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

Darc19

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

there was a speed limit :eek:

Yes, but only applied to the middle lane

WishUWereHere

MaceFace wrote: »

Rejoice

Glad to see motorway speed being reinstated. But dare I ask what has or will be changed (between today & Sunday) to let them up the speed limit?

beertons

We can go faster.

Darc19

Nice to see almost all cones are off the hardshoulder, garda and service ramps completed, signage completed and the road nicely landscaped.

Just the lights on jct 10 and a small bit of top layer and line painting on jct 10 and it will be complete and the 120kmh officially restored.

NedNew2

Darc19 wrote: »

Nice to see almost all cones are off the hardshoulder, garda and service ramps completed, signage completed and the road nicely landscaped.

Just the lights on jct 10 and a small bit of top layer and line painting on jct 10 and it will be complete and the 120kmh officially restored.

There was a noticeable amount of rubbish, junk and building material scattered about the sides of the road last week when I travelled by (between J11 and J9 northbound). Have they cleaned that up?

_Kaiser_

Darc19 wrote: »

Nice to see almost all cones are off the hardshoulder, garda and service ramps completed, signage completed and the road nicely landscaped.

Just the lights on jct 10 and a small bit of top layer and line painting on jct 10 and it will be complete and the 120kmh officially restored.

Only took them about a year longer than necessary between the time-wasting at the start and slow progress generally, and we still don't have one of the junctions and the Sallins bypass could be Autumn/Winter yet looking at some of the pictures in the thread.

The cost to the economy over the lifetime of this project must be in the millions, not to mention the huge number of hours people lost as a result of it.

But yes, crawling to the finish line eventually I suppose! *slow clap for all involved*

This will (or definitely should!) stand as how NOT to manage/deliver a critical piece of road infrastructure.

GhostyMcGhost

Darc19 wrote: »

Nice to see almost all cones are off the hardshoulder, garda and service ramps completed, signage completed and the road nicely landscaped.

What signage? Up to last night most the overhead gantry signs were either missing or broken

(Old J10 not fixed, 9a half missing)

BuzzFish

GhostyMcGhost wrote: »

What signage? Up to last night most the overhead gantry signs were either missing or broken

(Old J10 not fixed, 9a half missing)

9a half missing on purpose as junction is closed and they don't want to signage to give the impression it's open.

The broken sign at J10 was caused by roadstone during the works and I guess they need to replace it?

jmkennedyie

NedNew2 wrote: »

There was a noticeable amount of rubbish, junk and building material scattered about the sides of the road last week when I travelled by (between J11 and J9 northbound). Have they cleaned that up?

South/Westbound has been cleaned up in the last day or two. Guess Northbound too.

Geogregor

regedit wrote: »

They should have invited a Chinese company to build the whole thing. We'd have it done in 6 months no problems.

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Are there any examples in Europe of the famous "Bring in a chinese company" to build major infrastructure?

They tried in Poland, before Euro 2012. They were completely inept, eventually were kicked out by the road authority and contracts had to be awarded directly to finish some crucial bits of motorways before the tournament (for example A2 between Warsaw and Lodz)

regedit wrote: »

Chinese company is a metaphor brought forward out of bitterness for the complexity the current builders have added but why not get a French or German company to tender. The road surface may be smoother, less mishaps and they would have probably completed the job in half the time

Looking how slow things are being build in Germany I would be careful with that. Also, avoid Italian contractors like a plague. We have tones of problems with them in Poland...

Ultimately most important are the local conditions as vast majority of subcontractors are local anyway. Any contractor will need local know how, will have to understand local rules and procedures. Here is the problems with the Italians in Poland. They quickly won some tenders by bidding low but apart from too low prices they also didn't have local teams ready.

Anyway, as far as I know Irish tenders are open to any European company. Nobody is stopping the French or the Germans from trying to win some contracts.

JohnC.

BAM (Dutch) and Dragados (Spanish) seem to be involved in a lot of stuff here.

_Kaiser_

Good morning all.

So, are we REALLY back to 120 this time, or did they pull another last minute delay?

Cazale

_Kaiser_ wrote:

So, are we REALLY back to 120 this time, or did they pull another last minute delay?

Drove it this morning at half six and all the 80 signs seemed to be gone. Traffic was busy enough so never got near the 120.

_Kaiser_

Cazale wrote: »

Drove it this morning at half six and all the 80 signs seemed to be gone. Traffic was busy enough so never got near the 120.

Yep drove it there earlier myself and while there's no 120 signs yet, the 80s are gone and everyone is doing in and around 120.

Litmus test... Traffic Squad car behind me for a few km through it and he had no interest in anyone at the higher speeds

Lots of stone chippings alongside the centre median though that'll need to be cleaned up yet.

Cazale

Sign just before junction 11 still mangled. Think it would have been fixed before they lifted the limit. Still plenty of cones and road work signs all over the place too so still feels like it's not finished.

WishUWereHere

Cazale wrote: »

Sign just before junction 11 still mangled. Think it would have been fixed before they lifted the limit. Still plenty of cones and road work signs all over the place too so still feels like it's not finished.

I don’t go as far as J11, but from J9 to 10 seems the same as last week/month when it was 80kph. Cones still around J9a. Wonder why the .reluctance to have upped the speed limit before now.

Darc19

Laughable

Posters complain about the 80kmh

Its removed and the road is back to 120kmh

Same posters complain.

Cazale

Darc19 wrote:

Posters complain about the 80kmh

Darc19 wrote:

Its removed and the road is back to 120kmh

Darc19 wrote:

Same posters complain.

Mine were observations.

_Kaiser_

Darc19 wrote: »

Laughable

Posters complain about the 80kmh

Its removed and the road is back to 120kmh

Same posters complain.

What's laughable is that this crew still can't deliver properly - stone chippings, debris and remnants of the works left behind, damaged signs etc.

The return to 120 is long overdue and they still haven't finished it, let alone the bypass.

I wouldn't break out the party balloons and champagne just yet.

Darc19

I drove it 15 minutes ago.

Here's the list of cones that some posters have a problem with.

Cones protecting jct 9a which is not open.

Approx 100m before old jct 10. About 10 cones. They are working offline at an old underpass.


Cones at jct 10 itself. These have beacons on them and they move like a strobe to give safety aspect to motorists using jct 10 as esb networks have not turned on the lighting.


Cones midpoint between jct 10 and m9 junction. Combined with 2 x men at work signs. This is for the entrance / exit of the field used for machinery parking and is currently being restored as a field.

Aside from that, not one single cone is on the 13 km stretch from jct 9 to jct 11

Signage completed last week was the distance markers that each are 0.5km apart as per most motorways. This had workmen literally 3m from vehicles on lane one.

road_high

Can't understand why at J9 Naas/Newbridge they couldn't have widened the exit to 2 full lanes northbound? People at peak times are going into the hard-shoulder area if going left for Newbridge. There appears to be plenty of space, silly design for such a busy junction.

Tomrota

road_high wrote: »

Can't understand why at J9 Naas/Newbridge they couldn't have widened the exit to 2 full lanes northbound? People at peak times are going into the hard-shoulder area if going left for Newbridge. There appears to be plenty of space, silly design for such a busy junction.

Isn’t that junction 10?

I saw the traffic buildup back onto the motorway at a non-busy time. The roundabout is the only way for newbridge people to get to Naas and is also the only way to exit off the M7 at this junction. It could end up being like the rathcoole exit. The exit lane should’ve been much longer like perhaps an auxiliary.

riddlinrussell

Stop and Go is in operation in Sallins for the link road tie in works, haven't had a chance to go out and see what the progress has been on the main bypass but they are doing overnight works on the tie in, presumably to minimise the disruption.

road_high

Tomrota wrote: »

Isn’t that junction 10?

I saw the traffic buildup back onto the motorway at a non-busy time. The roundabout is the only way for newbridge people to get to Naas and is also the only way to exit off the M7 at this junction. It could end up being like the rathcoole exit. The exit lane should’ve been much longer like perhaps an auxiliary.

Sorry J10 Naas South! Roundabout itself atill very unfinished with cones everywhere.

Odyssey 2005

Can anyone tell me what the speed limit is on this stretch is now. I travelled up by coach today and drove home this afternoon, not one seemed indication sign. Are we to be fukin inspired?.

Tacitus Kilgore

Odyssey 2005 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me what the speed limit is on this stretch is now. I travelled up by coach today and drove home this afternoon, not one seemed indication sign. Are we to be fukin inspired?.

The signs I saw said 120km/h anyway?

Odyssey 2005

Tacitus Kilgore wrote: »

The signs I saw said 120km/h anyway?

I'll look again so. I wasn't the only one. Most were below 120.

Darc19

Odyssey 2005 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me what the speed limit is on this stretch is now. I travelled up by coach today and drove home this afternoon, not one seemed indication sign. Are we to be fukin inspired?.

Rules of the road state that motorway limit is 120kmh except when stated otherwise.

So yes you are meant to be inspired and know the basics.

Do you see limit signs on other motorways besides on the entry points at junctions?

emfifty

No 120km/h speed signs at entry to motorway exit 9 westbound.
Also, no emergency telephones in place yet.
No 'sign' of the new overhead gantries to be installed at exit 11 merge for m9 yet.

Delays on these basic road safety features warrants fines on the contractor at this stage in my view. They've got away with a lot of sloppiness.

soundman45

emfifty wrote: »

No 120km/h speed signs at entry to motorway exit 9 westbound.
Also, no emergency telephones in place yet.
No 'sign' of the new overhead gantries to be installed at exit 11 merge for m9 yet.

Delays on these basic road safety features warrants fines on the contractor at this stage in my view. They've got away with a lot of sloppiness.

I saw signs at Naas J9 saying 120kmh and works last week at night working on overhead gantry signs