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

_Kaiser_

riddles wrote: »

How many times have large swathes of that median wall been built and then knocked down, surely a temp structure in place before the final positions fixed is best.

I've noticed a few odd little swerves/jinks along the inbound route in the (I'm presuming) finalised right lane alright. Would hope this would be corrected before go live and full speeds, but who knows with this project.

Was on it last night after midnight and there was activity outbound in the final stretch - complete with massive blinding led lights to screw up your night vision (and the camera van positioned right beside it of course).

If only they'd done this last summer when there was plenty of long bright evenings.

Emme

lawred2 wrote: »

Here we go again what?

Defending the indefensible.

lawred2

Emme wrote: »

Defending the indefensible.

ah jaysus - you just went straight to goal there... If you think asking for even one instance to back up categorical statements as 'defending the indefensible' then I'm not sure reasonable discussion is for you.

I held no prior position on this - that's why I was asking.

But shur nevermind. I'll leave you to it.

Sam Russell

Mod: Can we cut out the sniping.

tomtraubert

Emme wrote: »

At this stage I feel like trading my car in for a pony and trap. They way traffic is on the M9/N7 now a pony and trap would be no slower than a car

Pony and trap not allowed on the Motorway (the M part from J9 onwards), don't waste your money.

tomtraubert

harr wrote: »

I see people now giving out about them cutting down the trees along the side of the motorway to make way for the new hard shoulder.... KCC has confirmed planning permission was granted for this , seemingly it goes against the wildlife act of not cutting hedges between March and August.

You can do with within that timeframe in certain circumstances, especially road safety. In this case they are probably using that caveat. In fairness though, the hard shoulder as you call it (it's actually, on a motorway, called an Emergency Lane - which is why it's bounded by a solid yellow line, you aren't allowed to use it for anything other than a breakdown, it must be kept free for the Emergency services. It's a hard shoulder on non-motorways, broken yellow line, you can pull in on it providing you don't endanger anyone) is pretty important.

tomtraubert

rameire wrote: »

yeah, cant believe they have been building it for 10 years. so annoying.
they only started working on the road in October 2017,
the contract is to have it all done by Jan 2020.
it is a 27 month, 110 million contract.

They started the widening section of the contract in January 2018, planned completion in 202 for the entire scheme (widening, junction 9a and sallins bypass). The widening was to be finished by the start of April, then Easter. It appears that it'll be at least September 2019 before the widening is officially complete.

harr

tomtraubert wrote: »

You can do with within that timeframe in certain circumstances, especially road safety. In this case they are probably using that caveat. In fairness though, the hard shoulder as you call it (it's actually, on a motorway, called an Emergency Lane - which is why it's bounded by a solid yellow line, you aren't allowed to use it for anything other than a breakdown, it must be kept free for the Emergency services. It's a hard shoulder on non-motorways, broken yellow line, you can pull in on it providing you don't endanger anyone) is pretty important.

Not doubting you but I don’t think I have ever heard it called anything else other than the hard shoulder...

regedit

i think the builder underestimated this simple widening project. It bugs me that the initial period was spent not on the main section (Naas ball to M7-M9 split) but, instead, the Sallins bypass was prioritised. Serious lack of common sense. I travel the section of the road on a daily basis and what I find shocking is the attitude of the staff. Long breaks, operators sitting in their cabins, on their phones, 1 digger doing something casually while 3-4 builders are gathered around and are staring at a hole. Widening of the M50 from 2 to 3 lanes was a much smoother job.

iseegirls

regedit wrote: »

I travel the section of the road on a daily basis and what I find shocking is the attitude of the staff. Long breaks, operators sitting in their cabins, on their phones, 1 digger doing something casually while 3-4 builders are gathered around and are staring at a hole. Widening of the M50 from 2 to 3 lanes was a much smoother job.

You must be driving that road up to 20 times a day if you're able to monitor everybody's lunch break time.
A digger doing something casually?? Operators sitting in their cabins??
Your points are so ridiculous.

Hotblack Desiato

regedit wrote: »

i think the builder underestimated this simple widening project.

It's not a simple widening project.

Emme

iseegirls wrote: »

You must be driving that road up to 20 times a day if you're able to monitor everybody's lunch break time.
A digger doing something casually?? Operators sitting in their cabins??
Your points are so ridiculous.

I agree with the poster who said that. If you commute on that road you will be going very slowly in the mornings, far slower than 60kmph. You will have ample opportunity to see the behaviour the poster described. Indeed I saw that exact behaviour on the road last Tuesday morning. Cab drivers on phones and groups of workers (or civil engineers) huddled around talking.

Joey Joe-Joe Jr

Emme wrote: »

I agree with the poster who said that. If you commute on that road you will be going very slowly in the mornings, far slower than 60kmph. You will have ample opportunity to see the behaviour the poster described. Indeed I saw that exact behaviour on the road last Tuesday morning. Cab drivers on phones and groups of workers (or civil engineers) huddled around talking.

Absolutely disgusting. There should be a complete and outright ban on the use of phones, huddling and talking on that site until some real progress is evident.

JohnC.

It's not a prison chain gang and it should be pretty obvious that communication would be quite important through the project. Not communicating and discussing what is happening is what makes things go wrong.

regedit

iseegirls wrote: »

You must be driving that road up to 20 times a day if you're able to monitor everybody's lunch break time.
A digger doing something casually?? Operators sitting in their cabins??
Your points are so ridiculous.

Doing 30-40 km an hour allows you to see a lot of things. Often you are completely stopped and can clearly see what happens. My opinion isn't based on a single observation but as I said, I travel this route 5-6 days a week (never more than once a day). I've seen digegr operators sleeping in the cabins too!

prunudo

Have the posters complaining about the work practices of the site workers ever considered that maybe they are waiting for materials or lorries that are stuck in the same traffic that you are stuck in. I don't think you really understand the logistics of working on a tight work site.

wheres me jumpa

How was the one lane merge from M9 been this week? I was early most days and it seemed fine.

Will be later next week so wondering if it is causing delays?

Joey Joe-Joe Jr

JohnC. wrote: »

It's not a prison chain gang and it should be pretty obvious that communication would be quite important through the project. Not communicating and discussing what is happening is what makes things go wrong.

All communications associated with the project should have taken place in a dedicated “communications bunker” off-site at least 24 months in advance of the real work of moving earth and widening this important road that these so-called engineers should be getting in with, instead of huddling. Disgraceful. There no place for it on a building site.

And another thing, by my estimates, which I carried out using nothing other than casual, uninformed observations , they could have had this project completed in a half an hour if they had simply utilized cloning technologies to develop a workforce of 20 million half decent engineers (or 10 million fully decent ones).

Joey Joe-Joe Jr

jvan wrote: »

Have the posters complaining about the work practices of the site workers ever considered that maybe they are waiting for materials or lorries that are stuck in the same traffic that you are stuck in. I don't think you really understand the logistics of working on a tight work site.

They should have built a dedicated, 6 lane, elevated motorway specifically for transporting materials to and from the site.

It seems to me that some motorists expect the road crews to be going at it like they are depicted in some of those "five year plan" Soviet propaganda films of the 1950s, teams of men digging in sync and others running back and forth with wheelbarrows full of dirt!
Edit: I forgot to include Olga from the Volga,marching past, carrying a stack of kerbstones on her shoulder.

Emme

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It seems to me that some motorists expect the road crews to be going at it like they are depicted in some of those "five year plan" Soviet propaganda films of the 1950s, teams of men digging in sync and others running back and forth with wheelbarrows full of dirt!

The Soviets would have had the project finished in 6 months.

Seriously nobody is expecting them to work like slaves but the project should have clear milestones with costing and timing built in. Maybe there were but I'd say the milestones and costings have been way exceeded by now. The public who are paying for this road have a right to know what's going on instead of being told lies about the finish dates.

If there is a specific reason for the gangs working such a short day and at such a slow pace the public should be told why. The public should be told why machinery was parked up at 4pm most days and 2pm on Fridays.

We had a good summer last year and a lot more progress could have been made if they took advantage of the long evenings and had more people working on the project. It is the main route in and out of the country's capital city so there is no excuse for dragging out the project like they have done.

gilly1910

lawred2 wrote: »

Have you instances to hand of similar projects being done in half the time?

You must work for SIAC, as any Irish person will tell you that Projects anywhere else in the world are completed far quicker, and generally within the original costs. You can come on here all you want, and try to defend the Government/Contractors, but the history of this country is littered with projects that went way over budget, and took way longer than planned.

lawred2

gilly1910 wrote: »

You must work for SIAC, as any Irish person will tell you that Projects anywhere else in the world are completed far quicker, and generally within the original costs. You can come on here all you want, and try to defend the Government/Contractors, but the history of this country is littered with projects that went way over budget, and took way longer than planned.

So any such instances to hand then?

I'm not defending anyone. I've zero skin in the game. And I'm certainly not employed by the SIAC (?). But I'd like to see evidence of this unique Irish phenomenon of construction project overruns!

Because when I lived in Boston and London I heard similar refrains about their own projects.

Cookiemunster

gilly1910 wrote: »

You must work for SIAC, as any Irish person will tell you that Projects anywhere else in the world are completed far quicker, and generally within the original costs. You can come on here all you want, and try to defend the Government/Contractors, but the history of this country is littered with projects that went way over budget, and took way longer than planned.

Google the Boston Big Dig, Brandenberg Airport, Stuttgart 21 or Crossrail. Just four international infrastructure projects that went overtime and over budget. It's BS to suggest that it doesn't happen elsewhere, and even bigger BS to suggest that this project is either overdue or over budget.

_Kaiser_

What's almost as annoying as the continuing delays in getting this finished, is the way some posters here are almost taking any criticism personally and being smart-assed about it.

The bottom line here is that a lot more could and should have been done to this point by taking advantage of the good weather and longer days last summer, and even working a full normal week as opposed to early finishes and weekends off.

This is a core route that connects Dublin to everything south and south west of it, and a key commuting route for tens of thousands of people daily who work in Dublin, but who have been priced out (this time round or back in the Tiger years) of the property market.

That's the reality and it should have been timelined and prioritised accordingly with penalties for delays and incentives for early completion. That's on the Government and related agencies and their fault for scoping it as they have.

On the operational side, the contractors should only have restricted parts of the road that were actually being worked on. Much of it sat idle for months which is ridiculous and has only added to the traffic chaos and frustration from those stuck in it every day.

There has clearly been a lot of padding, bad project management and unaccountability built in to this contract and there's plenty of blame to go around. This being Ireland, I don't expect it to be used as a textbook case of how NOT to handle a relatively straightforward project on a major route but it SHOULD be, and it SHOULD be called out by those stuck in it and ultimately paying for it, both on forums like this and at the doorsteps.

benny79

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

What's almost as annoying as the continuing delays in getting this finished, is the way some posters here are almost taking any criticism personally and being smart-assed about it.

The bottom line here is that a lot more could and should have been done to this point by taking advantage of the good weather and longer days last summer, and even working a full normal week as opposed to early finishes and weekends off.

This is a core route that connects Dublin to everything south and south west of it, and a key commuting route for tens of thousands of people daily who work in Dublin, but who have been priced out (this time round or back in the Tiger years) of the property market.

That's the reality and it should have been timelined and prioritised accordingly with penalties for delays and incentives for early completion. That's on the Government and related agencies and their fault for scoping it as they have.

On the operational side, the contractors should only have restricted parts of the road that were actually being worked on. Much of it sat idle for months which is ridiculous and has only added to the traffic chaos and frustration from those stuck in it every day.

There has clearly been a lot of padding, bad project management and unaccountability built in to this contract and there's plenty of blame to go around. This being Ireland, I don't expect it to be used as a textbook case of how NOT to handle a relatively straightforward project on a major route but it SHOULD be, and it SHOULD be called out by those stuck in it and ultimately paying for it, both on forums like this and at the doorsteps.

Best post in a while! well said

AugustusMinimus

jvan wrote: »

Have the posters complaining about the work practices of the site workers ever considered that maybe they are waiting for materials or lorries that are stuck in the same traffic that you are stuck in. I don't think you really understand the logistics of working on a tight work site.

Traffic shouldn’t slow down the flow of materials to a site. The gaps in between arrivals should be exactly the same irrespective of traffic.

Be well and win

Does anyone know why there is major construction being done by Roadbridge at Floods Cross over towards Carragh just off the m7. Is it something to do with the bypass?

jmkennedyie

Be well and win wrote: »

Does anyone know why there is major construction being done by Roadbridge at Floods Cross over towards Carragh just off the m7. Is it something to do with the bypass?

I believe it is this: https://www.water.ie/news/sod-turned-for-upper-liff/index.xml?

beertons

Be well and win wrote: »

Does anyone know why there is major construction being done by Roadbridge at Floods Cross over towards Carragh just off the m7. Is it something to do with the bypass?

Upgrade of sewerage system, from Newbridge to Osberstown.