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

Chris_5339762

A lot of work going on this evening in the Median around the new Sallins bypass junction. Very many construction vehicles building a Siac sign in the middle boasting about the project.

Which will have to be removed long before they open any new lanes.

sdanseo

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

A lot of work going on this evening in the Median around the new Sallins bypass junction. Very many construction vehicles building a Siac sign in the middle boasting about the project.

Which will have to be removed long before they open any new lanes.

Saw that myself, couldn't help but roll the eyes. Propaganda given that they're progressing at what can only be described as pathetic pace.

If the issue is about releasing funds then that needs to happen. The amount of clearance so far on the mainline could have been done in a week with sensible staffing levels.

CeilingFly

marno21 wrote: »

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

J9A will serve large office, industrial and housing developments in millennium park. Kerry group gave €10m based on this new junction being put in place aa they alone hope to have over 1,000 employees there

CeilingFly

sdanseo wrote: »

Saw that myself, couldn't help but roll the eyes. Propaganda given that they're progressing at what can only be described as pathetic pace.

If the issue is about releasing funds then that needs to happen. The amount of clearance so far on the mainline could have been done in a week with sensible staffing levels.

Read my post a few posts up.

The extra lane is only one part of the overall project - probably the easiest part to do, but it can't be done without the other parts in place.

Massive amount of work has been done on the new 9a jct. Work has commenced on the new jct 10 location and substantial work has been completed on Sallins bypass

And that's in the first six weeks.

marno21

CeilingFly wrote: »

J9A will serve large office, industrial and housing developments in millennium park. Kerry group gave €10m based on this new junction being put in place aa they alone hope to have over 1,000 employees there

I'm more than aware of that, but a J9A would've had to have been implemented anyway for access to the R407/Sallins bypass. The existing junctions on the Naas bypass were planned in the late 1970s and are not fit for purpose in 2018 and beyond, especially proven by the realignment of J10.

The fact that Kerry are committing €10m is a nice bonus.

spacetweek

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.

That is a big reason alright. I think in this case it's justifiable to add another junction as Naas is getting pretty big and is joined onto Sallins. There's no way to access the train station from the motorway, there's a lot of congestion at J9 and J10, and Sallins' new bypass needed motorway access.

hognef

Nighttime lane closures (and works) next week between 10pm and 6am:

https://www.leinsterleader.ie/news/news/298884/traffic-alert-temporary-lane-closures-onn7-junction-8-near-johnstownto-m7-junction-10-naas.html

regedit

hognef wrote: »

Nighttime lane closures (and works) next week between 10pm and 6am:

https://www.leinsterleader.ie/news/news/298884/traffic-alert-temporary-lane-closures-onn7-junction-8-near-johnstownto-m7-junction-10-naas.html

I wonder what they are going to do in those 5 days?

sea12

regedit wrote: »

I wonder what they are going to do in those 5 days?

Might not get anything done if the forecasted weather comes.

beertons

regedit wrote: »

I wonder what they are going to do in those 5 days?

Build snowmen?

CeilingFly

regedit wrote: »

I wonder what they are going to do in those 5 days?

I would guess its something to do with jct 9a - possibly taking current bridge down before replacing with new structure?

Just a guess.

L1011

Bridge lift I would presume

Pale Red

Two questions
(1) Why ar the right hand lanes closed between Kill and the ball as there is no median on that stretch of the road to exand into?

(2) Will the portion being worked on now be finished this year/early next year and then move on to the last few km?

gilly0512

You would like to think that if they had the new lanes completed to Junction 11 by next year, that they would open them as soon as they're completed,  rather than opening the whole lot in 28 months time. The pace is worryingly and frustratingly slow at the moment, hopefully as the weather improves we will see a drastic increase in the pace of construction.

CeilingFly

gilly2308 wrote: »

You would like to think that if they had the new lanes completed to Junction 11 by next year, that they would open them as soon as they're completed,  rather than opening the whole lot in 28 months time. The pace is worryingly and frustratingly slow at the moment, hopefully as the weather improves we will see a drastic increase in the pace of construction.

as per posts above, plenty of construction taking place.

Its no use having 3 lanes without the 2 new junctions and massive work has been done on the Oberstown junction and work has commenced on the new location of junction 10.

The additional lane is probably the least intricate part of the project.

And where the 28 months coming from?

Early 2020 is the very latest otherwise massive penalties apply.

You can take it that it will open 3-4 months ahead of schedule - which is the norm these days.

pad199207

New road distance signs on Millennium Ring Road in Naas for ‘M7 Interchange’ never seen them before. Obviously the new Naas South Junction is going to be a major one.

Big Dec

Not sure this has been mentioned in detail already but...
Anyone else feel that they could do a better job building & maintaining an official site for the M7 upgrade?
The official site is shocking - very little details provided, and embedded images are useless.

regedit

Big Dec wrote: »

Not sure this has been mentioned in detail already but...
Anyone else feel that they could do a better job building & maintaining an official site for the M7 upgrade?
The official site is shocking - very little details provided, and embedded images are useless.

I agree.
Their website is completely infantile. Built for new in 2018 so... There's no twitter or FB presence either.

Carawaystick

CeilingFly wrote: »

Its no use having 3 lanes without the 2 new junctions

I'm not sure why you think this? Won't the majority of the traffic be continuing on the mainline to the M9/7 split?

sea12

regedit wrote: »

I agree.
Their website is completely infantile. Built for new in 2018 so... There's no twitter or FB presence either.

Agree it's pathetic.

Geogregor

Carawaystick wrote: »

CeilingFly wrote: »

Its no use having 3 lanes without the 2 new junctions

I'm not sure why you think this? Won't the majority of the traffic be continuing on the mainline to the M9/7 split?

They wouldn't open three lanes even if the surface in the median was done as they will need space to work on the junctions. There is no way to open three lanes until major works around the junctions are done.

marno21

I agree about the website. BAM have been doing lots of posting on the M11 and N25 PPP websites.

Perhaps they could hire m17 while he waits around for the Galway bypass to begin

sea12

Accident this morning at road works area. 1hr 15 to get from new ridge to naas. Disgrace they don't have a recovery truck in position ready to take any broken car down straight away. It was still held up at 11 am

CeilingFly

sea12 wrote: »

Accident this morning at road works area. 1hr 15 to get from new ridge to naas. Disgrace they don't have a recovery truck in position ready to take any broken car down straight away. It was still held up at 11 am

Recovery truck can't be everywhere. People were injured in the crash.
Crash caused by a gombeen wanting to get ahead of one car.

benny79

There has being a crash there every morning this week so far! Its a disaster..

Mantis Toboggan

With no break down lane it's always likely to end in disaster. Wasn't properly thought out by the companies involved.

benny79

Ha what is in this country!

CeilingFly

Tyson Fury wrote: »

With no break down lane it's always likely to end in disaster. Wasn't properly thought out by the companies involved.

where do you put a breakdown lane? An emergency lane is essential and hopefully rarely used and workers can clear off the emergency lane when needed, but a "breakdown lane" would be used by everyone taking aphone call, stopping for a piss etc.

Simply no option to current layout and hopefully the Jct 9 - 10 section will be finished at end of summer

Kevwoody

Tyson Fury wrote:

With no break down lane it's always likely to end in disaster. Wasn't properly thought out by the companies involved.

There's an awful lot of whinging in this thread!
There is no space for a breakdown lane unless mainline traffic was reduced to one lane, which for obvious reasons is not an option.
Also, people whinging about the progress of the build. Just because you drive through twice a day and cant suddenly see a change, doesnt mean theres no work being done.
TII have said it will take 2 years, can everyone just shut up and be grateful the upgrade is happening.

CeilingFly

I'm old enough to remember when the current 2 lanes were fields and you drove through Naas and Newbridge - would take 6-7 hours to get to Killarney...

...on a good day.