M11 - Arklow to Rathnew

Schadenfreudia

Not sure where to post this but the new bridge replacing the level crossing near Broombridge is now open.

It crosses the Royal Canal and the Sligo/commuter railway line - very impressive structure.

ITDept

Car on its roof near the Bee Hive this morning. Hopefully no one was badly hurt - it didn't look too nasty.

Coming back to the earlier discussion about finishing dates: I'd be hopeful for a finish around the end of June / start of July. As we get nearer to an election I'd imagine there are incentives in place to ensure the project is finished 'early and under budget', thereby prompting the electorate of Wexford and Wicklow to mark their cards accordingly

jd

ITDept wrote: »

Car on its roof near the Bee Hive this morning. Hopefully no one was badly hurt - it didn't look too nasty.

Coming back to the earlier discussion about finishing dates: I'd be hopeful for a finish around the end of June / start of July. As we get nearer to an election I'd imagine there are incentives in place to ensure the project is finished 'early and under budget', thereby prompting the electorate of Wexford and Wicklow to mark their cards accordingly

Election will be in April 2016, so the fickle electorate will have forgotten about it if it opens too soon

hairyslug

BoatMad wrote: »

i was looking at the construction this morning as some of the blacktop is now down. It seems in places to be very narrow for a 4 lane motorway

any comments ?

Was thinking the same myself but today they have started to lay the median barrier at the north crossover, once that's in you see how wide each side is going to be and makes it a lot clearer

BoatMad

hairyslug wrote: »

Was thinking the same myself but today they have started to lay the median barrier at the north crossover, once that's in you see how wide each side is going to be and makes it a lot clearer

I see that , It still seems narrow, for example I couldn't see any space for a hard shoulder in places

BowWow

Schadenfreudia wrote: »

Not sure where to post this but the new bridge replacing the level crossing near Broombridge is now open.

It crosses the Royal Canal and the Sligo/commuter railway line - very impressive structure.

Big thread here -

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056977650

secman

ITDept wrote: »

Car on its roof near the Bee Hive this morning. Hopefully no one was badly hurt - it didn't look too nasty.

Coming back to the earlier discussion about finishing dates: I'd be hopeful for a finish around the end of June / start of July. As we get nearer to an election I'd imagine there are incentives in place to ensure the project is finished 'early and under budget', thereby prompting the electorate of Wexford and Wicklow to mark their cards accordingly

pretty sure that at the outset the completion date was announced as Nov 15 and now seems to be Aug 15, so it comes in ahead of budget. This appears to be the general gist of all the projects now, push the completion date out by months at the sod turn and then announce the real date near completion, and back slaps all around the place.

spacetweek

secman wrote: »

pretty sure that at the outset the completion date was announced as Nov 15 and now seems to be Aug 15, so it comes in ahead of budget. This appears to be the general gist of all the projects now, push the completion date out by months at the sod turn and then announce the real date near completion, and back slaps all around the place.

Better to set an appropriate expectation with the public to allow for delays. Standard project management strategy, page 1 of the textbook.

jd

spacetweek wrote: »

Better to set an appropriate expectation with the public to allow for delays. Standard project management strategy, page 1 of the textbook.

Yup, there'll always be contingency built into any project plan. Weather hasn't been too bad either, so no major holdups there, I think.

TechnoFreek

Think there's a couple of new updates gone up on the n7n11 website.


Existing N11 from Scratenagh to Jack Whites Junction
Works to install a new 1800mm diameter piped culvert beneath the old N11 shall necessitate some temporary traffic management in March 2015.


Beehive Junction
Major traffic management, in order to construct a new roundabout, will be in place on the N11 in the vicinity of the Beehive Pub into Quarter 2, 2015.

The next phase of the Traffic Management at the new Beehive Junction (Phase 3 and 4) will be implemented in early March 2015. This will involve:

i) A temporary closure of the Coolbeg Road (L1113) will be required in order to complete the construction of the approach to the new roundabout.

ii) Traffic will be switched westwards onto the new road alignment and the partially constructed roundabout. This will also involve traffic using the new Coolbeg Road alignment and the new overbridge.

iii) The existing carriageway will then be free to allow construction of the remainder (eastern side) of the new roundabout and the new Wicklow Link (R751) alignment.

TechnoFreek

Supposedly the motorway will be complete within months.

http://www.wicklownews.net/2015/03/the-rathnew-arklow-stretch-of-the-m11-is-just-months-from-completion-winters/

Some updated photos in that link.

serfboard

TechnoFreek wrote: »

Supposedly the motorway will be complete within months.

http://www.wicklownews.net/2015/03/the-rathnew-arklow-stretch-of-the-m11-is-just-months-from-completion-winters/

Some updated photos in that link.

Thanks for posting this - some good photos there.

On the down-side, (and not having a go at you) there is some puke-inducing propaganda included in that article as well, which presumably comes from a Fine Gael press release:

When the government took up office in 2011, Ireland’s budget deficit was one of the widest in the world, greater than that of many ‘failed states’ in the developing world.

However, this Government took control of the crisis, and has brought our deficit under control.

It's one thing that the press release included this nonsense. It's another that it was not excluded from the web article.

@WicklowNews.net - Learn how to use "Cut" as well as "Copy and Paste", will ye?

BoatMad

The conventional exchequer deficit has been reduced thats a matter of fact and the Gov is on target to achieve the 3%, even if some people dont like the methods they took to achieve that.

it is a demonstrable fact.

veryangryman

BoatMad wrote: »

The conventional exchequer deficit has been reduced thats a matter of fact and the Gov is on target to achieve the 3%, even if some people dont like the methods they took to achieve that.

it is a demonstrable fact.

I think that the point is that there was no need to say how great the government is or is not (factually or otherwise) in an article about Road Building.

Reuben1210

If fine gael really want to plug their economic success in the run up to this election, they should get the contract signed and construction started on the M11 Enniscorthy- oylgate section! I'm sure Howlin has an interest in this!

jd

Reuben1210 wrote: »

If fine gael really want to plug their economic success in the run up to this election, they should get the contract signed and construction started on the M11 Enniscorthy- oylgate section! I'm sure Howlin has an interest in this!

There's another thread on this!
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055847297

BAM are the preferred tenderer and contracts should be signed soon enough, hopefully.

I'm sure Paul Kehoe has an even greater interest!

BoatMad

Reuben1210 wrote: »

If fine gael really want to plug their economic success in the run up to this election, they should get the contract signed and construction started on the M11 Enniscorthy- oylgate section! I'm sure Howlin has an interest in this!

in hand it seems, as is the New Ross bypass

anything else you want :rolleyes:

serfboard

Reuben1210 wrote: »

If fine gael really want to plug their economic success in the run up to this election, they should get the contract signed and construction started on the M11 Enniscorthy- oylgate section! I'm sure Howlin has an interest in this!

I expect to see a raft of new signings before the next election. (In particular, keep an eye out for Castlebar->Westport). After all, we not only had a signing, we had a sod-turning on Gort-Tuam before the last local election - (almost) a full year before a sod was actually turned!

Reuben1210

"BAM are the preferred tenderer and contracts should be signed soon enough, hopefully.

I'm sure Paul Kehoe has an even greater interest!" - Anto O'Brien.

Cool...had a read through it...looking good....then after that, the final link would be oilgate - Rosslare. However that has long since been suspended...but there was a mention by Joan Burton a couple of day s ago about finishing the Rosslare route, and M20 etc to complete our road network...

secman

Major tail back on n11 this evening, due to a stop and go at beehive. The likes of which will be short term.....

vickers209

New section at beehive open today including the bridge .
1 bad thing i noticed is that they have moved the turn for wicklow further south past beehive and there's no lane for cars coming from arklow to turn right so creates a backlog of cars behind while waiting for a gap to turn.

mackerski

vickers209 wrote: »

New section at beehive open today including the bridge .

Here's the layout as it is now.

serfboard

mackerski wrote: »

Here's the layout as it is now.

Fair play to you, mackerski - quick off the mark as usual!

Is the roundabout on the right due to open before the motorway is complete?

Reuben1210

serfboard wrote: »

Fair play to you, mackerski - quick off the mark as usual!

Is the roundabout on the right due to open before the motorway is complete?

They are working very fast to get this junction complete, so I reckon that that roundabout willbe complete in a matter of weeks, before they start the work on the merge with the m11 a little farther north, so as to minimise delays...

mackerski

serfboard wrote: »

Fair play to you, mackerski - quick off the mark as usual!

Is the roundabout on the right due to open before the motorway is complete?

You'd have to assume so, they have plenty of time and without it the R751 tie-in is very awkward. But it's hard to say how soon that might be. The eastern half hasn't even been begun.

vickers209

was told 2nd hand from someone working on the site that he would be surprised if it wasn't open by June with only tidying up left to be done.

vickers209

Motorists have been left confused by the new layout on the N11 at the Beehive junction which came into effect over the weekend.

HGV’s coming from north Wicklow, cannot turn left at the Beehive until the end of April, despite warnings on approach traffic has been held up causing delays while trucks have had to reverse back out on to the Main N11.

Vehicle’s traveling from the south and wish to exit for Wicklow town no longer have the slip lane to turn right, causing delays.

One motorist who contacted Wicklownews said “It is an accident waiting to happen, I was turning right to go to Wicklow town on Sunday and held up all the traffic, I dread to think what it is going to be like in the rush hour mornings.”

http://www.wicklownews.net/2015/03/confusion-at-new-traffic-layout-on-n11-at-beehive/

Poochie05

I know it might be a bit longer, but can vehicles wanting to go to Wicklow not continue a little further and use the Rathdrum Junction for the few weeks that are involved?

PoolDude

Looks like good progress over the past few weeks.

I suspect next major step in terms of current traffic layout will be to remove the current crossover points where mainline traffic is going across the surface of the actual motorway at the Arklow end and again after Jack Whites.

I'd guess this needs both flyovers completed so they can run traffic up to the one at the Arklow end on the West side, use it to cross over to the east side, follow the old road up the east side till the flyover after Jack Whites and cross back to the west side at that one. This will allow them end to end access to finish the motorway.

The other big piece of work will be tie in's at either end but I'd say the north end is more challenging, not sure how they will work that as seems like a big drop from current to new road in terms of heights

josip

Seeing the new road for the first time in daylight since last autumn, I was also surprised by the apparent narrowness until I realised that the carriageways will be separated by just a concrete barrier with no median stip. So the new section of road can't be easily converted to 3 lane without major rework of junctions/bridges? Which I initially thought was short sighted.
But the Glen of the Downs-Kilmacanogue-Bray section is also limited to 2 lanes with little prospect of upgrade to 3 lanes.
So is the reality that the wide median strip from Newtown Mount Kennedy to the Beehive is an expensive overdesign that will never be needed?