N84 Luimnagh realignment (Headford Rd)

nuac

Great, after many years driving thru Headford to Galway, to see this starting.

The difficulty still is that the Curragh Line into Galway is very narrow,

In recent years found it safer to go by Tuam

Cosmo Kramer

At least the Curragh Line is straight though. This stretch has always been a nightmare, especially that ridiculous bend that seems to do a 270 degree loop around a field for no reason. Drove from Castlebar to Galway today, very impressed with the recent progress they've made on this job. Another six months could finish it.

red bull

Castlebar to Galway Through Headford much faster than through nightmare Tuam and horribly slow Claregalway.
Tuam bypass and M17 may change that

Dats_rite

Seen a few white lines going down on the sections on the Headford side today. They must be putting the traffic on it soon, wonder will it be this side of Christmas?

irishgeo

will it likely to shave any travelling time off the journey of just make it safer.

Cosmo Kramer

I reckon it will knock maybe three or four minutes off it at most, mainly because the traffic always seems to slow down to about 60 kph on that stretch and that won't happen anymore. But the main thing is that it will remove one of the most ridiculously awful stretches of national road in the country. Even in its current state with roadworks all over the place it's actually an improvement on how it was before they started.

Dats_rite

Driving on those 2 new sections of road now are a hell of a lot better than the old road.

Really starting to take shape now. I see the road base is going down now on another section. I expect a whack of the black stuff coming soon too!

AA roadwatch saying the road will be reduced to 1 lane from Feb 3rd. No sign of it yet?

Dats_rite

Driving on those 2 new sections of road now are a hell of a lot better than the old road.

Really starting to take shape now. I see the road base is going down now on another section. I expect a whack of the black stuff coming soon too!

AA roadwatch saying the road will be reduced to 1 lane from Feb 3rd. No sign of it yet?

Dats_rite

Another big area of tar placed since I was last on the road.

Looking good. And they seem to have done a lot of work where the new road goes away from the old road. Hopefully that bit opens soon too as those bends are ridiculous in a National Road.

Dats_rite

Traffic lights out tonight a lot later than usual. Looks like it will be there for a while as they were digging out the current road. Hopefully it doesn't cause too much chaos on my trip home!

MBSnr

Dats_rite wrote: »

Traffic lights out tonight a lot later than usual. Looks like it will be there for a while as they were digging out the current road. Hopefully it doesn't cause too much chaos on my trip home!

My guess is there will be traffic lights after hours for a good while now. The traffic lights last night caused a fairly big delay going North about 6pm - probably due to timings being out for the flow of traffic.

They had Stop/Go boards out this morning with the guys using walkie/talkies and the traffic was much better going South at 845am.

Dats_rite

I suppose it was first day teething problems but this morning I was stuck for about 20 minutes around 8am.

I think I may try and give this area a wide berth over the next few months and see if that helps. There is a few rat runs I know on the back roads.....hopefully I am the only one who thinks like that and I can keep it my secret shortcut!

Mr Velo

Dats_rite wrote: »

I suppose it was first day teething problems but this morning I was stuck for about 20 minutes around 8am.

I think I may try and give this area a wide berth over the next few months and see if that helps. There is a few rat runs I know on the back roads.....hopefully I am the only one who thinks like that and I can keep it my secret shortcut!

Yeah - like that i got caught this morning. Came out Luimnagh road and was let join the traffic jam. I don't have too far to go before turning off the N84 again - but tomorrow morning i'll be turning left to avoid lights.

Going to last 4 months

http://connachttribune.ie/n84-commuters-to-face-delays-as-roadworks-to-last-4-months/

Dats_rite

If these closures only last 4 months that'd be fantastic.

In fairness to them this morning the traffic was grand. No major tailbacks as they had guys out on stop/go boards giving Galway bound traffic priority.

And last night was grand too.

MBSnr

Two separate sets of lights in action now. Delays last night on the 2nd set heading North but ok this morning.

Dats_rite

https://youtu.be/c71t13Mnazw

Found thus on YouTube. The route looks great!

oneofakind32

A friend shared that video on FB. I didn't realize work was being done. It's well over due. Growing up in Headford, I have too many memories of fatal incidents on that stretch of road.

Dats_rite

Another traffic move today. New route drives a lot better than the old cattle track that used to be the N84 in that section!

Hopefully a few more traffic moves over the next few weeks and they get rid of those traffic lights.

Dats_rite

Another section opened over the weekend. Glad to see the traffic lights gone in this location and 2 way traffic back flowing again

MBSnr

Dats_rite wrote: »

Another section opened over the weekend. Glad to see the traffic lights gone in this location and 2 way traffic back flowing again

The L number road up to Kilcoona national school is shut from today for a few wks. My guess is they'll look to correct the layout and put down a new surface linking the old road to the new section during this time.

Also there's a large height diff between the old and new section about 1km up from the right turn to Kilcoona. I guess they'll put the traffic on the new surface and then have to single lane traffic light it whilst working to remove the old road and bring it down to the same level.

Dats_rite

THE set of lights on the Galway end removed on Friday for the rush hour. Great to see back to 1 set of lights. The road at the Galway end however looks very narrow. I'm assuming there is not much of a hard shoulder in that location until you get further to Headford.

yop

Dats_rite wrote: »

THE set of lights on the Galway end removed on Friday for the rush hour. Great to see back to 1 set of lights. The road at the Galway end however looks very narrow. I'm assuming there is not much of a hard shoulder in that location until you get further to Headford.

Where is the other sets on lights now? Down at that corner is it?

Dats_rite

Around the Kilcoona side road section

UsBus

Dats_rite wrote: »

The road at the Galway end however looks very narrow. I'm assuming there is not much of a hard shoulder in that location until you get further to Headford.

On the Galway side where the current works finish, there is a section of about 100yds which is quite narrow and then it widens up again. Surely they will look to widen this to join both sections up...?? It would be quite dangerous going from a new road onto a narrow stretch for the sake of widening the extra stretch..

Dats_rite

UsBus wrote: »

On the Galway side where the current works finish, there is a section of about 100yds which is quite narrow and then it widens up again. Surely they will look to widen this to join both sections up...?? It would be quite dangerous going from a new road onto a narrow stretch for the sake of widening the extra stretch..

I'm not sure to be honest. All the trees and scrub has been left there. Id say if they were going to continue to where the road widens out they would have removed the trees and stuff at the same time. Makes no sense to leave it and come back later when they spent a few weeks last year clearing all the trees in one hit.

I hope i'm wrong as it would be crazy to narrow down for a few hundred metres just to go wider again.

MBSnr

Dats_rite wrote: »

I'm not sure to be honest. All the trees and scrub has been left there. Id say if they were going to continue to where the road widens out they would have removed the trees and stuff at the same time. Makes no sense to leave it and come back later when they spent a few weeks last year clearing all the trees in one hit.

I hope i'm wrong as it would be crazy to narrow down for a few hundred metres just to go wider again.

I never understood that section. I remember just after the bad flooding years back (2009) it was resurfaced in parts due to potholes but for some reason (cost I guess) they didn't resurface the bit 200m South from the Kilroe turning. It's probably the roughest road section between Galway and Headford and should have been fixed at the time for the sake of a few thousand no doubt... ;-)

Also what's with the massive hole on the East side of the road just before the new section starts? Drainage?

jkforde

UsBus wrote: »

On the Galway side where the current works finish, there is a section of about 100yds which is quite narrow and then it widens up again. Surely they will look to widen this to join both sections up...?? It would be quite dangerous going from a new road onto a narrow stretch for the sake of widening the extra stretch..

yeah, was wondering the same, whether the section south from Ballinduff cross for 300m is included in the tender contract... it wouldn't take long to fix and for little extra cost...

Mr Velo

Mausrevagh junction looks like it's almost ready to re-open now. Might soon get to drive on the new section of road from Mausrevagh up towards Kilroe.

MBSnr

Mr Velo wrote: »

Mausrevagh junction looks like it's almost ready to re-open now. Might soon get to drive on the new section of road from Mausrevagh up towards Kilroe.

Yeah looks like they are painting a temp while line on the new section. Didn't get a good look but seems to be painted on the East side of the road so maybe leaving the West side for work to be done on the turn off for Luimnagh pier. Also that might leave access to the diagonal cut across the 90 degree turn at end of new section. They'd have to cross the old road there and probably will put in a single line of traffic for it.

At least that's my guess....