N5 Ballaghaderreen Bypass

same ol sh1te

macker16 wrote: »

Opening 2nd September at 12.30 pm by our leader:D Enda

That's the official opening for Enda to get his picture taken, when's it open to the public?

macker16

same day

joujoujou

Yep, Wills booked opening party in a local restaurant for 2 of September.

mhaise

That's great news, sadly we won't get any upgrade from there to Strokestown. Such a pity as that would be the icing on the cake for this section of bad and dangerous road.

Understand that there is supposed to be a lot of archaeology on the routes. Surely it would be a good idea to start the surveying now, I'm sure there's a lot of qualified archaeologists waiting to get working on it.

Talk of Frenchpark to N4, will that happen in the foreseeable future? I doubt it.

RED L4 0TH

Charity walk on it at 2pm on Sunday according to MWR news. The official opening on Tuesday is also mentioned in the piece.

http://www.midwestradio.ie/index.php/news/22237-charity-5k-walk-on-part-of-the-new-ballaghaderreen-bypass-this-sunday

Once this opens, can someone grab a gps trace and I'll add it to OpenStreetMap

joujoujou

Yep, it's planned - see page 17 of the thread.

JupiterKid

Is it open yet?

almccabe

On the AA road watch website it is confirming it is opening today!

mydiscworld

almccabe wrote: »

On the AA road watch website it is confirming it is opening today!

ROSCOMMON:The N5 Ballaghaderreen Bypass will open ahead of schedule today. This forms part of the N5 Westport /Longford Rd. The 14km scheme commences at the N5 Charlestown Bypass in the townland of Currinah and rejoins the existing N5 in the townland of Rathkeery.

.

veryangryman

Denis naughten there today at opening so must be.

One more eyesore the driving public can now avoid. Result.

loyatemu

Wide S2 - surely they could fit 2+2 into the same space?

I hate wide S2 - its a free-for-all of dangerous overtaking and people driving in the hard-shoulder. its a road type that seems to be unique to Ireland as well...

same ol sh1te

loyatemu wrote: »

Wide S2 - surely they could fit 2+2 into the same space?

I hate wide S2 - its a free-for-all of dangerous overtaking and people driving in the hard-shoulder. its a road type that seems to be unique to Ireland as well...

Agreed, I can never understand why they don't do 2+1 and swap every 3-5 miles, that way there's no dangerous overtaking as everyone knows you only have to wait 3-5 miles for an overtaking lane.

L1011

same ol sh1te wrote: »

Agreed, I can never understand why they don't do 2+1 and swap every 3-5 miles, that way there's no dangerous overtaking as everyone knows you only have to wait 3-5 miles for an overtaking lane.

2+1 is no safer than WS2 here, a shown by the trials. Causes huge driver frustration and there are frequent high speed collisions at the two to one merges

macker16

open to trafic

MayoSalmon

MYOB wrote: »

2+1 is no safer than WS2 here, a shown by the trials. Causes huge driver frustration and there are frequent high speed collisions at the two to one merges

How about 2+ fecking 2...Ya would swear we were driving tanks or something, typical Irish always taking the short cuts and easy option.

same ol sh1te

There'll be accidents, ridiculous that they are cutting corners building roads with very few overtaking spots and no proper slip roads or filter lanes. Like the Charlestown bypass the hard shoulder disappears at every junction.

ardmacha

MYOB wrote: »

2+1 is no safer than WS2 here, a shown by the trials. Causes huge driver frustration and there are frequent high speed collisions at the two to one merges

Firstly the 2+1 wasn't that well designed in some cases (e.g. N2) and could be done better. I fail to see how drivers will be less frustrated on a S2. But this merge collision thing is a cop out, they could erect a camera at these merges and prosecute people crossing hatched areas etc, to set a pattern of reasonable behaviour. But of course they didn't bother.

RED L4 0TH

NRA press release on the opening.

TINA1984

ardmacha wrote: »

Firstly the 2+1 wasn't that well designed in some cases (e.g. N2) and could be done better. I fail to see how drivers will be less frustrated on a S2. But this merge collision thing is a cop out, they could erect a camera at these merges and prosecute people crossing hatched areas etc, to set a pattern of reasonable behaviour. But of course they didn't bother.

Agree on this. 2+1 is useful in other countries for lightly trafficked national routes, not busy commuter/interurban routes like the N20.

Geogregor

loyatemu wrote: »

I hate wide S2 - its a free-for-all of dangerous overtaking and people driving in the hard-shoulder. its a road type that seems to be unique to Ireland as well...

Well, they are not unique to Ireland, there are quite a lot of them in Poland too.

However, more and more of them is being converted to 2+1 for reasons you mentioned.

joujoujou

Let's travel!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZovE8Bzsd8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRmRIscu6x0

kml files for openstreetmaps attached - no junctions, sorry, had not enough time and fuel.

mackerski

joujoujou wrote: »

Let's travel!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZovE8Bzsd8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRmRIscu6x0

kml files for openstreetmaps attached - no junctions, sorry, had not enough time and fuel.

Awesomeness! I'm mapping it now...

mackerski

OK, the bypass is now mapped on OpenStreetMap. Yay!

But: a few details still need to be polished, and it would be great to get help (especially as GPS tracklogs):

• I'm pretty sure that each existing road crosses on a bridge, but I've only mapped accordingly where I was able to spot the bridge on the video. So please advise me on any I missed.
• I estimated the western tie-in, but please get me a track log for that some time so I can make it accurate.
• The new road on the eastern end seems to weave in and out of the old road. It looks like some of the old road remains in place to serve houses, some of it is probably abandoned and there are at least two tie-ins, left and right of the bypass. None of this is mapped because I can't tell how it really is.
• I can see from road signs that the old N5 is now L1244 and have mapped accordingly.
• Edit: The access ramps from the R293 are estimated, tracklogs would be great.

Thanks for the teamwork!

joujoujou

I'll give you two more minutes before and after video (2 of each), is that OK?

Not all the roads got bridges (especially the least important ones) have been cut or realigned with no bridge, so much more updating has to be done unfortunately.

And yes, old N5 is L1244 now.

Edit:

veryangryman

Whats the verdict on journeys now?

Even before it opened, i used do Athlone to Ballina/Westport via N61-N5. Tried N60-N5 (horrific in places) before.

Time saving will be class when this opens. That said, when M18 opens, ill be M6-M18-N17-N5.

Great to see bypasses opening again; not quite the Halcyon days of the late noughties but progress nonetheless.

Slightly off topic but its hardly a coincidence that the Infrastructure in the most recents sitting Taoiseaigh's constituency (or on the way to it via the Dail) has improved alot during their tenure.

Bertie - Port Tunnel, M1, M50 extentions
Biffo - Tullamore Bypass
Inda - Longford, Ballaghadreen, possibly Westport-Castlebar if he gets another term

I wonder if Michael Martin gets a go after next election will we see Cork NRR and M20 back on the agenda.

godskitchen

Very few places to over take. It's way too narrow. Really half arsed effort.

mackerski

Right, some further mapping notes. I'll bore the readers here with them because some of you may be able to fill in the gaps for me:

Bridges: a more careful run through of the video footage has enabled me to get happy with which side roads cross on bridges and which ones do not. I can also see that the ones that don't also don't cross underneath, so for now I have just truncated them. I can see that at least some new access roads have been built alongside, so those side roads will need to be surveyed to see where they go now.

The eastern tie-in: I have been able to make some approximations to how the mainline connects to the old bits of road. Once again, I expect that the side roads have some new geometry that will need to be surveyed. But somebody can probably help me identify which road is the L1210. This can be seen as a left turn just towards the end of the scheme while driving towards Dublin. Or rather, the sign on the left turn is for that road number. It might refer to one of a few roads that can be reached from that junction, so if somebody knows which, please let me know.

MayoSalmon

godskitchen wrote: »

Very few places to over take. It's way too narrow. Really half arsed effort.

Yep:D Its not great but typically it'll have to do :D

serfboard

veryangryman wrote: »

its hardly a coincidence that the Infrastructure in the most recents sitting Taoiseaigh's constituency (or on the way to it via the Dail) has improved alot during their tenure.

You could add Minister for Transport to that too. (Dempsey->M3, Cullen->M9). But sure no point in being the boss if you can't deliver for your local area. Remember - we love the person who "fixshed the roads".

In a way I don't have a problem (and I think it's always going to happen anyway) in a Taoiseach or Minister prioritising something in their area which was going to be done anyway. It only becomes a problem to me if, in doing that, a project that would improve a busier or less safe road gets put on the back burner. (M20 for example).

veryangryman wrote: »

possibly Westport-Castlebar if he gets another term

Have heard a rumour that Westport-Castlebar will get the nod in 2016 - amazingly and coincidentally just before the next general election! (A bit like the way the sod turning for the M17/18 took place before the last local election, even though, four months later, we have yet to see a single digger on site).