M11 - Arklow/Gorey Bypass

Victor

http://www.nra.ie/News/PressReleases/htmltext,4722,en.html

Gorey Bypass Opens 4 Months Ahead of Schedule
4th July, 2007

Drivers using the scenic route serving Dublin and Wexford have received good news following the announcement by the National Roads Authority (NRA) that a 13.5 km section of the N11 Arklow to Gorey scheme is to open today (4th July 2007) - four months early.

Road users will no longer have to endure lengthy delays through Gorey, which has for many years been one of the worst traffic congestion blackspots on the national road network according to Mr. Peter Malone, NRA Chairman.

Mr. Malone said,

“The bypass will improve the quality of life for the people of Gorey as they go about their daily business by removing 10,000 vehicles a day from the town. The entire 22 km scheme is scheduled to open in September and will provide an incentive for jobs and development as well as a boost for tourism along the east coast. The beauty of this scheme is that on completion motorists will be able to enjoy travelling on 200 km of continuous motorway from south of Gorey to the border north of Dundalk.”

The Minister for Transport, Mr. Noel Dempsey T.D., said,
“This is great news for the thousands of drivers who use this route every day. The bypass will improve journey times and free up the streets of Gorey. That is welcome news for everyone."

The first phase of the scheme, which opens today, stretches from Tinnock to the north of Gorey the existing N11 south of Clogh. It and will include new junctions at Raheenagurren, Tinnock as well as a tie in junction with the existing N11 south of Clough. Access to the holiday resorts along the north Wexford coast such as Courtown, Ballymoney and Ardamine be greatly improved.

The new bypass will typically take an average of 12 minutes off journey times.

Please click here for a map of the scheme in PDF.

OTHER SCHEMES ON THE N11

Major Schemes under Construction

* N11 Enniskerry Junction Improvement Works - commenced Q4 2006 for completion Q4 2007. Total scheme estimate is €9.12 million. (2007 allocation of €3.25 million increased to €4.4 million in April).
* N11 Kilpeddar Interchange - commenced Q4 2006 for completion Q2 2008. Total scheme estimate is €34.6 million. (2007 allocation of €8.5 million, increased to €12.5 million in April).


Major Schemes in Planning

*N11 Arklow/Rathnew – land acquisition continues to be progressed and the 2007 allocation is primarily for land purchase. (2007 allocation €7 million)
* N11 Clogh to South of Enniscorthy – at Planning and Design stage.

loyatemu

“The bypass will improve the quality of life for the people of Gorey as they go about their daily business by removing 10,000 vehicles a day from the town. The entire 22 km scheme is scheduled to open in September and will provide an incentive for jobs and development as well as a boost for tourism along the east coast. The beauty of this scheme is that on completion motorists will be able to enjoy travelling on 200 km of continuous motorway from south of Gorey to the border north of Dundalk.”

you'd think the head of the NRA would know that
a) most of the N11 is not motorway, and probably isn't going to be reclassified.
b) Rathnew - Arklow is still single carriageway with no start date for upgrading yet announced.

ciarsd

How is the the other areas north (Inch) and south (Camolin/Ferns) of new Gorey bypass faring out?

Has it simply pushed the congestion above and below Gorey or is there a nice flow of traffic now? Was stuck in Gorey (yet again) last sunday morning for 40 minutes northbound :mad:

PoolDude

Was on it this morning (7'ish) - cut about 5 minutes off my journey.

Was suprised at how windy the road was and you can see it is narrower. The real benefit will be when it connects to the Arklow bypass in 2 months time. I am also looking forward to not having to go thru Gorey tomorrow - Friday.

I am still frustrated by the fact the there is no commitment on the Rathnew - Arklow section.

Victor

Oh, I though it was connected to the Arklow Bypass already.

PoolDude

No. It starts at Clogh, south of Gorey and goes to just north of Gorey, you then exit and travel on the existing N11 to Inch and on up to the Arklow bypass. It will be fully opened before September 4th. The work on the tie in and the railway overbridge needed the extra time but still apparently under budget and 2 months ahead of the November deadline.

murphaph

ciarsd wrote:

How is the the other areas north (Inch) and south (Camolin/Ferns) of new Gorey bypass faring out?

Inch and Camolin and one horse towns with no important junctions and IIRC few of any traffic lights so they should be fine. Ferns is messy enough like Gorey however and it's surely time the N11 was given priority at that T junction where you turn right towards Dublin, just before the town centre. To be honest guys, even though the Arklow-Rathnew bit isn't ready for construction just yet, I wouldn't be complaining too loudly if I lived along the N11 given it is going to be toll free and certainly complete to south of Gorey before the (also toll free) M9. The bits that remain south of Gorey are decent enough too, at least you can pass for much of the stretch north out of Eniscorthy.

Victor

The M9 will eventually have a toll.

Bards

Victor wrote:

The M9 will eventually have a toll.

The M9 is being funded by European Union Structural Funds and the Irish Exchequer. No part of the M9 are PPP and thus will be toll free:D

murphaph

Really? Where is it planned to toll it? Even more reason for N11 users to be quietly happy they'll live along the only untolled DC interurban.

PoolDude

The Gorey bypass is strangely narrow and twisty for something that is built on a greenfield site.

Hopefully it will be 120 tough.

drfisher

This week's Gorey Guardian mentions 120km/h on the new bypass. I can't find the article in the online edition.

edit: Should have said that they mentioned that the speed limit woould be increased to 120km/h, but that it would remain 100km/h for the moment.

PoolDude

Yep - it is a headline on sister paper the Wexford People.

The Sisco Kid

PoolDude wrote:

The Gorey bypass is strangely narrow and twisty for something that is built on a greenfield site.

I was on it yesterday and was thinking the same. Did you notice how hilly it is as well - struck me that maybe it was a bit rushed? (not that I'm complaining!)