N5 Ballaghaderreen Bypass

joujoujou

godskitchen wrote: »

Very few places to over take. It's way too narrow. [...]

Disagree.

Compare it to former N5 and you'll see an awful lot of places to overtake. And significantly less corners. :P

sonnyblack

What does Mrs joujoujou think of it?

joujoujou

Nothing at all. She wasn't there yet.

same ol sh1te

joujoujou wrote: »

Disagree.

Compare it to former N5 and you'll see an awful lot of places to overtake. And significantly less corners. :P

Lots of corners cut you mean

godskitchen

joujoujou wrote: »

Disagree.

Compare it to former N5 and you'll see an awful lot of places to overtake. And significantly less corners. :P

Your base line comparison is very low.

Yes it's better than the old road, no it's not as good as it should be.

MayoSalmon

joujoujou wrote: »

Disagree.

Compare it to former N5 and you'll see an awful lot of places to overtake. And significantly less corners. :P

Ehh well obviously

monument

godskitchen wrote: »

Your base line comparison is very low.

Yes it's better than the old road, no it's not as good as it should be.

And your baseline is what exactly?

What would you have preferred? Bulldozing a load of houses for lots of extra cost but only marginal gains? Or was there some way if making it notable better without unreasonable extra costs and impacts?

same ol sh1te

monument wrote: »

And your baseline is what exactly?

What would you have preferred? Bulldozing a load of houses for lots of extra cost but only marginal gains? Or was there some way if making it notable better without unreasonable extra costs and impacts?

Besides being lots solid white lines the road looses hard shoulder at every junction like the Charlestown bypass, terrible planning. Theres also the usual problem with the filter lanes, traffic must slow in the main driving lane holding up other traffic to take filter lanes as the filter lanes are too short. The gravel traps at the edge are a dangerous and will cause problems with loose gravel which will be a death trap for any motorcyclists.

veryangryman

same ol sh1te wrote: »

Besides being lots solid white lines the road looses hard shoulder at every junction like the Charlestown bypass, terrible planning. Theres also the usual problem with the filter lanes, traffic must slow in the main driving lane holding up other traffic to take filter lanes as the filter lanes are too short. The gravel traps at the edge are a dangerous and will cause problems with loose gravel which will be a death trap for any motorcyclists.

Guess both of our usernames are apt for the outcome of this road. :mad:

L1011

same ol sh1te wrote: »

the road looses hard shoulder at every junction like the Charlestown bypass

This is required for safety.

same ol sh1te wrote: »

The gravel traps at the edge are a dangerous and will cause problems with loose gravel which will be a death trap for any motorcyclists.

Those are drains.

same ol sh1te

MYOB wrote: »

This is required for safety.

A ridiculous requirement

MYOB wrote: »

Those are drains.

Dangerous drains

I'm not saying Wills did a bad job, I'm saying the design of the road and requirements set by the RSA are bloody ridiculous

L1011

same ol sh1te wrote: »

A ridiculous requirement

High incidence of incidents at junctions where there's no sightlines due to shoulders or incidents caused by people pulling over to allow overtaking and wiping out someone at a junction would massively, massively disagree with you there.

same ol sh1te wrote: »

Dangerous drains

If a biker can't keep on the road, or the shoulder for that matter, what's more likely to cause an incident - going in to gravel or going in to armco?


The NRA sets road standards, not the RSA.

same ol sh1te

MYOB wrote: »

High incidence of incidents at junctions where there's no sightlines due to shoulders or incidents caused by people pulling over to allow overtaking and wiping out someone at a junction would massively, massively disagree with you there.

Why the short filter lanes, surely the traffic turning left or right should be slowing in their own lane, not holding up traffic and causing them to brake.

MYOB wrote: »

If a biker can't keep on the road, or the shoulder for that matter, what's more likely to cause an incident - going in to gravel or going in to armco?


The NRA sets road standards, not the RSA.

I'm not on about that, what happens this gravel when a vehicle goes off the road, it gets scattered all over the road causing problems for anyone on two wheels.

L1011

same ol sh1te wrote: »

Why the short filter lanes, surely the traffic turning left or right should be slowing in their own lane, not holding up traffic and causing them to brake.

Land take amongst other issues. Any filters built will be built to spec.

same ol sh1te wrote: »

I'm not on about that, what happens this gravel when a vehicle goes off the road, it gets scattered all over the road causing problems for anyone on two wheels.

Roads need sweeping regardless. Also, the likelyhood of any reaching the driving lanes is extremely low anyway.

same ol sh1te

I take it you've never driven a motorbike on the Charlestown bypass

L1011

same ol sh1te wrote: »

I take it you've never driven a motorbike on the Charlestown bypass

If the roads aren't being swept your issue is with Mayo County Council. There's a much higher chance chippings in driving lanes came off trucks anyway.

same ol sh1te

MYOB wrote: »

If the roads aren't being swept your issue is with Mayo County Council. There's a much higher chance chippings in driving lanes came off trucks anyway.

Have a look at the Culmore junction near Swinford next time you're passing, it's obvious they come from the gravel trap and are all over the road at the junction

godskitchen

MYOB wrote: »

Land take amongst other issues. Any filters built will be built to spec.

Then the spec is spectacularly bad.

joujoujou

MayoSalmon wrote: »

Ehh well obviously

I don't understand. What's your point?

=============================

godskitchen wrote: »

[...] it's not as good as it should be.

same ol sh1te wrote: »

[...] terrible planning. [...]

Never happy.

almccabe

on a happier note......I saw a Navteq/HERE Maps car surveying the road last week on Wednesday. Great to see!!

mackerski

almccabe wrote: »

on a happier note......I saw a Navteq/HERE Maps car surveying the road last week on Wednesday. Great to see!!

What took them? It's already on OSM

almccabe

mackerski wrote: »

What took them? It's already on OSM

well i guess they collect it to a greater degree no guess work with them, they drove all the side roads and everything!

mackerski

almccabe wrote: »

well i guess they collect it to a greater degree no guess work with them, they drove all the side roads and everything!

So did I

spacetweek

Some motorbikers with a (loose) chip on their shoulders. The road was built to international specs and motorbikes are a tiny % of traffic. If those specs aren't good enough for you drive more slowly. The speed limit is presumably only 80-100 anyway, though I rarely see bikers driving under the limit.

same ol sh1te

spacetweek wrote: »

Some motorbikers with a (loose) chip on their shoulders. The road was built to international specs and motorbikes are a tiny % of traffic. If those specs aren't good enough for you drive more slowly. The speed limit is presumably only 80-100 anyway, though I rarely see bikers driving under the limit.

It's the junctions that become dangerous with chippings, like I already said the Culmore junction at Swinford is treacherous with pebbles all over the junction coming the old road from Charlestown. Slowing a motorcycle coming to a junction is hard enough on 2 wheels without having pebbles everywhere. A heavy motorcycle doesn't balance very well going slow and then you do all your braking with the front wheel which also happens to do the steering. Going over pebbles means you have no breaking power and much less control. Ridiculously short sighted.

It's not just motorcyclists, cyclists suffer too, but sure who cares about them either.

The road is not built to international spec, it's unique to Ireland and not good enough, too many corners cut regarding drainage and slip roads. If your going to build a bypass, build it right, make sure the slow moving traffic doesn't hinder the faster traffic, especially when there are long hill climbs. My Dad is a truck driver and says he's dropping 2-3 gears on some if the hills with nowhere for the traffic behind him to safely pass without crossing the white line, he's not allowed drive in the hard shoulder. Also, traffic slowing at any junction to turn left off the road should be slowing in their own filter lane, not braking and slowing the traffic in the main driving lane. It is utter madness what they are passing off as modern safe roads, they are anything but.

godskitchen

spacetweek wrote: »

Some motorbikers with a (loose) chip on their shoulders. The road was built to international specs and motorbikes are a tiny % of traffic. If those specs aren't good enough for you drive more slowly. The speed limit is presumably only 80-100 anyway, though I rarely see bikers driving under the limit.

Rubbish, I have driven all over Europe and their major trunk roads are not to this international specs. Countries big and small.

The road is too narrow and the junctions too short.

By the way, I think we get our motorways pretty spot on and the likes of the Charlestown bypass are fine, apart from short tight angle junctions

L1011

godskitchen wrote: »

Rubbish, I have driven all over Europe and their major trunk roads are not to this international specs. Countries big and small.

The road is too narrow and the junctions too short.

This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a "major trunk road"

It is built to spec for its expected traffic at design year - which will be 30+ years away. You're clearly massively over-estimating the importance and traffic on the road when making comparisons to elsewhere.

Geogregor

same ol sh1te wrote: »

The road is not built to international spec, it's unique to Ireland and not good enough, too many corners cut regarding drainage and slip roads. If your going to build a bypass, build it right, make sure the slow moving traffic doesn't hinder the faster traffic, especially when there are long hill climbs. My Dad is a truck driver and says he's dropping 2-3 gears on some if the hills with nowhere for the traffic behind him to safely pass without crossing the white line, he's not allowed drive in the hard shoulder. Also, traffic slowing at any junction to turn left off the road should be slowing in their own filter lane, not braking and slowing the traffic in the main driving lane. It is utter madness what they are passing off as modern safe roads, they are anything but.

godskitchen wrote: »

Rubbish, I have driven all over Europe and their major trunk roads are not to this international specs. Countries big and small.

The road is too narrow and the junctions too short.

By the way, I think we get our motorways pretty spot on and the likes of the Charlestown bypass are fine, apart from short tight angle junctions

Now, I have to admit I haven't driven this road yet but watching the two videos posted here a few days ago I can't see anything wrong with this road.

Remember that this road is not a motorway or even a dual carriageway. It is a standard 2 lane road which you can encounter in most of the countries.

So when you overtake slower vehicle you always have to cross the white line. What's wrong with that? Just make sure you do it where it isn't solid white

As for sight lines, I can't see any problem either. You can see quite far away and decide if or when to overtake.

It seems that you simply expected a higher class of road.

Would it be needed? I have to admit I don't know. What are the traffic figures on this stretch of the N5?

same ol sh1te

Maybe you should drive the road before you comment on it, you cannot get the sense for distance or gradient from a video. There very long steep hills that slow moving vehicles will have to reduce speed for. If an articulated lorry pulls out at Ballagh heading for Charlestown it will struggle to climb the long climb up the hill and unless the driver uses the hard shoulder they will cause a huge tailback behind if there is traffic coming the other way. This hill is 7-10km long (I'll measure next time)

Also, as I already said, the filter lanes are too short, much too short to slow in to enable you to turn left, therefore you are braking and slowing the traffic behind just so you can turn left.

markpb

Geogregor wrote: »

Would it be needed? I have to admit I don't know. What are the traffic figures on this stretch of the N5?

For this year:
N5 Between Tulsk and Frenchpark: 4708 AADT link
N5 Between Swinford and Charlestown: 4958 AADT link