M7 - Naas/Newbridge Bypass Upgrade [Junction 9a now open]

Sam Russell

marno21 wrote: »

This upgrade was always going to make things worse inbound. There is no longer a bottleneck at Naas so a larger volume of traffic joins the M50 queue quicker. This will only get worse when the M9 merge is fixed

There are two options here to solve this

1. Add lanes
2. Remove cars

Option 1 has been ruled out by TII so the only viable solution is option 2.

Option 3:

3. Use variable speed limits with average speed enforcement.

If the volume of vehicles is high, then slow them down, and penalise those that do not slow down.

marno21

Sam Russell wrote: »

Option 3:

3. Use variable speed limits with average speed enforcement.

If the volume of vehicles is high, then slow them down, and penalise those that do not slow down.

Option 3 is a temporary asset sweating measure. The M50 is at capacity and isn't able to take any more traffic, variable speed limits or not. The main benefit of the (enforced) variable speed limits will be reducing the number of collisions along the route.

WishUWereHere

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Noticed the gantry which was in the coned off area just before J9 SB has gone. Anyone know where it is being erected?

Edit: I think the gantry is now mounted over both sides between J8 & J9.

8 lanes & 2 hardshoulders will give you the size of it.

pad199207

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Edit: I think the gantry is now mounted over both sides between J8 & J9.

8 lanes & 2 hardshoulders will give you the size of it.

Didn’t think they were going to do it but the auxiliary lane between J8 and J9 is a needed addition

BelfastVanMan

pad199207 wrote: »

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Edit: I think the gantry is now mounted over both sides between J8 & J9.

8 lanes & 2 hardshoulders will give you the size of it.

Didn’t think they were going to do it but the auxiliary lane between J8 and J9 is a needed addition

A rare piece of forward-thinking.

MaceFace

The n7 Naas north Dublin bound entrance will be closed between 10 and 5 overnight. Interested to see if this is to remove the barriers and open the auxiliary lane and move the section Naas north to Johnstown back to 100km/h. Fingers crossed.

emfifty

Exit 9a is now 99% finished. All signs etc. (as far as I could see) installed, including new slip up to the interchange roundabout.
Cantilever gantry (westbound) installed with "Clane, Sallins and Millenium Park" listed. Should be ready to open very soon. Within the week hopefully.

road_high

More M9 M7 junction closures this weekend at night time. Diversions via the Curragh.

jmkennedyie

J10 remaining slip road now surfaced. Still plenty of relevelling required at south end of overbridge so a few weeks away from opening I guess.
J9a still needed some line painting yesterday. Possibly landscaping too, so could be next weekend?
Lots of fencing and maybe all gantries installed on mainline j10 to j8 but still some tidying up/hard shoulder surfacing to do eastbound

Sallins bypass:
-canal bridge beams installed
-looks like drainage being installed throughout...including Clane end
-no obvious activity on link into Sallins village. They could even leave this to very end...after through traffic on the bypass

regedit

Running the risk of being called up for lack of credentials and understanding of the complexity of the project, am I right in my observation that the builders are dragging their heals (reasons?) in completing the main-strip. Is it not 1000% logically for that section to be finalised and then, efforts to be shifted to the Kerry group roundabout, noise barriers and the Sallins bypass.? I drove to Kildare on Wednesday at 10 AM and there was hardly any activity.

WishUWereHere

regedit wrote: »

Running the risk of being called up for lack of credentials and understanding of the complexity of the project, am I right in my observation that the builders are dragging their heals (reasons?) in completing the main-strip. Is it not 1000% logically for that section to be finalised and then, efforts to be shifted to the Kerry group roundabout, sound barriers and the Sallins bypass.? I drove to Kildare on Wednesday at 10 AM and there was hardly any activity.

I'm also in lack of credentials, but I do observe that hardly anything has been touched at the roundabout exiting at J10 SB... I wonder why?

jmkennedyie

WishUWereHere wrote: »

I'm also in lack of credentials, but I do observe that hardly anything has been touched at the roundabout exiting at J10 SB... I wonder why?

Not certain where you mean but if it is here https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=53.2084&mlon=-6.7104#map=16/53.2084/-6.7104 then in the last week or two on the left of the lane Naas > Newbridge the surface has been relevelled and relaid to new final profile. I would expect current Naas to Newbridge traffic to be directed onto that new lowered lane in the coming week or two so they can dig out and relay the current lane going through the middle of the new roundabout.

IANACivilEngineer either but obviously lowering the existing road whilst maintaining traffic is not so straightforward.

Not a big deal but the following roundabout is also being worked on at the moment. Some kerbing in and getting ready for surfacing: https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=53.2065&mlon=-6.7129#map=16/53.2065/-6.7129

emfifty

jmkennedyie wrote: »

J10 remaining slip road now surfaced. Still plenty of relevelling required at south end of overbridge so a few weeks away from opening I guess.
J9a still needed some line painting yesterday. Possibly landscaping too, so could be next weekend?
Lots of fencing and maybe all gantries installed on mainline j10 to j8 but still some tidying up/hard shoulder surfacing to do eastbound

Sallins bypass:
-canal bridge beams installed
-looks like drainage being installed throughout...including Clane end
-no obvious activity on link into Sallins village. They could even leave this to very end...after through traffic on the bypass

Line painting seems to be complete as of today. Last of the signage being hoisted into place. Streetlights (poles) have been added so end is definitely in sight.

Ash.J.Williams

Just moved to Naas ...traffic is horrendous

SoupyNorman

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

Just moved to Naas ...traffic is horrendous

Where? When?

Ash.J.Williams

SoupyNorman wrote: »

Where? When?

i'm from west wicklow and got used to utilising the hills of rathcoole and kilteel to get to the m50 ...now it's get out of monread and sit and crawl to the m50!

i leave about 7.15am

Tomrota

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

i'm from west wicklow and got used to utilising the hills of rathcoole and kilteel to get to the m50 ...now it's get out of monread and sit and crawl to the m50!

i leave about 7.15am

Why would you move to Naas? It is an absolute nightmare of traffic with absolutely no plans to alleviate it with public transport. The entire N/M7 corridor has possibly the worst public transport in the entire GDA, hence why the traffic is constantly crawling to the M50. It’s so much easier to get to West Wicklow at peak times.

SoupyNorman

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

i'm from west wicklow and got used to utilising the hills of rathcoole and kilteel to get to the m50 ...now it's get out of monread and sit and crawl to the m50!

i leave about 7.15am

Is the evening commute not much faster?

benny79

I am getting home about 15 mins earlier in the evening commute sometimes the same the morning commute is 30 mins longer. I travel Kildare to Dublin and back. So I go the back roads in the morning as traffic keeps moving come out at Rathcoole to a stand still..


Only in this country would they open a new motorway and the traffic is worse! So disappointed as I really taught it would make a huge difference. Having said that they were discussing it on the radio yesterday afternoon and they said the N7 route (laois/ kildare - Dublin) is one of the worst in the country for public transport! Thats trains and buses etc must be times & frequency. Shocked to hear that to be honest!

marno21

benny79 wrote: »

Only in this country would they open a new motorway and the traffic is worse! So disappointed as I really taught it would make a huge difference. Having said that they were discussing it on the radio yesterday afternoon and they said the N7 route (laois/ kildare - Dublin) is one of the worst in the country for public transport! Thats trains and buses etc must be times & frequency. Shocked to hear that to be honest!

That is not the case, it's an internationally observed phenomenon. See Interstate 405 in LA with 6 lanes in places and traffic gets worse with every added lane.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand

The only solution to reduce traffic on the N7 corridor is DART Underground, Metrolink and other initiatives to move people around Dublin.

TheWonderLlama

or a properly functioning rail system. I would love to be able to take the train, but its slower, more expensive and less reliable than a car.

benny79

marno21 wrote: »

The only solution to reduce traffic on the N7 corridor is DART Underground, Metrolink and other initiatives to move people around Dublin.

Totally agree a underground is proving to work and be so successfully it baffles me why we wont invest especially for future generations.

_Kaiser_

benny79 wrote: »

Totally agree a underground is proving to work and be so successfully it baffles me why we wont invest especially for future generations.

Because long-term strategic projects with lots of disruption and resistance in the short term (ie: Bus Connects) don't win votes, and with our somewhat more mixed Governments these days which may or may not last the full term, the politicians that authorise it may not be around to collect the kudos at the end.

Mantis Toboggan

benny79 wrote: »

I am getting home about 15 mins earlier in the evening commute sometimes the same the morning commute is 30 mins longer. I travel Kildare to Dublin and back. So I go the back roads in the morning as traffic keeps moving come out at Rathcoole to a stand still..


Only in this country would they open a new motorway and the traffic is worse! So disappointed as I really taught it would make a huge difference. Having said that they were discussing it on the radio yesterday afternoon and they said the N7 route (laois/ kildare - Dublin) is one of the worst in the country for public transport! Thats trains and buses etc must be times & frequency. Shocked to hear that to be honest!

You have to realise you have 3 motorways (M7, M8 & M9) all coming into Dublin on those 3 lanes, it's always going to be a nightmare and likely to get worse going forward.

Hard to see where the solutions lie, I can't see the Government doing anything in the short to medium term to improve the situation. A lot of it is from a low rise city and urban sprawl.

prunudo

Somebody mentioned earlier in this thread that they expected the volumes to increase once the 3 laning was open due to the fact that a lot of people were avoiding the roadworks and going cross country or taking alternative routes. This may be coming through to fruition going by the reports on not much additional time savings. Ot will be interesting to see traffic volumes year on year.

Hotblack Desiato

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Because long-term strategic projects with lots of disruption and resistance in the short term (ie: Bus Connects) don't win votes, and with our somewhat more mixed Governments these days which may or may not last the full term, the politicians that authorise it may not be around to collect the kudos at the end.

Most TDs see their path to election as ensuring that the government doesn't invest in anything for "those b*stards up in Dublin".

BuzzFish

emfifty wrote: »

Exit 9a is now 99% finished. All signs etc. (as far as I could see) installed, including new slip up to the interchange roundabout.
Cantilever gantry (westbound) installed with "Clane, Sallins and Millenium Park" listed. Should be ready to open very soon. Within the week hopefully.

This is so close but seems to be taking an age. Light poles now installed along the link from the junction to the Millennium Park roundabout. No lights on top of the poles yet though. Road markings being put in place on the ramp down to millennium park roundabout. Still some signs to be mounted on poles on the ramp. However, no new signs or posts have been installed to direct traffic from millennium park up the new junction, so that's one more outstanding work.

I was coming up to the roundabout from the west side (Kerry Group) and some ol' wan came around the roundabout from my right and up the ramp she went at a fair clip. Workers looked a little shocked but the fencing was down at the time. She'd obviously spotted a sign for Dublin/Cork/Limerick up on the ramp :D

Anyway, maybe open this week but increasingly unlikely from what I can see.

Tomrota

marno21 wrote: »

That is not the case, it's an internationally observed phenomenon. See Interstate 405 in LA with 6 lanes in places and traffic gets worse with every added lane.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand

The only solution to reduce traffic on the N7 corridor is DART Underground, Metrolink and other initiatives to move people around Dublin.

Indeed but in the meantime they could provide a few proper bus routes connected to the transport infrastructure (and integrated) for those commuter towns clogging up the N7 and hence the M50.

Can someone tell me the sense in expanding the DART just as far as Celbridge and not at least newbridge? The N/M4 will get two DART lines relieving it, and the N7 not one. I don’t see the logic. The N7 is as nightmarish as the M50.

donvito99

Tomrota wrote: »

Indeed but in the meantime they could provide a few proper bus routes connected to the transport infrastructure (and integrated) for those commuter towns clogging up the N7 and hence the M50.

Can someone tell me the sense in expanding the DART just as far as Celbridge and not at least newbridge? The N/M4 will get two DART lines relieving it, and the N7 not one. I don’t see the logic. The N7 is as nightmarish as the M50.

Quad tracking ends at Hazelhatch, you would have to mix Dart's and everything else beyond that point.

pad199207

donvito99 wrote: »

Quad tracking ends at Hazelhatch, you would have to mix Dart's and everything else beyond that point.

Should at least come down to Naas. It’s the busiest station.