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

Be well and win

sdanseo wrote: »

Bit silly to be hearing stories of the two vans southbound in peak. Sounds like shooting fish rather than trying to positively effect the commuting direction.

Gatso vans are not this or anywhere and even then are having an effect.

If you had one van then when people pass it and are clear of it then they will accelerate and ignore the limits. 2nd one puts manners on people

I drove it this morning northbound in the rush hour. stuck cruise control on to 60k and motored along. Boring as hell but very smooth and no stop/start until I got to the Round ball and got held up in the Kill junction backlog.

barneygumble99

Drove the road twice today, northbound around 10am, vast majority doing 60, took about 18 minutes to travel the full length, no issues, 2 speed vans on the northbound side. Drove southbound around 4:45, bit slower alright but moving most of the time, lots of work being done even though it was pretty much dark and very hard to do any kind of outdoor construction work without daylight.

harr

Have 3 early hospital appointments next week one in crumlin and two in tallaght and just wondering if the traffic jams have eased any...
Travelling from kildare/ Laois border and two weeks ago we were late for a 9am appointment even though we left here at 7am. Less time spent in the car as possible as we will be traveling with a special needs child who does not tolerate traffic jams to well...

Chris_5339762

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

I came down Saturday morning through the roadworks. One camera van about halfway along. Adherance to the 60kmh limit was much improved except people seemed to be going about 50kmh instead of 60. Big improvement for me though.

Came back up again today. Everyone pottering along at 60kmh. Very happy with that. A few going much faster but its like night and day versus when I first went through when this all began.

wotswattage

Now that everyone is doing 60kmh for a whole week, has there been a reduction in accidents?

Graniteville

wotswattage wrote: »

Now that everyone is doing 60kmh for a whole week, has there been a reduction in accidents?

I think just one minor accident last week. One small breakdown today but didn't cause much problem.

benny79

harr wrote: »

Have 3 early hospital appointments next week one in crumlin and two in tallaght and just wondering if the traffic jams have eased any...
Travelling from kildare/ Laois border and two weeks ago we were late for a 9am appointment even though we left here at 7am. Less time spent in the car as possible as we will be traveling with a special needs child who does not tolerate traffic jams to well...

no reduction I actually think its worse! I go the back roads in the morning via punchestown/ Rathcoole. Unfortunately you are leaving right at rush hour if I was you I'd be leaving at 6.30am better early than late.

ipodrocker

anyway all the talk of traffic, how is the actual progress of the roadworks coming along?

pad199207

It really was cruel today.

“Spent 7hrs in the car today to get in and out of Dublin. Whatever they are trying as a traffic plan for the #N7, it's not f**king working.”

Via Twitter

OldMrBrennan83

pad199207 wrote: »

It really was cruel today.

“Spent 7hrs in the car today to get in and out of Dublin. Whatever they are trying as a traffic plan for the #N7, it's not f**king working.”

Via Twitter

From what I seen it wasn't all the issue anyway, there were massive delays on the Naas road inbound well inside the M50 that were still there after 10:30am. Was just a nightmare day for traffic in Dublin or anywhere heading that way.

ongarboy

Bear in mind additional aggravating factors. Near full employment and a buoyant economy means more commuters and commercial vans/trucks etc on the roads combined with Christmas shoppers making the trip to Dublin. Combine that with messy rainy weather, dark mornings and evenings and the reduced road capacity and restrictions, then you've a perfect storm for all sorts of gridlock!

Pablod

Yep this -->

ongarboy wrote: »

Near full employment and a buoyant economy means more commuters and commercial vans/trucks etc on the roads combined with Christmas shoppers making the trip to Dublin.

= this time next year or maybe into 2020 - even with the extra lane we'll be back to square one of gridlock #NoFuturePlanning

Mantis Toboggan

Pablod wrote: »

Yep this --> = this time next year or maybe into 2020 - even with the extra lane we'll be back to square one of gridlock #NoFuturePlanning

Exactly, with ongoing population increase and the increasing importance of Dublin for jobs then these traffic issues will continue and possibly get worse.

Avatar MIA

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

Exactly, with ongoing population increase and the increasing importance of Dublin for jobs then these traffic issues will continue and possibly get worse.

Today the holdup wasn't from Junction 11 to 8 it was from Junction 7 onwards. That's not going to change.

Today a young one (apparently never seen before in Ireland) was pulled in by the Gardaí, might have been a breakdown. Of course, after this was passed traffic picked up again.

How does the government deal with stupid?

Kamili

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Today the holdup wasn't from Junction 11 to 8 it was from Junction 7 onwards. That's not going to change.

Today a young one (apparently never seen before in Ireland) was pulled in by the Gardaí, might have been a breakdown. Of course, after this was passed traffic picked up again.

How does the government deal with stupid?

It was a breakdown

https://twitter.com/LiveDrive/status/1070581223112761344

https://twitter.com/LiveDrive/status/1070581569532899328

Avatar MIA

Kamili wrote: »

It was a breakdown

https://twitter.com/LiveDrive/status/1070581223112761344

https://twitter.com/LiveDrive/status/1070581569532899328

They made it all the way over to the Left lane and past Junction 8 by the time I passed, around 8am.

jmkennedyie

Outbound lane split / lane swap to outer lanes imminent if it didn't happen already...
http://kildare.ie/CountyCouncil/PressReleasesAdverts/M7Naas-NewbridgeBy-PassUpgradeNotificationofTrafficManagementWorks.html

wing52

Outbound lane split was there on Friday night about 9pm.
I found it easier to stay right for the better surface and a smoother merge.

Avatar MIA

wing52 wrote: »

Outbound lane split was there on Friday night about 9pm.
I found it easier to stay right for the better surface and a smoother merge.

I usually leave work at 4pm on a Friday, but left at 6pm last Friday and made great progress through traffic. Spent between 30 and 45 mins less time in traffic.

I too took the right lane by accident, and it seemed the left lane was more empty, but eventually caught up and passed them out well before the merge.

riddlinrussell

Went and had a look at the works on the canal over-bridge on Saturday, only got one decent picture (and was immediately drenched for my efforts), there is a significant earth ramp built up on the northern canal bank stretching to at least where I would expect the Sallins junction roundabout, no obvious earthworks could be seen on the southern side however.

https://imgur.com/p5B2t7n

road_high

ongarboy wrote: »

Bear in mind additional aggravating factors. Near full employment and a buoyant economy means more commuters and commercial vans/trucks etc on the roads combined with Christmas shoppers making the trip to Dublin. Combine that with messy rainy weather, dark mornings and evenings and the reduced road capacity and restrictions, then you've a perfect storm for all sorts of gridlock!

Which is why an all out effort should have been made during the great summer we had to get the work advanced- not leave it all til now

Graniteville

road_high wrote: »

Which is why an all out effort should have been made during the great summer we had to get the work advanced- not leave it all til now

Massive amount of work was done in the summer.

Remember, a full new drainage system was required.

Over 30 teams were working a full 40 hours a week and still are.

You could have 20 teams working daytime and 10 working night, just to give people like you a good feeling, but in the real world it does not work.

Project is well ahead of time (good weather helped) and will be open in just over 3 months.

jmkennedyie

riddlinrussell wrote: »

no obvious earthworks could be seen on the southern side however.

Yep the works I saw a week ago on south side of canal were basically a dirt road from the railway bridge area, and a rectangular base of hardcore down where I guess the pilings/foundations for the South side canal overbridge are going in. All still very preliminary.

riddlinrussell

jmkennedyie wrote: »

Yep the works I saw a week ago on south side of canal were basically a dirt road from the railway bridge area, and a rectangular base of hardcore down where I guess the pilings/foundations for the South side canal overbridge are going in. All still very preliminary.

I will say the road will have an interesting profile there, under two bridges (Osberstown Rd and Train) then immediately gaining height to bridge the Canal, back down to sallins roundabout, then twice over the Liffey (I think?),. Although the liffey bridges I assume will have a flatter profile, the Liffey doesn't have any traffic on it and is lower down than the canal.

(As an aside while I was up there I noticed works on the west end of the Leinster Aqueduct, a bridge there is being repaired and they had sandbagged the canal entirely dry, was very interesting to see!)

Bonzo Delaney

Is it still sandbagged might take a stroll down that way the weekend

beertons

Let us know, might pop down there tomorrow too.

jmkennedyie

riddlinrussell wrote: »

(As an aside while I was up there I noticed works on the west end of the Leinster Aqueduct, a bridge there is being repaired and they had sandbagged the canal entirely dry, was very interesting to see!)

Interesting. There was damage to a wall/embankment (on the south-side of the southern canal road) forcing the temporary closure to vehicles as shown on openstreetmap: here

Pedestrians/cyclist access still permitted.

Maybe had to drain the canal to repair the outer embankment?

If any of you are going for a peak at works I recommend approach from Osberstown road here so you can also see progress on new Osberstown overbridge, new temporary road around this construction, completed railway bridge, and south side canal bridge foundations.

And re profile: not much decline any more from Canal bridge height to Sallins roundabout as enormous amount of soil has been placed to keep road & new roundabout between canal and Liffey at a high level. I wonder where they got the fill from TBH.

riddlinrussell

jmkennedyie wrote: »

Interesting. There was damage to a wall/embankment (on the south-side of the southern canal road) forcing the temporary closure to vehicles as shown on openstreetmap: here

Pedestrians/cyclist access still permitted.

Maybe had to drain the canal to repair the outer embankment?

If any of you are going for a peak at works I recommend approach from Osberstown road here so you can also see progress on new Osberstown overbridge, new temporary road around this construction, completed railway bridge, and south side canal bridge foundations.

And re profile: not much decline any more from Canal bridge height to Sallins roundabout as enormous amount of soil has been placed to keep road & new roundabout between canal and Liffey at a high level. I wonder where they got the fill from TBH.

Thats an excellent point, its really a humongous amount of fill, I've not seen many obvious borrow pits anywhere...

There was some clear work done to the actual internal canal wall where it had been sandbagged, I assume the bank wasn't structurally sound.

s14driftking

Most fill came from st James hospital construction

riddlinrussell

s14driftking wrote: »

Most fill came from st James hospital construction

Ah right, I was working on the assumption that fill had to come from the area, I believe that to be a requirement in Northern Ireland.