple of weeks into this and at a time of the year when you would expect traffic to be at it's lightest , average traffic from the cross at green park to the Ballysimon round about seems to be a lot heavier . I can only speak for that section as I use it a couple of times a day .

zuroph

tunnel opens tomorrow so the rumour goes.

steveon

Its in this weeks Limerick Post newspaper that the Tunnel will not be open tommorrow...

Raiser

zuroph wrote: »

tunnel opens tomorrow so the rumour goes.

steveon wrote: »

Its in this weeks Limerick Post newspaper that the Tunnel will not be open tommorrow...

Folks am reading this on my Phone while driving towards the Tunnel at ~160 kmph

- Could I get clarification please? :eek:

P.S. Use a large font, am a bit tipsy.

zuroph

sure go for it ans swerve for the concrete bollards.

the drifter

steveon wrote: »

Its in this weeks Limerick Post newspaper that the Tunnel will not be open tommorrow...

Really? i asked a staff member there yesterday and they didnt know...mmm maybe they dont read there own shi*e

langdang

Raiser wrote: »

Folks am reading this on my Phone while driving towards the Tunnel at ~160 kmph

- Could I get clarification please? :eek:

P.S. Use a large font, am a bit tipsy.

You're in the wrong carriageway again Jim McDaid, you'd think you'd have learned your lesson the first time!

Gadgie

Article in the Limerick Leader about reopening the link:

Demand for Childers Road M20 link to be reopened – Limerick councillor
https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/home/292705/demand-for-childers-road-m20link-to-be-reopened-limerick-councillor.html

I've lived in Limerick for a few years, and always thought it strange that there was a road on to the M20 from Childer's Road, but not off it. I didn't realise that there had been one previously. I was curious when/why it closed, and found this thread.

The slip road from the M7 on to the M20 is currently blocking a potential exit from the M20 to Childer's Road, but I think the solution would be to remove this slip road and have vehicles from the M7 join the M20 via the roundabout by Carew Park. The exit from the M20 could then be connected to this roundabout also.

Vanquished

Gadgie wrote: »

Article in the Limerick Leader about reopening the link:

Demand for Childers Road M20 link to be reopened – Limerick councillor
https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/home/292705/demand-for-childers-road-m20link-to-be-reopened-limerick-councillor.html

I've lived in Limerick for a few years, and always thought it strange that there was a road on to the M20 from Childer's Road, but not off it. I didn't realise that there had been one previously. I was curious when/why it closed, and found this thread.

The slip road from the M7 on to the M20 is currently blocking a potential exit from the M20 to Childer's Road, but I think the solution would be to remove this slip road and have vehicles from the M7 join the M20 via the roundabout by Carew Park. The exit from the M20 could then be connected to this roundabout also.

That sounds like an horrendous mess and a recipe for disaster. If we've learned anything in this country from previous short-sighted infrastructural planning mistakes. It's that cheaping out and using roundabouts to regulate slip roads instead of grade separation is a really bad idea

Access to the city centre via the Carew Park link road was established with the opening of the M20 in 2001. A large roundabout was added on the site of what is now the Rosbrien interchange when phase 1 of the southern ring opened in 2004. This was then removed when phase 2 was completed in 2010. At this point the city centre access was also removed. It was the right call as the Carew Park link road was and is not a suitable access route for exiting motorway traffic. It's short and peppered with access points to business and residential premises. It also ends at a T junction with the Childer's Road. Back in the mid 2000s there was massive congestion here with traffic backed up on to the M20. The situation would be even worse now with higher traffic volumes. It would be madness to re-establish that link. This just smacks of ignorant, ill informed populism by those Councillor's in that article.

wherearewe45

Gadgie wrote:

I've lived in Limerick for a few years, and always thought it strange that there was a road on to the M20 from Childer's Road, but not off it. I didn't realise that there had been one previously. I was curious when/why it closed, and found this thread.

I've been in Limerick 4 years, it's not a road I'd ever take and by coincidence, only figured out yesterday that it doesn't exist. Found it very strange

Mc Love

Vanquished wrote: »

That sounds like an horrendous mess and a recipe for disaster. If we've learned anything in this country from previous short-sighted infrastructural planning mistakes. It's that cheaping out and using roundabouts to regulate slip roads instead of grade separation is a really bad idea

Access to the city centre via the Carew Park link road was established with the opening of the M20 in 2001. A large roundabout was added on the site of what is now the Rosbrien interchange when phase 1 of the southern ring opened in 2004. This was then removed when phase 2 was completed in 2010. At this point the city centre access was also removed. It was the right call as the Carew Park link road was and is not a suitable access route for exiting motorway traffic. It's short and peppered with access points to business and residential premises. It also ends at a T junction with the Childer's Road. Back in the mid 2000s there was massive congestion here with traffic backed up on to the M20. The situation would be even worse now with higher traffic volumes. It would be madness to re-establish that link. This just smacks of ignorant, ill informed populism by those Councillor's in that article.

Traffic being routed through greenfields and Dooradoyle would decrease if that route would reopen. It would be brilliant to see it happen.

jaxxx

Mc Love wrote: »

Traffic being routed through greenfields and Dooradoyle would decrease if that route would reopen. It would be brilliant to see it happen.

I'm not sure who's worse, the idiots who developed the plans for it or the idiots who approved those same plans ('idiots' being undeservedly kind...). I've no hopes to see it corrected anyway.

flyingsnail

I would love to see the link reopened, the more options/exits from the motorway people have the more spread-out the traffic will be, I wouldn’t see it as the endpoint of the motorway just another option depending on where you wanted to go and it could take traffic from the Rossbiren, Dooradoyle and Ballysimon exits depending on where people want to go in the city.

Vanquished wrote: »

Access to the city centre via the Carew Park link road was established with the opening of the M20 in 2001. A large roundabout was added on the site of what is now the Rosbrien interchange when phase 1 of the southern ring opened in 2004. This was then removed when phase 2 was completed in 2010. At this point the city centre access was also removed. It was the right call as the Carew Park link road was and is not a suitable access route for exiting motorway traffic. It's short and peppered with access points to business and residential premises. It also ends at a T junction with the Childer's Road. Back in the mid 2000s there was massive congestion here with traffic backed up on to the M20. The situation would be even worse now with higher traffic volumes. It would be madness to re-establish that link. This just smacks of ignorant, ill informed populism by those Councillor's in that article.

You cant compare traffic that exited at childers road then with what is there now. Back when the link was open it was the natural end of the motorway if you were going anywhere except to the east/ towards Dublin, there was no motorway across to the dock road or through the tunnel so you had to exit at childers road to go though the city. For traffic heading in that direction It was sign posted at J3 Raheen to exit there and go via the southcourt - Dock road but that was very much the long way round and had its own traffic problems.

Cookiemunster

There is no way, outside of demolishing and rebuilding the current junction at the cost of millions and 1-2 years of traffic chaos, to reinstate the M20 to Childers Rd movement. And even if it was possible I 100% agree with vanquished that it would be a terrible idea for all the reasons that he stated.

Zoney

It would be handy if there was a separate link road from M20 J2 that allowed traffic get from dooradoyle to that roundabout at roxboro directly. Would be a far safer way to get onto M7 East bound from dooradoyle too then, instead of joining M20 just to get into right lane for a slow loop with a short merge on overbridge.

Similarly it would be good to allow M7 West traffic get to M20 J2 without actually going on the M20, ie have a link road on that side of M20 J1/2 as well.

Wouldn't make sense to open M20 J1 to roxboro directly, this would just exacerbate traffic issues.

Gadgie

Cookiemunster wrote: »

There is no way, outside of demolishing and rebuilding the current junction at the cost of millions and 1-2 years of traffic chaos, to reinstate the M20 to Childers Rd movement. And even if it was possible I 100% agree with vanquished that it would be a terrible idea for all the reasons that he stated.

I don't think it would require that much work. My suggestion is to remove the slip road from the M7 to the M20 (marked in red on the attached image) and add a road from the M20 to the roundabout by Carew Park (marked in green on image). During building of the new road, traffic from the M7 could still join the M20 using the roundabout.

Brennans Row

One could also solve this problem with a classical cloverleaf interchange if the width of the space under the M7 flyover can accommodate 3 lanes in both directions.

CORK (M20) to GALWAY (M18)
CORK (M20) to ROXBORO (N20) extend road from under the M7 flyover to Carew Park roundabout
CORK (M20) to DUBLIN (M7)

GALWAY (M18) to ROXBORO (N20)
GALWAY (M18) to DUBLIN (M7)
GALWAY (M18) to CORK (M20) replace existing slipway with a new one (upper right part of cloverleaf)

ROXBORO (N20) to DUBLIN (M7)
ROXBORO (N20) to CORK (M20)
ROXBORO (N20) to GALWAY (M18)

DUBLIN (M7) to CORK (M20)
DUBLIN (M7) to GALWAY (M18)
DUBLIN (M7) to ROXBORO (N20) connect via a new slipway (lower left part of cloverleaf)

The slipway serving the CORK (M20) to GALWAY (M18) would also have to be pulled outwards, in order to make space to insert the section of the lower left part of cloverleaf.

Mc Love

Cloverleaf could definitely work here - the gombeens in the council probably never heard of one though

gryff

Dont think the Clover leaf would work here because you will have merging traffic and leaving traffic all jockying to join/leave in the same few hundred metres. For example if you are driving towards Dublin and want to exit for Cork. Coming to the junction you will have the M20 merging lane impeding your path as you try to exit a little further on for Cork...

If you were designing from scratch you would extend the cloverleaf to allow both passages of traffic.. perhaps it possible in the existing setup but it looks really tight.Maybe a speed reduction to 80kph might do it..

I remember btw when the road was first mooted there was a lot of local objection to allowing access to the town from the M20 here. Clearly people hadn't thought of the downside. I wonder is there any scope to allow M20 traffic go onto the M7 northbound and form a new exit at the Southhill flyover a little further up the road ?. This would bring traffic through Southill up to the Roxborough roundabout...

Mc Love

gryff wrote: »

I wonder is there any scope to allow M20 traffic go onto the M7 northbound and form a new exit at the Southhill flyover a little further up the road ?. This would bring traffic through Southill up to the Roxborough roundabout...

Not a bad idea - the road is certainly wider than the rosbrien road.

jonski

gryff wrote: »

I wonder is there any scope to allow M20 traffic go onto the M7 northbound and form a new exit at the Southhill flyover a little further up the road ?. This would bring traffic through Southill up to the Roxborough roundabout...

Mc Love wrote: »

Not a bad idea - the road is certainly wider than the rosbrien road.

Surely it would be a bad idea ? , it's residential both sides of the road .

I doubt there would be very much support from people in the general area ( Rathbane, Southhill, Carew Park, Janesboro ) for either idea .