N69/N22/N70 Tralee Bypass

Bigfellalixnaw

carchaeologist wrote: »

Off the top of my head, and im no doubt missing stuff out here..

*Finish the Leith roundabout and both N69 intersections there.
*Finish the Forge cross roundabout to Ballybeggan roundabout road including the new staggered junctions at the top of that road above the college, also the college will have a new entrance off this road too.
*Finish the Killarney road intersection and junction at Flemby.
*Finish the Clash-Ballinorig roundabout, entrance/exit roads and complete the road on the new road bridge there.
*Install new roundabout at Skenhanagh on Castlemaine road.
*Cross existing Ballinorig road permanantly.
*Finish surface tar on the the Knockwaddra bridge.
*Finish surface tar Forge cross roundabout.
*Finish surface tar Ballybeggan roundabout.
*Road surface preperation yet to be done from the Ballygarry roundabout in the direction of the new Killarney Roundabout which will be south of Manor shopping centre.
*Road surface still to be fully prepared for surfacing/CBM/tar north of the Knockwaddra bridge for some distance yet.
*Road surface yet to be laid from the rail overbridge to the Ballygarry roundabout past the concrete and tar plant.
*Install central division(Post and Rope im assuming this will be?)
*Complete lighting and services.
*Paint roadmarkings.
*Install directional Signage.
*install Road Art.
*Have grand opening.
*Party like its 1999....:)

Oh, it that all!

carchaeologist

Bigfellalixnaw wrote: »

Oh, it that all!

Yep, just a coupla things really...:)

carchaeologist

From Build.ie, posted on the 4th Aug 2011, is a description of the geophysical work done pre construction.

The scope of the ground investigation includes but is not limited to the following: Trial pits at about 100m centres along the carriageway. Limited number of cable percussion boreholes in deeper cuttings and embankments. At each proposed overbridges cable percussion boreholes with rotary follow-on, where required, to determine appropriate founding stratum. Testing regime to include but not limited to sub-grade strength, shear strength of soils, index testing, compaction, oedometer compression, and contamination test amongst other tests.

The scope of the geophysical investigation includes but is not limited to the following: Continuous 2-D Resistivity profiles along the proposed road route and side roads at selected chainages. Continuous Seismic Refraction profiles along selected cut and fill sections of the proposed road route, at 100m intervals at selected chainages and as parallel profiles at selected structures.Continuous MASW profiles along selected fill sections of the proposed road route, and as parallel profiles at selected structures.Microgravity survey to be carried out in areas of potential karst to identify the extent and significance of limestone karst features such as collapsed sinkholes, infilled dissolution features with pockets of soft compressible material, open conduits or caves. Plot relevant borehole and rotary corehole information from the preliminary and detailed ground investigations on the geophysical profiles. The location of all geophysical investigation locations shall be as directed by the Engineer’s Site Representative.

Always interesting to see the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes as such, between both the above and the archaeological dig by Headland Archaeology. Both of these contracts would have not been cheap i guess owing to the scale of the job and road length involved.

GottaGetGatt

Cant see how this is gonna fee up traffic in Skehanagh. if anything it will add to to traffic coming into town.Especially on a wet school morning where the traffic can sometimes be backed up all the way to the crossroads.

amadain

That small roundabout at Castlemorris Terrace will become a nightmare I imagine !

I can see that rat run from Skehanagh Cross to the Aqua Dome (via Ballyard hill) getting very busy ! I use it already to avoid the CBS traffic !

dmeehan

amadain wrote: »

That small roundabout at Castlemorris Terrace will become a nightmare I imagine !

I can see that rat run from Skehanagh Cross to the Aqua Dome (via Ballyard hill) getting very busy ! I use it already to avoid the CBS traffic !

I don't know why they didn't continue the bypass out to the Dingle side of Blennerville?

amadain

dmeehan wrote: »

I don't know why they didn't continue the bypass out to the Dingle side of Blennerville?

YES INDEED, the route is fairly obvious - from Tonavane Cross to Skehanagh Cross !

OR

I would have spent some of the money (wasted on the extension from Knockwaddra Bridge north to Leith Cross imvho) on widening the existing roadway from Skehanagh Cross over to the top of Ballyard hill and onto Blennerville !


Matt should have known better, although I am aware of longer term plans to bypass Tralee on the Mounthawk/The Kerries/Lohercannon side of the town, to open up land use, etc, etc. :eek:

dmeehan

Two photos from the Farmers Bridge area:

carchaeologist

dmeehan wrote: »

I don't know why they didn't continue the bypass out to the Dingle side of Blennerville?

We could have ended up with something like the M25 then maybe...

delthedriver

carchaeologist wrote: »

We could have ended up with something like the M25 then maybe...

It is a fantastic project, really looking forward to its completion.
Should certainly help free up the Town.

Perhaps phase 2 could complete the circle?

carchaeologist

14/2/13 Ballyseedy flyover looking south.



The road under here will be properly surfaced full width in due course.


And a bridge shot on 16/2/13, though not a lot has really happened over the last week.


The next few weeks will see a lot of activity again in the various locations.

amadain

carchaeologist wrote: »

And a bridge shot on 16/2/13, though not a lot has really happened over the last week.

I would have spent some of the money (wasted on the extension from Knockwaddra Bridge north to Leith Cross imvho) on widening the existing roadway from Skehanagh Cross over to the top of Ballyard hill and onto Blennerville !

Your thoughts please ?

dmeehan

amadain wrote: »

I would have spent some of the money (wasted on the extension from Knockwaddra Bridge north to Leith Cross imvho) on widening the existing roadway from Skehanagh Cross over to the top of Ballyard hill and onto Blennerville !

Your thoughts please ?

I wouldnt have said it has been wasted, but I would have liked them to do both

amadain

Let's see what Car thinks ?


Was the "extension from Knockwaddra Bridge north to Leith Cross" really necessary.
Imagine if 'that section' was NOT built for another say 10 years - would it be missed ???

xxyyzz

amadain wrote: »

Let's see what Car thinks ?


Was the "extension from Knockwaddra Bridge north to Leith Cross" really necessary.
Imagine if 'that section' was NOT built for another say 10 years - would it be missed ???

The whole object of the exercise was to link the 3 main routes into town - Listowel rd, Killarney rd and the Killorglin rd. If you see the traffic that goes down Oakpark every morning, then yes, very definitely the extension to Leith cross is needed. A huge amount of people need to come in that road in the morning from Listowel, Kilflynn, Duagh etc and the only option for getting over towards the Killarney road is to go down Oakpark or down Clash both of which are at a standstill every morning.

amadain

xxyyzz wrote: »

......the traffic that goes down Oakpark every morning..........people need to come in that road in the morning from Listowel, etc and the only option WAS to go down Oakpark or Clash......

xyz,

Still reckon that very same "traffic" could just as easily go left at the new Forge Cross roundabout, and join the Bypass at the NEW Ballybeggan roundabout, and onwards "towards the Killarney road".

Think about it carefully before you reply (and with bests wishes to all in North Kerry).

xxyyzz

amadain wrote: »

xyz,

Still reckon that very same "traffic" could just as easily go left at the new Forge Cross roundabout, and join the Bypass at the NEW Ballybeggan roundabout, and onwards "towards the Killarney road".

Think about it carefully before you reply (and with bests wishes to all in North Kerry).

I don't have time to waste getting into it with you. You're obviously just sh*t stirring from your posts here and on the Tralee thread. Don't bother responding - I've put you on ignore.

dmeehan

amadain wrote: »

Still reckon that very same "traffic" could just as easily go left at the new Forge Cross roundabout, and join the Bypass at the NEW Ballybeggan roundabout, and onwards "towards the Killarney road".

i see your point, but would that be placing an increased burden on the forge cross roundabout?

amadain

What's the final COST of this project ?

amadain

kingdumb wrote: »

I suppose that this is going to have to be called after JHR seeing as it would not be built without him. Here's to the Jackie Healy Rae Triple By-Pass

***king Dumb

Apoligies if I missed it earlier BUT what name for the bypass (if any) has been decided ?

amadain

I note from Kerry Radio some time back that "the Tralee Bypass is now expected to be completed by mid July. That’s according to contractors BAM who are working on the 97 million euro project".

amadain

amadain wrote: »

Road closures starting next week.......


13th Feb to 17th Feb. L2011 Farmers Bridge road.
*I think this will be to allow the bypass to be built across the Farmers bridge road just beside the entrance to the partially finished new Mitchells club*

13th Feb to 20th Feb. L2020 Ballinorig road.
*Presumably to allow for construction of the new road across the existing road, which will be cut off then. I guess the new flyover and roundabout here will be operational by then. *

18th Feb to 1st March. N70 National road in the townland of Camp.
*This is, im assuming, for the new roundabout construction in this area just above Lidl*

20th Feb to 27th Feb. L2016 Road between Dromthacker and Muing.
*This is to allow for the new road construction from the Forge Cross roundabout up to the college where it crossses over the existing road here*

27th Feb to 6th March. L2016 Dromthacker road and L6510 Knockawaddra road.
*This is to allow for the construction of the new staggered junction onto the new road at the top of the hill i guess*

4th March to Friday 8th March. L6547 Ballyseedy road.
*Presumably this is to allow for surfacing of the road underneath the flyover as the road there at the moment is just temporary as the existing road was dug down during construction*

Just a reminder (will put it on the Tralee Thread too).

amadain

dmeehan wrote: »

i see your point, but would that be placing an increased burden on the forge cross roundabout?

Thank you for the civil reply and note that you understand the point I raise.

Firstly, kindly note the difference between the Phase 2 ‘Route Selection’ (on page 12) and the Phase 3 ‘Road Design’ (on page 16) back in November 2007 on this website:-

http://www.engineersireland.ie/EngineersIreland/media/SiteMedia/groups/regions/an-riocht/Tralee-Bypass.pdf?ext=.pdf

(with thanks to ongarboy on here, for posting it earlier).

carchaeologist

amadain wrote: »

Let's see what Car thinks ?


Was the "extension from Knockwaddra Bridge north to Leith Cross" really necessary.
Imagine if 'that section' was NOT built for another say 10 years - would it be missed ???

Right, here are my thoughts on this, rightly or wrongly. Im not an engineer, road designer, just an interested party.

Is amadain a local? It does look like there is not that much traffic in tralee to warrant this project, but if you park on the road in upper Ballinorig or Caherbreagh in the morning and count the cars taking that road you will see how many cars use that small back road at that time. Its hella busy there!

The thing with this project is to look at the big picture.

The main object of this project is to tidy up and streamline traffic flow from the National routes into and out of Tralee. The National routes being the important point here. These are all on the eastern side of the town(Besides the N86, but the N70 feeds that)
If you think of it in terms of the entire project as opposed to just little bits of it it makes more sense. I was sceptical of the new Killarney road section of it too untill i talked to the engineers on the job, when it was explained to my why that road is being built i saw the reason for it. More on that shortly.

Look at the map above, see how all the eastern National routes will acesss the bypass. The N70, N22, N21 and N69. Traffic from Killarney/Cork(N22) and Castleisland/Limerick(N21) will now enter the town at seperate points where as now they both join at Ballycarthy roundabout and enter the town singularly, this coupled with the Manor west shopping traffic,plus all the other traffic at that point causes the bottle necks at the Mile height at certain times of the day/week.

Also the N70 Traffic at the moment has to come up the road past Manor west to get to the N21/N22, this is also a Bottleneck at many times during the week. With the bypass complete the traffic coming from all the major routes will have more access and egress, and be much more dispersed around the town, meaning less jams in any one point like there are now.

The Castleisland road will, when the bypass is complete commence at the Ballygarry roundabout, the exit at Ballycarthy roundabout that is at present the Killarney road will revert to a local road with a junction onto the new bypass road at Flemby. The Ballycarthy roundabout will be practically redundant.

Therre has been some concerns voiced about the Skehanagh roundabout being busy in the mornings, but i doubt it will be as busy as feared as looking at the big picture traffic will have more options to travel where it needs to go. When Traffic reaches Skehanagh roundabout from either the N70 or the Bypass, it should not be too much trouble to continue down along the Dan Spring, which is also a National route, the N86 road, towards Blennerville and on towards the west. To have continued the road up along Spring water lane would just carry traffic up to Ballyard, which will still just run back down to the Roundabout at the Aquadome anyway as the back road to Blennerville from Ballyard is narrow and winding.

The whole idea is to keep the traffic on the national roads moving freely.

The new road from Ballybeggan to Forge Cross seems to be there there to mainly service the College traffic flow as well as the Oakpark Traffic, carrying the road down to Forge cross was a natural extension but just for local traffic. This will be a single carriageway, with staggered exits to Knockwaddra and Muing here also. It wouldnt have been very practical to run a dual carriageway in here.

The road up to the N69 looks to be as far out of town as it is to clear Alderwood road, which runs very close to it at its upper end. This road will all be dual carriageway. With the roundabout so far out on the N69, any Traffic that has no reason being in town is kept away completely.

There will be exits off the road to Farmers bridge on the N22.
Also exits to Clash(the industrial estate road is being extended to a roundabout) and Ballinorig, but no entrance to the bypss at that point. There is also an overbridge at Ballinorig as has been seen in the pictures previous.

Hope this helps and is not confusing. Like i said, its just my own views from studying this project, rightly or wrongly, if im wrong in any point please do correct me!:D

Quackster

The Ballybeggan Roundabout to Leith Roundabout section of the bypass was a relatively late addition after an NRA peer review of the original design of which it was not a part. The peer review found that the original proposed bypass section from Ballybeggan RAB to Forge Cross would be seriously deficient for a number of reasons.

The available corridor was of a constrained cross-section and would result in an inadequate road width along this section. Also, a number of private accesses directly onto the bypass would have to be accommodated along here which would have negative safety implications and would also result in a section of the bypass having a speed limit far less than the ideal for a national road.

The peer review recommended the re-routing and extension of the bypass northwards to the N69 at Leith and on foot of this recommendation the NRA instructed Kerry Co Co to make the necessary alterations.

carchaeologist

Quackster wrote: »

The Ballybeggan Roundabout to Leith Roundabout section of the bypass was a relatively late addition after an NRA peer review of the original design of which it was not a part. The peer review found that the original proposed bypass section from Ballybeggan RAB to Forge Cross would be seriously deficient for a number of reasons.

The available corridor was of a constrained cross-section and would result in an inadequate road width along this section. Also, a number of private accesses directly onto the bypass would have to be accommodated along here which would have negative safety implications and would also result in a section of the bypass having a speed limit far less than the ideal for a national road.

The peer review recommended the re-routing and extension of the bypass northwards to the N69 at Leith and on foot of this recommendation the NRA instructed Kerry Co Co to make the necessary alterations.

Thanks for that, its a bit more of a technical appraisal than mine!:D

carchaeologist

Dromthacker road is now closed on the hill above Forge cross to just below the college to allow for the crossover to be constructed.

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The streetlighting on the Leith roundabout has been lighting since yesterday 20/2/13. Very unusual to see such a thing so far out of town, theres a real Back to the Future vibe to it!:p

traleespud

carchaeologist wrote: »

Dromthacker road is now closed on the hill above Forge cross to just below the college to allow for the crossover to be constructed.

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The streetlighting on the Leith roundabout has been lighting since yesterday 20/2/13. Very unusual to see such a thing so far out of town, theres a real Back to the Future vibe to it!:p

AFAIK the leith roundabout will be opening shortly to facilitate storm drainage in the existing road!! That why the lights are operational and sign have been put in place on the roundabout also!!!

carchaeologist

21-2-13
Ballinorig looking west towards the new overbridge
Photos taken at the point where the new road will intersect the old..



Closer shot...

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24-2-13
Dromtacker road crossing under construction.

View from outside the college gate looking down the hill.


Looking down the hill further down.


View from crossover point over the old road down to new roundabout.


Opposite side of road looking down.


Caterpillar 3306 (14G) road grader.
8 Forwards and 8 reverse gears, 10.5 litre engine with 180BHP, max speed 27mph.

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24-2-13
New junction on Knockwaddra road.

View looking west, in increasing closer views.

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24-2-13
The road under the overpass has now got its base gravel laid and graded, CBM to follow?

carchaeologist

These are the proposals for a Ring road of sorts around Tralee, some of it is completed already like the Braker o Regan road or 'The Fat Mile' to give it its more common name....