current status of dublin to galway greenway

bog_savage

Went for a spin on the Moate to Castletown section last night , and it's fab

Good news is the tarmac is now complete to the train station in Moate except for 20m a few km from Moate where the are removing an temp access ramp. You have to get off bike and walk it but no problem. I'd say it'll be done soon .( feckin thing cost me a KOM on Strava as it was only dug up yesterday ; ) )

Also re quality of surface in different counties , I believe Westmeath coco is running the whole project from Mullingar to Galway , so should be to same spec. That's if they ever figure out where the will run it.

mr spuckler

haha, loving the fact that there are Strava KOMs on it already!

am really looking fwd to getting out on it next week, hopefully both the weather and my own condition make it a nice cycle. haven't done a whole lot this year before the last few weeks and currently hoping to do down and back to athlone from dublin via the greenway over that weekend

marvin80

Those strava segments should be flagged - you'll have families out cycling with their children so not the place for cyclists trying to beat strava segment times.

mr spuckler

any update on this guys? am planning on cycling down to athlone today!

bog_savage

Sorry don't know how far they went since , at the speed they were moving Id say its gotta be complete

bog_savage

They have finished the bit near Rosemount

mr spuckler

so i hopped onto the royal canal way at from the kinnegad to killucan road, stuck with the canal to mullingar and then followed the greenway to moate. i have to say despite bog_savage having posted pics over the last few days i was still taken aback at the quality of it. it's a bit frustrating right now that you have to stop occasionally to get around fences but that might be my fault for using it before it opens!

some pics below taken on the move. there were a good few people using it near mullingar especially but also near anywhere that had an access point. oddly there was also a very young guy parked in a VW passat on it nowhere near an access point!

i'm going to scout the athlone end tomorrow to see how much of this has been done and whether i might be able to go the whole way from athlone to mullingar on it when heading back up on sunday.

dewindygap

Wow, I am impressed. Thanks for the pics

mr spuckler

i took the car out to scope the stretch between athlone and moate this morning. from what i can make out it's tarred as far as the bridge over the road between glenwood and baylin, so about 4-5km short of athlone. beyond that point it's reasonably hard compacted gravel until the bridge at garrycastle, where there's a new ramp ready to go from opposite the spar (used to be nugent's shop).

i also went to the mount temple / castledaly road and the road by the motorway exit for clonmacnoise nearer to moate. at the last one it looks like it's fully topped whereby at mount temple & baylin it's just got 1 layer of tar on it.

pictures below....
1 from dual carriageway bridge looking towards garrycastle bridge
2 near baylin showing end of the tarred section, not sure if the 6400 is distance to athlone or something random!
3 crossing above mount temple road
4 by motorway exit 7

bog_savage

Had a lad tarring around my house yesterday , he knows the contractor doing the cycle path , said the Asphalt they are using is a special new type for cycle paths , grippier or something . This is the first time its been used outside Germany apparently

Whatever it is its class . Loads of people on it today .
And there appears to be a push to finish it for the official opening . Lots of work being done at the moment

Weepsie

Hoping to cycle to Galway from Dublin next week (and maybe back again if the legs can muster it), and had was considering using the canal for some of the route, but not sure where I need to get on it really? Any advice. Will be on a steel touring bike with 28mm tyres, so would have to be the paved bits

Ryath

Did Moate to Ballinea just out side Mullingar. Came back then intended heading for home then but the lads were heading back to Athlone so said feck it I'd carry on. Section at Moate train station is closed so had to take detour into Moate and back out the Mount Temple road and get back on the greenway at the level crossing at Dún na Sí . Knew we could get to near Baylin and when we got to the gravel we said we'd chance it was only a couple k. Surface was ok about the same as the worse sections as the Mayo greenway with a few bad spots. Was grand I was on 25mm tyres most were on 23s. Jumped a low fence then at Garycastle and headed back to Moate for 89k for the day.

It's really going to a great amenity when its finished really looking forward to being able to take family cycles on it.

mr spuckler

Weepsie wrote: »

Hoping to cycle to Galway from Dublin next week (and maybe back again if the legs can muster it), and had was considering using the canal for some of the route, but not sure where I need to get on it really? Any advice. Will be on a steel touring bike with 28mm tyres, so would have to be the paved bits

i think you can get on it closer to dublin but can certainly do what i did yesterday and join from the kinnegad to killucan road. i was on a road bike with 23s tyres and it was absolutely fine from there for me. am planing on heading back up tomorrow so might try going a bit further on it then and will let you know where i get to if so

joeyboy12345

bog_savage wrote:

Whatever it is its class . Loads of people on it today . And there appears to be a push to finish it for the official opening . Lots of work being done at the moment

When is the official opening?

bog_savage

Late October but keeps being put back ( closer to the election perhaps )

bovis

bog_savage wrote: »

Late October but keeps being put back ( closer to the election perhaps )

Just for clarity, the soon to be opened section (42km Athlone to Mullingar) is only part of the Dublin to Galway greenway. Progress on the greenway west of the Shannon is still being ferociously opposed by landowners.

But on the good news. The Athlone to Mullingar section should be opened next month. The surface looks amazing. See latest pictures on FB (not ours)
https://www.facebook.com/brian.golden.940/posts/10207688342510586

We will post updates as we get them:
http://www.dublingalwaygreenway.com

dfdream

What will be the rules of these cycle ways.
Are they listed somewhere ?
(speeds restrictions, lanes, lighting, safety, overtaking etc)
They dont look wide so I assume they are not for club spins two a breast.

Dont look wide enough...

mr spuckler

they're designed for leisure and touring cyclists, as well as pedestrians. i don't expect that there will be lanes or formal rules, just a simple don't be a c*&k code very easy for cyclists and pedestrians to safely interact on a 3m wide stretch of tarmac if everyone respects each other.

the western greenway is a great example of this although the surface there is not so encouraging to people heading along at speed on road bikes.

i do hope there'll be good signage for distances to next town, facilities etc

Thargor

How are they going to keep the "economically disadvantaged" off them? Have you seen how many scooters/mini-motorbikes/quads/go-karts etc are used in Athlone/Mullingar? Every one of them has one.

Weepsie

mr spuckler wrote: »

i think you can get on it closer to dublin but can certainly do what i did yesterday and join from the kinnegad to killucan road. i was on a road bike with 23s tyres and it was absolutely fine from there for me. am planing on heading back up tomorrow so might try going a bit further on it then and will let you know where i get to if so

Cheers, I might get on at Maynooth I think and go from there if the surface and weather isn't too bad. I'll have a GPS if I need to take another route, but could probably eat up a few KMs at a nice pace without cars, and lights and the rest.

mr spuckler

i looked over the various bridges as i crossed the canal on friday to see what the paths were like and that far up (maynooth, kilcock, enfield) are suitable for walking only. there isn't even a rough gravel path that you might be able to navigate so at best would be extremely slow going and involve some walking. either way it's not signed as a cycling facility. as a hiker as well as cyclist, i hate seeing cyclists using dedicated walking trails!

btw i didn't manage to head any further back up the royal canal way yesterday, was feeling very weak after friday and needed to get back to dublin relatively early so just headed by the main road.

Weepsie

Alright, one for the future so. Ill try and do the little stretch that good anyway.

galwaycyclist

dfdream wrote: »

What will be the rules of these cycle ways.
Are they listed somewhere ?
(speeds restrictions, lanes, lighting, safety, overtaking etc)
They dont look wide so I assume they are not for club spins two a breast.

Dont look wide enough...

They will be a public road that is closed to motorised traffic so the usual rules that apply to vehicles will apply. Keep left, don't travel at a speed exceeding your ability to stop and so on.

However it is likely that many users will be small kids with a limited understanding of rules. They will also be shared with pedestrians.

So not a place for people looking to put up times.

kildarecommuter

I hear there will be a"Old Rail Cycle Challenge" Mullingat -Athlone -Mullingar on 18th October in aid of LARRC

Fian

Will this be feasible as a route from dublin for spin out and back? What i mean is when it is completed will it be a nice route to take as an alternative to heading out into wicklow/mountains? How easy will it be to access and how crowded is it likely to be?

Is there any estimate on when the link from Dublin to Mulingar is likely to be completed? Cycling off road near a canal sounds like a lovely relaxed spin.

mr spuckler

possibly although i think in general its intended for more leisure / tourism use.

either way kildare co co don't expect to have funding until 2017 at earliest for their stretch so you might be waiting a while!

Donie75

Any update on the Garrycastle to Moate section? I'm hoping to try it out this weekend.

Donie75

Got out for a look at the Athlone Moate end today. Went to Garrycastle for a look but there appeared to be no access. Cycled over to Moate and got on near Dun Na Si park. Cycled eastwards but it was well boarded up at the old Moate station. There was a Garda jeep at the other side so I turned around and headed back towards Athlone. About 5km from Garrycastle I came across the Surfacing machinery and the surface changed to the sub-layer of Tarmac. Then 3 or 4 km from Garrycastle it turned to a tar dressing with a layer of very fine gravel and then compacted base material. I had 25mm tyres on my road bike so no issue. The finished surface is amazing, really smooth and grippy and very flat.
I'm going to cycle over to Moate and join the greenway and head further east tomorrow. Definitely think this will be great for winter training at night with good lights.

Donie75

I saw a photo on Facebook this morning showing the tarmacing equipment arriving at Garrycastle. So the surface is complete the whole was as far as i know. I think the official opening is in the next fortnight.
Hope to get out for a decent look this weekend.

bog_savage

Opening October 18th