New motorway

Cookiemunster

Muttley79 wrote: »

Yeah I always thought parish pump politics had a big part to play in the m20 as the m8 runs basically parallel to it up till cahir.a few cork egos will be dented over this

No egos will be dented as the NIMBYs don't make decision on road building. If it gets built it will be along the M20 corridor. Have a look at the project website. The route options along the N20 corridor have already been published with the final route to be published in the summer. The project management team has looked at all the options and rejected any possibility of a route that joins the M8.

It's got nothing to do with parish pump politics, it's the practicality of solving the issues on the current road. 80% of the traffic on the current N20 is generated on the N20 and would not use an M24 linking to the M8.

And as pointed out above the M8 which starts at Portlaoise is in no way parallel to the N20 which starts 100km away in Limerick.

Pablo Escobar

Yeah it’s a crazy suggestion unless the route merits it on its own. If the M24 gets done (and this is not realistic in any time frame I can imagine), the M20 will still need to be done. It’s not about serving journeys from Cork to Limerick and vice versa. It’s much more about serving the large settlements in between, particularly in the Cork commuter belt, but also south of Limerick city.

Deise Vu

It’s interesting how many people are putting forward the case that the M20 would serve the intermediate towns more than end to end journeys. It was always a huge part of the finger wagging about the M9 how little end to end daily traffic there is while ignoring all the internal traffic.

For what it’s worth I would actually build the M20. We really need to be thinking in terms of 50+ years on motorways, not what we can “save” now and there is a huge amount of benefit to upgrading what really is a shocking road currently.

If it was up to me I would appoint an international firm of engineers to draw up a road build priority and I would give them a couple of years and an unlimited budget. It would pay for itself in the short term never mind long term.

I recall a conversation I had with a prominent Carlow businessman when the M9 was being held up over route selection around Carlow town with the usual “environmental” issues causing consternation and long delays. He told me it was entirely down to the businessmen of Carlow town wanting a route to the east of Carlow as a route on the west would also facilitate Athy which was apparently regarded as a threat to Carlow business.

Guess which side was chosen? That carryon is utterly ridiculous with consequences lasting possibly hundreds of years. Take politicians out of the equation!!!

Cookiemunster

Deise Vu wrote: »

Take politicians out of the equation!!!

They're not in the equation. A decision was made by government that a new road connecting Limerick and Cork should be built. Experts were then appointed to decide on the route. There were 7 options, 6 of which included a connection to the M8. Following the N20 corridor was decided as the best option by the experts, not politicians, for the reasons listed here. The standard of road to be built has not been decided and there is also a rail improvement option on the table.

Submissions on the final route can be submitted during the planning phase, but the next time politicians will be involved will be when it comes to funding the project.

Deise Vu

Cookiemunster wrote: »

They're not in the equation. A decision was made by government that a new road connecting Limerick and Cork should be built. Experts were then appointed to decide on the route. There were 7 options, 6 of which included a connection to the M8. Following the N20 corridor was decided as the best option by the experts, not politicians, for the reasons listed here. The standard of road to be built has not been decided and there is also a rail improvement option on the table.

Submissions on the final route can be submitted during the planning phase, but the next time politicians will be involved will be when it comes to funding the project.

We will have to agree to disagree on political influence. I’m sorry but I’m just to weary of looking at the country to believe that experts decide anything other than nuts and bolts. I wish it was true but I’m not buying it.

Harry Palmr

If politicians didn't matter we'd have a university (cross thread reference)

dzilla

Is this actually happening ?

Harry Palmr

Nope. Just a notion.

Muttley79

dzilla wrote: »

Is this actually happening ?

Chances are it won't happen.to much political clout between cork and limerick in this.instead of seen the bigger picture in linking up the four cities outside of dublin via motorway plus with our ports more important now than ever due to brexit we need proper infrastructure that will lead to bigger better investment outside of dublin.

marno21

dzilla wrote: »

Is this actually happening ?

There is a dual carriageway between Pallasgreen and Waterford in planning separate to the M20.

914

marno21 wrote: »

There is a dual carriageway between Pallasgreen and Waterford in planning separate to the M20.

I think bypassing mooncoin has been on the cards for 30 years, so don't hold your breath

Max Powers

An absolute no brainer to build a motorway from cahir to limerick if going ahead to link cork and limerick by motorway, half the cost and only 9 minutes difference in journey Times. Martin, coveney et al from cork don't want that, they want an overspec motorway they can hang their name on.
The n24 needs upgrades, to be fair probably not motorway standard but some decent bypasses of likes of carrick, clonmel, mooncoin, tipp town, approach to tipp town etc needed.
You'll get cork people on here saying you cant have limerick traffic coming into dunkettle, personally I don't think traffic is that bad there, i go thru tunnel on a reasonably regular basis at busiest times, precovid times obviously.

dzilla

marno21 wrote: »

There is a dual carriageway between Pallasgreen and Waterford in planning separate to the M20.

Lol yeah should be done in time for the reopenning of the Ard Rí and the airport runway extension

Johnboy1951

Max Powers wrote: »

An absolute no brainer to build a motorway from cahir to limerick if going ahead to link cork and limerick by motorway, half the cost and only 9 minutes difference in journey Times. Martin, coveney et al from cork don't want that, they want an overspec motorway they can hang their name on.
The n24 needs upgrades, to be fair probably not motorway standard but some decent bypasses of likes of carrick, clonmel, mooncoin, tipp town, approach to tipp town etc needed.
You'll get cork people on here saying you cant have limerick traffic coming into dunkettle, personally I don't think traffic is that bad there, i go thru tunnel on a reasonably regular basis at busiest times, precovid times obviously.

That is most likely true at the present time, but given the situation after Brexit and the future use of Rosslare for mainland access for heavy vehicles, I see a real need for it in the future.
Why spend now on something that will not be sufficient into the future?

Muttley79

Max Powers wrote: »

An absolute no brainer to build a motorway from cahir to limerick if going ahead to link cork and limerick by motorway, half the cost and only 9 minutes difference in journey Times. Martin, coveney et al from cork don't want that, they want an overspec motorway they can hang their name on.
The n24 needs upgrades, to be fair probably not motorway standard but some decent bypasses of likes of carrick, clonmel, mooncoin, tipp town, approach to tipp town etc needed.
You'll get cork people on here saying you cant have limerick traffic coming into dunkettle, personally I don't think traffic is that bad there, i go thru tunnel on a reasonably regular basis at busiest times, precovid times obviously.

Fully agreed with you cork people want the m20 built but a huge problem is there is a complete bottle neck into blackpool that side of the city from the m20 which brings all the traffic through the middle of cork as compared to the proposal of linking cork-limerick via chair you have the dunkettle new fly over been built straight through to both the airport and ringaskiddy port.it makes more sense to do it that way

Christy Browne

I'll beat the Waterford drum until the cows come home but I find it hard to take this M24 suggestion seriously. Leave them have their motorway, and turn the N24 into a dual carriageway as planned. Train service between Waterford & Limerick has to be improved also. Motorway to Limerick would be overkill at the moment.

Harry Palmr

The north Cork relief road is barely at the planning stage I think. Blackpool is a disaster for n20 traffic. Still that's not really our concern.

BBM77

Christy Browne wrote: »

I'll beat the Waterford drum until the cows come home but I find it hard to take this M24 suggestion seriously. Leave them have their motorway, and turn the N24 into a dual carriageway as planned. Train service between Waterford & Limerick has to be improved also. Motorway to Limerick would be overkill at the moment.

Disagree with you on this. There is huge potential with the port of Waterford and tourism with a motorway to the west. Sure we had this "it is overkill" thing with the M9 and I think it is one of the busiest motorways in normal times.

Christy Browne

BBM77 wrote: »

Disagree with you on this. There is huge potential with the port of Waterford and tourism with a motorway to the west. Sure we had this "it is overkill" thing with the M9 and I think it is one of the busiest motorways in normal times.

I just mean in terms of what's realistic. The N24 dual carriageaway upgrade from Waterford-Cahir and then Cahir-Limerick Junction is in the Project Ireland 2040 plan, and even that is moving along at a snails pace. There's not a hope they'll build a motorway, especially not at the expense of Cork and all the political pull they have. Let's focus on getting the dual carriageway built and improving the public transport.

In fairness, if the shoe was on the other foot and a Waterford-Limerick motorway was being built and suddenly people started suggesting rerouting it through Cork, we'd be pissed off too and rightfully so.

Muttley79

https://waterford-news.ie/2021/06/01/final-hours-for-public-to-consult-on-n24-waterford-to-cahir-project/
Here is an update on the waterford-limerick proposal.