N17 Roadworks

Curious Geroge

Came through claregalway this morning and there is about 4 miles of roadworks starting between claregalway and the rugby club. Any idea whats happening and how long it will last ?

Western501

I think work is due to the subsidence on the hardshoulder on left hand side on the way into town from Cregboy junction to near Corrinthans rugby club. This work badly needs to be done

I saw those bollards over the weekend, and I was assuming that work would start immediately, but so far nothing!!!! I'm not sure what is happening now.

yeehaw

There is very little tar on what was originally the hard shoulder. When the island was created there, the road markings were moved but that hard shoulder, like every hard shoulder, was never intended to carry high volumes of traffic. There is a foot of tar under the hatched area in the middle of the road.

confuseddotcom

Yeah and back-to-school time is approaching .....

Gridlock awaits us .....

And now I have a picture of the dark guy with cap and dreadlocks saying "It's total gridlock man" from that tv. ad in my head!!!

WallyGUFC

These cones are gonna be pretty permanent. Apparently the council put them there, new layout or whatever, because they havn't the budget to actually fix the road. The layout is there to cover their asses in case of a crash because it's directing you away from the crappy bit of road.

Sponge Bob

WallyGUFC wrote: »

These cones are gonna be pretty permanent. Apparently the council put them there, new layout or whatever, because they havn't the budget to actually fix the road.

You are right Wally. The council have not tendered for any work on the N17 this year apart from an environmental impact statement on the claregalway bypass...which will simply be used as an excuse to do nothing before 2012.

The cones will cause so much grief that they might get a few quid to resurface and remove them next year, or maybe not.

This is the tender.

http://etenders.gov.ie/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=MAY118743

Private Joker

It has been tendered for afaik. And the council aren't liable for damage to cars unless the car is damaged on a section of road that was repaired.

The real traffic is going to come when they start work on the Claregalaway bridge http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/28818

I heard it may be closed for up to 3 weeks. :eek:

Mr Keek

Heard on the Radio, G Bay FM on the way home today that a tender has been found for this project and work starts in two weeks approx!

With the Works starting on the Bridge in Claregalway and now this bit of road works, I'm seriously considering moving into Galway for a month! Getting to work in gonna be fun.

*Runs to update Playlists on iPod*

aoraki

Anybody any idea when the works on the Claregalway bridge will commence? I had heard that it was meant to be the 3rd week in September, but we're in that now and no sign of them starting.

Curious Geroge

Roadworks finally start 5 weeks on..

aoraki, have'nt heard of any works.. whats the plan ? wider, higher, river work..

aoraki

The plan (allegedly) is to add a flood eye under that bridge in the event of floods of the magnitude of Nov 2009 happening again. To this end they have already demolished the old handball court that was on the opposite side of the road to the old Nine Arches bridge. The flood eye work was meant to start in the third week of September.

There was talk that they were going to close the bridge entirely for up to 3 weeks in order to get the work done and dusted, but I think that was knocked on the head. So when they get around to doing it, they will probably close one lane at a time and do the work that way. Of course, that's assuming that they start at all. The way this country is at the moment, it wouldn't surprise me if it was cancelled at short notice due to lack of funds.

steamboat

aoraki wrote: »

The plan (allegedly) is to add a flood eye under that bridge in the event of floods of the magnitude of Nov 2009 happening again. To this end they have already demolished the old handball court that was on the opposite side of the road to the old Nine Arches bridge. The flood eye work was meant to start in the third week of September.

There was talk that they were going to close the bridge entirely for up to 3 weeks in order to get the work done and dusted, but I think that was knocked on the head. So when they get around to doing it, they will probably close one lane at a time and do the work that way. Of course, that's assuming that they start at all. The way this country is at the moment, it wouldn't surprise me if it was cancelled at short notice due to lack of funds.

So, the Big Dig in Tuam, bridge works at claregalway and more roadworks the other side of claregalway... is this some kind of cruel social experiment or what??:D

BTW... what exactly is a flood eye - Google didn't bring up much

Edit... my google search did find this article from July...
Traffic chaos predicted as Claregalway bridge to close for month

where it explains what a flood eye is..
"Engineers are planning what is termed a flood eye at the bridge which means they will be adding an additional channel on one side of the river to allow backed-up flood water flow under the bridge and on to Lough Corrib more easily."

dec25532

aoraki wrote: »

The plan (allegedly) is to add a flood eye under that bridge in the event of floods of the magnitude of Nov 2009 happening again. To this end they have already demolished the old handball court that was on the opposite side of the road to the old Nine Arches bridge. The flood eye work was meant to start in the third week of September.

There was talk that they were going to close the bridge entirely for up to 3 weeks in order to get the work done and dusted, but I think that was knocked on the head. So when they get around to doing it, they will probably close one lane at a time and do the work that way. Of course, that's assuming that they start at all. The way this country is at the moment, it wouldn't surprise me if it was cancelled at short notice due to lack of funds.

Think the Council are putting in a temporary bridge on the ball alley side of the existing bridge to accommodate two way traffic. Works to begin in about two weeks time.

aoraki

Hmmm, maybe it's all part of a cunning plan. Didn't know about the works in Tuam, what's going on there? But the timeframe that dec25532 is talking about (2 weeks) looks like they are going to complete the N17 works at Cregboy first and then start on the bridge - would make sense to minimize the disruption.

Cutting it tight on the bridge works I would have thought, seeing as flood season is approaching.

And steamboat, I have no idea what a "flood eye" is, I only picked that term up from the recent reports on the matter. I'm assuming that it's some sort of additional man-made channel under the bridge? Are there any engineers on this thread that could enlighten us?

Sponge Bob

A flood eye is a bridge, they will dig a large trench right across the N17 south of the existing bridge and will build a bridge in the trench. When the river is high enough it will overflow under this new bridge and back into the Clare.

dec25532

Yeah, the flood eye that is planned is basically to divert the rising waters of the River Clare into a separate channel so as to prevent flooding upstream . . . or at least that is the plan. Works are supposed to start on this in mid October which will result in the bridge being closed and a temporary bridge being put in place which will allow two way traffic but will obviously result in some hold ups.

aoraki

Hmmm, 21st of October and no sign of this work starting... begininng to wonder if this work is going to go ahead this year or not. Anybody got any more info on this?

Sponge Bob

I can find no evidence that it has been tendered, same as the last time I looked. I bet the money was never formally released by Mansergh after he announced the work. He tendered his OWN constituency in August.

aoraki

You could well be right Sponge Bob, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. I hope the work will go ahead, but the longer it goes without any work starting the more doubtful I am becoming

Sponge Bob

Vague rumour that a tender will be published next week and that the work may start on the flood eye Monday 6th December, all going well.

Should be finished january some time.

aoraki

Good news if that turns out to be the case. The failure of work to be started has been getting some local media attention lately.

Would be ironic if they got everything in place to start work and then couldn't start work due to that flood plain being flooded... :eek:

But here's hoping that won't happen.