Severe Weather Road Conditions-16th- Onwards.

K-9

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Sheba891

Roads are in a terrible state in and around the Letterkenny area. Never seen them so bad. Even with 4WD it was a struggle this evening on some on the roads, even those near the town...if you have to drive on them take care:(

Mc Love

Took me 3 and Half hours to drive from Dingle to Limerick today. An hour from Abbeyfeale to Newcastlewest probably being the worst of it

Cosmo Kramer

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

Thanks for the responses, I'm going to have a stab at it via Dublin and Galway. The way things sound right now it might be daylight by the time I get to Galway anyway and that would certainly be a better time to tackle the N84.

Really don't fancy that Manorhamilton/Blacklion road at all, am going to give it a wide berth. Marsbar if I get to somewhere in the west with internet access I'll post an update om the M6.

Wish me luck!

Made it back to Castlebar OK, no major problems, roads were fine from Belfast to Dublin and Dublin to Athlone, a bit more snow from Athlone to Galway but easily manageable.

Trouble starts on the N17 a few miles south of the Mayo/Galway border, roads are passable but only with extreme care and if you know what you're doing. Its like that all the way up to Castlebar.

Glad to be home now!

gally74

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

Made it back to Castlebar OK, no major problems, roads were fine from Belfast to Dublin and Dublin to Athlone, a bit more snow from Athlone to Galway but easily manageable.

Trouble starts on the N17 a few miles south of the Mayo/Galway border, roads are passable but only with extreme care and if you know what you're doing. Its like that all the way up to Castlebar.

Glad to be home now!

delighted for you, thats a long haul overnight, new roads are good arent they..

whiteandlight

Took six hous to get from maynooth to ballina last night. Parly bad conditions (many of the roads are like rumble strips meaning anything above 40 and yOu are being rattled like hell) and partly cautious driving which I for one was glad of. With the Obvious exception of the lunatic van driver who drove on the wrong side of the Charlestown bypass for a good 2-3mins passing out about 15 cars. If anyone had come up a side road/drove towards him there would have been an almighty pile up

Cosmo Kramer

gally74 wrote: »

delighted for you, thats a long haul overnight, new roads are good arent they..

The new roads make a huge difference in conditions like this. They meant I only had do drive in treacherous conditions for the last bit of the journey from Galway up to Mayo, if I had to go on the old national primary and secondaries all the way from Belfast or Dublin it would have been far more dangerous and difficult and i would have been exhaustred by the time I got to the most snow covered roads in Mayo.

peasant

This is the situation in Sligo as of 3 hours ago




Now, this is the N4 dual carriageway approach towards Sligo town ...a priority 1 road for clearing/salting according to the councils plan

Left lane is greasy mush (will no doubt freeze to black ice overnight), right lane is just rough ice.

As it is going to stay very cold for the next few days, the situation is unlikely to improve ...the ice is just going to get polished over the coming days

As this is a "treated" main road, you can imagine the state of any side roads

Anywhere that's hilly or where a lot of cars had to stop/start is polished ice already and the patches are only going to get bigger. So take it really handy out there until the council manage to get some salt from somewhere

KevR

This afternoon, the Westmeath section of the Athlone Bypass was in reasonably good condition despite heavy snowfall in the area yesterday.

The short section of the Athlone BP which is in County Roscommon was in a noticeably worse condition. Also, a lot of the M6 between Athlone and Ballinasloe (again in Roscommon...) wasn't in the best of shape - Lane 1 was ok but Lane 2 was pretty bad.

Apart from a very short section at J16 (Loughrea), the M6 in County Galway was in good condition.

_____________________________________

Late this evening in Galway City, the main roads seemed ok. Housing estates however were treacherous.

Sponge Bob

KevR wrote: »

Lane 1 was ok but Lane 2 was pretty bad.

Apart from a very short section at J16 (Loughrea), the M6 in County Galway was in good condition.

Galway and Roscommon seem to concentrate on keeping 1 lane gritted and open in bad weather, this is not illogical given that 1 lane can handle the reduced traffic..save on the Athlone Bypass which needs 2 lanes.

hellboy99

Some people never learn or cop on :mad:. I was on my way home earlier taking it handy doing 20 - 30km same as the people ahead of me as the road is in a terrible state and not treated. I left about about two car lengths between myself and the car on front, car in front had done the same and the next.... All of a sudden I end up with some tit in a people carrier full of kids right up the ass of me, flashing lights and waving his hands for me to speed up. If I had to break he would be in the back me no question about it :mad: , I couldn't even get his reg thats how close he was. Absolute muppet :mad: :mad:.

peasant

In fairness now, 20 - 30 km/h IS a bit slow. On a reasonably straight road without any major junctions or other obstacles you can easily do 40-50 km/h, even in these conditions ...as long as everybody keeps their distance.

hellboy99

peasant wrote: »

In fairness now, 20 - 30 km/h IS a bit slow. On a reasonably straight road without any major junctions or other obstacles you can easily do 40-50 km/h, even in these conditions ...as long as everybody keeps their distance.

The road was really bad, hence the drivers ahead of me driving the same, plus it's a narrow road with traffic islands and junctions on both sides. Some people really need to cop themselves on, you don't drive on the bumper of the car in front of you especially in this weather. In these conditions you need to take extra care on the roads, slow down and think ahead.

Tenzor07

peasant wrote: »

In fairness now, 20 - 30 km/h IS a bit slow. On a reasonably straight road without any major junctions or other obstacles you can easily do 40-50 km/h, even in these conditions ...as long as everybody keeps their distance.

Drove down from Belfast on the M1/A1 on Friday night, there were a few extra slow drivers which meant I had to skate over to the more icy looking outside lane to overtake, so I agree with you, once the road is fairly straight and junction free then 50kph is perfectly reasonable..

Of course even at 50/60kph I was still passed out as if i was standing by Range Rover drivers!(with summer sport tyres on probably!) :eek:

Not

Has anyone done London - Holyhead by road recently, if so what's it like ? Good, dodgy or no go ?

PixelTrawler

Drove M6 Galway - Athlone today and yesterday.

Motorway is perfect until you get within 5 miles or so of Athlone. Right hand lane is lethal on the Athlone bypass, the left lane is not fully clear either. You are driving along two tracks of tarmac for your wheels.

Be very careful...

N61 Athlone - Roscommon is bad too.

Cantona's Collars

Not wrote: »

Has anyone done London - Holyhead by road recently, if so what's it like ? Good, dodgy or no go ?

Courtesy of Lucy2010:

One word - Horrendous ! He is a precision driver - stunt man/ driver - he drives a specialised camera vehicle for a living so his driving would be top notch.. He needs to know how exact a stop is when he brakes etc.
He left Ipswich at 6am & is now about 60 miles from Holyhead. That normally takes us 6-8 depending on what we driving .Hes driving a 7ltr dodge that is 4WD & has 6 wheels ( Think ive gotten that bit wrong but someone may correct me - ) Its now into freezing fog - visability less than 10 m if even. Has to stop every few minutes as the washer bottle stuff is freezing.. Now this isnt your usual water stuff - its specialised non freeze jazz but its freezing. Hes clocked -9. The roads are driveable for him at a very slow speed - He said I could forget it... What he meant was Im a normal joe soap driver - They should all simply abandon ship. The traffic is horrific as everyone & their granny is heading for the ferries.. Hes just head down & getting there now but he said the roads are getting worse & worse so anyone trying to do it in your average vauxhall Zafira should forget it .... Im simple terms it must be unbelievably bad if he is saying that.... Sorry to be the bearer of bad news to all the poor sods now thinking of making that journey.

Supercell

Eastlink Southbound has stopped, there has been no movement in the last 5 minutes or so..avoid if you can.

gurramok

Roads in the city centre look ok to drive on, I think its traffic getting stuck out in the burbs thats causing the chaos.

Supercell

20:16 still grid locked south bound. Avoid the Eastlink bridge and presumably the coast road.

Sierra Oscar

NiteLink is cancelled tonight.

2018 Dublin Bus will not operate its NiteLink service tonight.

It says it will be making every effort possible to operate a full bus service tomorrow morning but this will be dependent on weather and road conditions.

hellyeah

talking to my brother on the m50. he is 2 hours into his journey from the naas road and is only at the cherrywood exit. says cars are abandoned trucks jack kniffed etc. nightmare. still snowing. says snow looks about 6 inchs deep in centre of road. says if he has to stop he is fecked.
if the council dont get the finger out tonight he says m50 will be impassable by the morn with stranded cars/trucks etc.

kennyb3

Any update on the drumcondra area at present?

Mister men

Just back from a walk with the dog. There are numerous cars abondoned all along the M50 at Sandyford on and off ramps. A few trucks stuck there also. Meet a fella walking he'd left City centre at 4.15 and had eventually left car at side of road near the Dundrum shopping centre at 7.15. He said there was a few accidents along the way out of City. The snow is getting heavier around here also.

Not

M50 was very bad southbound from about Red Cow on about an hour ago. Left it at Ballymount cos the road markings had disappeared, there was only one set of almost black tyre tracks left in the middle of it, the cars in this track were crawling along, and faster traffic all over the place on vast white expanses both sides of it not having a clue about how not to get each others way so I figured it was safer on the surburban roads.

Anyone thinking of going on the old N3 Dublin bound through Dunshaughlin up to the M3 roundabout at Dunboyne in a normal car without traction aids should really think twice, some bits were on the limit of passability when I passed through an hour and a half ago. The other way wasn't quite so bad due to the greater volume of traffic coming out of Dublin.

th3 s1aught3r

On the news they said that grit and salt supplies were critically low. What does this mean for the roads if they run out, country grinds to a halt ?

Esroh

They now have enough salt to keep the National Primary/Motorway network only open.
And at that they are only doing the left lane of the 2 on some of the motorways.
At the moment in the west there is not enough salt to do the N17 which is supposed to be the western corridor

Mc Love

Anyone know what its like from Airport to Newlands cross?? - know someone going to attempt to drive to Limerick

MJohnston

Is there anywhere in the city centre likely to sell snow socks? I'm not due to travel home (County Down) for Christmas until Thursday night, but I don't want to get stuck in Dublin - especially if they decide to close the port tunnel again.

TommyT

Mister men wrote: »

Just back from a walk with the dog. There are numerous cars abondoned all along the M50 at Sandyford on and off ramps. A few trucks stuck there also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLM9xHmLGHE&feature=player_embedded