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

pad199207

Patww79 wrote: »

To seamlessly join an existing 3 lane section to a new 3 lane section, because currently one of the existing 3 turns into the exit for Naas north.

At the Naas North Exit after completion will be 5 lanes on approach. 3 mainline lanes and retaining the two lanes for the Naas North Exit

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

regedit

Drove on M7 from the ball in Naas to the Newbridge exit just out of curiosity, to see what he progress was.so far.
I was there at 13:55 and I saw one man in a digger chatting to someone else and closer to Naas, a truck.
Not a single other man, machine or any sign of activity. They seem to have 'shaved' off a layer of turf from the median but much more needs to be done. Not sure if any late evening work is taking place but one would think that siac construction would be under pressure to finish asap. There's clearly a flat, set fee they will get paid and the government doesn't pay them by days...Instead of pushing, they seem to be stalling.

It would be good to get someone from the developer to answer questions. There used to be a person providing updates and answering questions when the M50 was widened.

ebbsy

More lanes for people to crash into each other then....a lot of people can't handle the fast lane.

They should take the bus.

AugustusMinimus

ebbsy wrote: »

More lanes for people to crash into each other then....a lot of people can't handle the fast lane.

They should take the bus.

What’s the fast lane?

jmkennedyie

The project also includes the Sallins bypass. Access established near Bodenstown and Sallins Lidl at least. And apparently lots of work near railway line in advance of bridge slide in this Easter (that bridge technically a different contract I believe).

marno21

jmkennedyie wrote: »

The project also includes the Sallins bypass. Access established near Bodenstown and Sallins Lidl at least. And apparently lots of work near railway line in advance of bridge slide in this Easter (that bridge technically a different contract I believe).

And a lot of clearing near Osberstown junction, especially the bridge nearing the end of its life

Cazale

regedit wrote:

Drove on M7 from the ball in Naas to the Newbridge exit just out of curiosity, to see what he progress was.so far. I was there at 13:55 and I saw one man in a digger chatting to someone else and closer to Naas, a truck. Not a single other man, machine or any sign of activity. They seem to have 'shaved' off a layer of turf from the median but much more needs to be done. Not sure if any late evening work is taking place but one would think that siac construction would be under pressure to finish asap. There's clearly a flat, set fee they will get paid and the government doesn't pay them by days...Instead of pushing, they seem to be stalling.

Yeah it's like that all the time. I thought there would have been more activity and progress now that it's more than a month into it.

_Kaiser_

Every morning/evening I've been through it since the barriers went up, there's been little to no work happening or workers around. They've removed the median are still cleaning up but a month to do this??
You'd think this was some seldom-used back road in the middle of nowhere, not one of the busiest main routes in the country!!

On the plus side, the traffic flow seems to have settled down to between 70-85 km/h (depending on the section) so that's a bit better!

sea12

Yea the traffic is flowing pretty well. If anything it could be a tad better than pre works. Less people jumping queue by going through side roads and rejoining.

beertons

Friend of mine is working on the site beside the Kerry group. No overtime being offered at the moment.

D Trent

ebbsy wrote: »

More lanes for people to crash into each other then....a lot of people can't handle the fast lane.

They should take the bus.

What's the bus ?

sdanseo

D Trent wrote: »

What's the bus ?

The correct question is, what's the fast lane?

MayoSalmon

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

What’s the fast lane?

The politically correct term is the overtaking lane aka the lane you need to drive in whilst overtaking all the cars with people on their phones and scared grannies

sea12

3 Lorries waiting for the digger man to commence work at 8.20 this morning. This was for the top soil removal in the median of the road.

They are working from both ends of the works now but still shocking slow.

jmkennedyie

Took a spin around the canal/back roads. Plenty of earth moved for the bypass in fields west of Sallins, but no hint of works for bridges over canal or over Liffey .

The road from Digby bridge to Sallins along canal is closed to through traffic - but that is not because of bypass construction. It is because of partial collapse of a wall/bridge/parapet adjacent canal.

The railway bridge seems ready to go...to be craned in rather than rolled in I guess.







The two vertical beams by the train in third pic align with what looks like piling - I guess the bridge is going between these.

tom1ie

regedit wrote: »

Drove on M7 from the ball in Naas to the Newbridge exit just out of curiosity, to see what he progress was.so far.
I was there at 13:55 and I saw one man in a digger chatting to someone else and closer to Naas, a truck.
Not a single other man, machine or any sign of activity. They seem to have 'shaved' off a layer of turf from the median but much more needs to be done. Not sure if any late evening work is taking place but one would think that siac construction would be under pressure to finish asap. There's clearly a flat, set fee they will get paid and the government doesn't pay them by days...Instead of pushing, they seem to be stalling.

It would be good to get someone from the developer to answer questions. There used to be a person providing updates and answering questions when the M50 was widened.

There doesn’t seem to be any work going on after 5pm and no work at the weekends. Surely there should’ve been a cash incentive for the contractor to get this job finished ASAP. I counted 4 diggers stripping soil in the centeral median today. That’s pityful.

Larbre34

You have to understand the way these contracts are tendered. The contractor that got the job did so precisely because he committed the minimum of resources to get it over the line, hence he was able to low ball the price. Price makes up the lions share of the scoring matrix, so it will always win over quality or time. There is no question of cash bonuses for getting it done quickly. The contractor submits his work programme and if the engineer accepts it they work to it. The extra cash comes if the contractor can blame the client for any delaying factors, which they do, liberally. Night and weekend work is hugely expensive too, thats why you wont see it. On behalf of the Government, TII's mission is economy not efficiency.

tom1ie

Larbre34 wrote: »

You have to understand the way these contracts are tendered. The contractor that got the job did so precisely because he committed the minimum of resources to get it over the line, hence he was able to low ball the price. Price makes up the lions share of the scoring matrix, so it will always win over quality or time. There is no question of cash bonuses for getting it done quickly. The contractor submits his work programme and if the engineer accepts it they work to it. The extra cash comes if the contractor can blame the client for any delaying factors, which they do, liberally. Night and weekend work is hugely expensive too, thats why you wont see it. On behalf of the Government, TII's mission is economy not efficiency.

This may be the case but on a national piece of critical infrastructure there should always be an incentive to get the job done as soon as possible, be that cash incentives or whatever. During the tendering process contractors should be required to give a flat cost for the project over a certain period of time. Whoever comes in at the lowest price gets that contract. However there should be an allowance in the contract which caters for a faster finish time, with a respective cost increase.
If I get a plasterer in to plaster my house, I know it’ll take a week for him to do it. If he can supply an extra guy the schedule is cut back by a certain degree, but the price increases. If I can afford the price increase I allow this to go ahead.
Same principal.
How much is this project costing anyway?

Larbre34

€110 million for the motorway and the Sallins bypass.

But again, in your own house you can prioritise time over cash flow as you wish. TII dont do that, that have to fund many schemes at the same time and need to maximise productivity versus cash flow over the multi years of these projects. Basically, if they said money no object to finish the M7 at nights and weekends, theyd lose out on some maintenance and realignment jobs in the rest of the country and there is a political balance to what they are doing.

Anyway, not to worry, itll all be done in 2 years!

sea12

Anyway, not to worry, itll all be done in 2 years![/quote]

I thought the 3 lanes on n7 were to be done by q1 2019?

marno21

There is still severe restrictions on Capital spending by TII until at least 2021, and there has only been €20m released for this project in 2018. If TII asked the contractors to hurry up and get it done early, they wouldn't be able to pay them, because central government is withholding money for now. The contract is structured in such a way that it's dragged out enough to facilitate a proper payment structure.

There will be different timescales for the different elements of the project, with there being four elements:

* Mainline widening between J9 and J11 (14km) - started January 2018
* R407 Sallins bypass & Sallins link road
* New junction J9A at Osberstown
* Removal of existing J10 and relocating to junction with R445

If there are timescales out there, feel free to post, but the project as a whole won't finish until 2020. With the widening, it'll be easy to see how it's going and how long it'll take as M7 drivers are so close to the action

CeilingFly

sea12 wrote: »

3 Lorries waiting for the digger man to commence work at 8.20 this morning. This was for the top soil removal in the median of the road.

They are working from both ends of the works now but still shocking slow.

Maybe look at what the overall project entails and have a drive around the entire project area.

The two main construction items are the new oberstown junction and the new junction 10 location and you also have the sallins bypass.

Huge work has been done on the new oberstown junction, work has now commenced on the new junction 10 location and substantial works have been done on the sallins by pass.

Just because you see just a few lads on the main motorway, doesn't mean that's all there are working.

For my own sources in Kerry group (they gave €10m towards it) it is hoped that the project will be open for use by Sept next year, ahead of schedule, with fininshing works incl landscaping etc taking a a few extra weeks.

Be well and win

I presume there are restrictions in place on the times and number of lorries that are allowed enter and exit the middle of the road works, especially during rush hour in order to keep the traffic moving.

Work also seems to have begun down at Naas South

Fun this morning, car broke down in the works northbound and everything nearly ground to a halt

sea12

Be well and win wrote: »

I presume there are restrictions in place on the times and number of lorries that are allowed enter and exit the middle of the road works, especially during rush hour in order to keep the traffic moving.

Work also seems to have begun down at Naas South

Fun this morning, car broke down in the works northbound and everything nearly ground to a halt

Oh that traffic was crazy this morn. Was stuck in the middle of it. Added additional 25 mins to the journey

sea12

CeilingFly wrote: »

Maybe look at what the overall project entails and have a drive around the entire project area.

The two main construction items are the new oberstown junction and the new junction 10 location and you also have the sallins bypass.

Huge work has been done on the new oberstown junction, work has now commenced on the new junction 10 location and substantial works have been done on the sallins by pass.

Just because you see just a few lads on the main motorway, doesn't mean that's all there are working.

For my own sources in Kerry group (they gave €10m towards it) it is hoped that the project will be open for use by Sept next year, ahead of schedule, with fininshing works incl landscaping etc taking a a few extra weeks.

Yea I've seen the other works and they are making good progress but still think they could be doing so much more in the m7. It's the main artery for south traffic.

Good to hear timeline if sept was achieved. Should be possible if they really went after it as its not the most complicated job on the world.

marno21

Dublin-Cork railway line will close for the Easter Bank Holiday weekend from Friday 30th to Monday 2nd April at 12:30 for works on the Sallins bypass scheme.

Bus transfers in operation between Newbridge and Heuston.

JupiterKid

In the SABRE forum a poster quite rightly questioned the new Junction 9a at Osberstown, as he pointed out that putting more junctions on motorways tends to reduce their capacity as it encourages short distance "junction hopping" traffic mixing with long distance strategic traffic.

I was under the impression that the Kerry Group was a big reason for the building of this junction, as they wanted direct access to their HQ and they are contributing €10m to the project. Maybe a better arrangement would have been an offset type junction arrangement with parallel access roads between J9 and J9a like between J13 Dundrum and J14 Sandyford on the M50? But it's all academic now...

And does anyone know if the central median on the widened M7 will be a concrete barrier? I would presume so.

marno21

JupiterKid wrote: »

In the SABRE forum a poster quite rightly questioned the new Junction 9a at Osberstown, as he pointed out that putting more junctions on motorways tends to reduce their capacity as it encourages short distance "junction hopping" traffic mixing with long distance strategic traffic.

I was under the impression that the Kerry Group was a big reason for the building of this junction, as they wanted direct access to their HQ and they are contributing €10m to the project. Maybe a better arrangement would have been an offset type junction arrangement with parallel access roads between J9 and J9a like between J13 Dundrum and J14 Sandyford on the M50? But it's all academic now...

And does anyone know if the central median on the widened M7 will be a concrete barrier? I would presume so.

To me the primary reason for J9A is for the Sallins bypass, as the Sallins traffic at present has to negotiate J9 with all the Naas traffic and then the congested Ring Road.

It wouldn't made no sense to have the Sallins bypass coming out in the Naas Ring Road and having to use J9

JupiterKid

Will there be an extra "auxiliary lane" between J9 and J9a like on the M50 between the junctions that make it a type of D4? I foresee weaving and general congestion problems between These junctions as they are so close together.