The Road Condition Warning thread

newtolaw2013

Sally gap closed road was fine - went through it twice - bit smokey for a min or two but wind kept it from gathering.

wirelessdude01

gmacww wrote:

Also if descending down Hollywood hill there is a fair bit of melting tar on the corners and to counteract it they put sand on the road. It's lethal at a good speed.

Have that sand stuff on a corner coming down from Ballysmutten as well. Nearly came a cropper on a tight corner on Thursday. Your in the corner before you realise it is there and no traction at all.

magicbastarder

may be of interest to people who cycle around fingal - some of these works have already started.

secman

Ballyknockon towards valleymount. A good 400 metres of lose gravel fecked on top of oily tar. Going up it yesterday back wheel was slipping and at one stage I was gathering grit and stones on wheels. I warned a good few cyclists heading to descend it, dodgy enough I'd say.

ianobrien

I was cycling around Hook Head in Wexford and the council were putting gravel down on the melted tar. The problem was that it was a mix of pea gravel and smaller. Where it hadn't stuck to the tar it was like cycling on ice. The gravel was small enough to get into the smallest parts of the tyre thread.

The grip was so bad that at less than 25kph, the car was sliding on the loose gravel.

Paul_Mc1988

Anyone know if it clear to cycle to the gap from blessington and decent down military road towards knocklyn?

cython

Paul_Mc1988 wrote: »

Anyone know if it clear to cycle to the gap from blessington and decent down military road towards knocklyn?

Motorists still advised to avoid the Gap in general as of 60-90 mins ago:

https://twitter.com/aaroadwatch/status/1013716005649113088

Might get through on a bike, but if there are fires up there it might not be very pleasant either.

the world wonders

Paul_Mc1988 wrote: »

Anyone know if it clear to cycle to the gap from blessington and decent down military road towards knocklyn?

Military road was still closed at Glencree at 10am today

CramCycle

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Have that sand stuff on a corner coming down from Ballysmutten as well. Nearly came a cropper on a tight corner on Thursday. Your in the corner before you realise it is there and no traction at all.

Same here on Thursday, I was going around the corner (on the way up) and trying to speed up and nearly went straight through. I was surprised I didn't come down.

secman

That stretch on Lisheen that was relaid with lovely smooth tar is now a holy mess with a thick layer of loose gravel fecked on top of it. Absolute pits to cycle on, rough as fcuk, noisy with richoceting gravel pinging left right and centre. Not helpful either when cars fly by you throwing up gravel straight at you

Macy0161

I'm not really sure what the answer is as an immediate solution though. The roads near us probably were more dangerous on a bike before they put the gravel on top of the melted tar to be honest.

rodneyTrotter.

Took a spin out to howth earlier . It’s a mess going up the hill near the Abbey Tavern . Temporary lights . Lads are digging up the road . Got stuck behind a stinking bin Lorry as I waited for the lights to change which made it all the worse .
Annoyingly there are temporary lights on the Sutton side too before the climb . So it hits you both ways .

uphillonly

Sally Gap was closed from Glencree last night. Helicopter dumping water from nearby lakes.

Miklos

uphillonly wrote: »

Sally Gap was closed from Glencree last night. Helicopter dumping water from nearby lakes.

Still closed today, I ventured up a bit past the roadblock it was basically impassable due to the smoke. Plenty of gorse still burning away.

Weepsie

We should all go up and empty our bidons to do our bit for nature. The pictures look bad, but they don't reveal the possible destruction to wildlife in the area other than vegetation. It will be a surreal view compared to what we're used to when it's back open I imagine.

1bryan

Weepsie wrote: »

We should all go up and empty our bidons to do our bit for nature. The pictures look bad, but they don't reveal the possible destruction to wildlife in the area other than vegetation. It will be a surreal view compared to what we're used to when it's back open I imagine.

I live close to the Dublin mountains and I always remember controlled gorse burning being a thing. It usually took place at night time so you'd see the hills alight for miles around.

My only point here is, even though it was controlled (whereas the one burning at the moment is clearly out of hand), surely the same levels of destruction to nature/wildlife/vegetation would have occurred.

Sickening to think one of these fires was started deliberately, while another was started by mindless idiots who left a disposable barbecue after them.

magicbastarder

there's not a huge amount of wildlife up there. partly due to the 'controlled' burning.

Macy0161

1bryan wrote: »

My only point here is, even though it was controlled (whereas the one burning at the moment is clearly out of hand), surely the same levels of destruction to nature/wildlife/vegetation would have occurred.

Well I live in the mountains. The older farmers in my local argue that the controlled burning kept the height of the gorse/ vegetation down, so when in circumstances like now, there wouldn't be the volume of fuel for the fire, and more easily brought back under control.

I wouldn't have thought there's loads more wildlife now compared to when it was "managed", is there? I would think ground birds are more rare now than in the past, but I've no idea whether that's anything to do with burning or lack of burning, or a false correlation. I would guess everything on the ground is being overrun by all the feckin (non-native) sika deer!

I recall last time they had bad fires in the US they interviewed an official on BBC news I think it was who basically said the reason the fires were so bad was because they had gotten so good at preventing them with firelines and what not that fires that would occur naturally weren't happening and that forests vegetation that would have been thinned by natural fires had got so dense that it was impossible to control a fire in when it broke out.

magicbastarder

if it's a topic you're interested in, i can lend you a copy of this:

https://www.amazon.com/Year-Fires-Story-Great-1910/dp/0878425446
it's a little dry at times.

magicbastarder

anyway, they should be planting deciduous forests (where possibe) if the gorse is such an issue. deciduous forests are far less likely to burn, and are good for biodiversity.

Macy0161

magicbastarder wrote: »

anyway, they should be planting deciduous forests (where possibe) if the gorse is such an issue. deciduous forests are far less likely to burn, and are good for biodiversity.

Very hard to get deciduous trees up out of the ground because of the amount of deer. You basically need 8 foot fences around them. The guards only work so far, and they'll strip the bark once they're too big.

magicbastarder

best to reintroduce wolves so.

Macy0161

Or a proper cull, of what is a non-native species!

siochain

hows the roads up there today ?

CramCycle

1bryan wrote: »

I live close to the Dublin mountains and I always remember controlled gorse burning being a thing. It usually took place at night time so you'd see the hills alight for miles around.

My only point here is, even though it was controlled (whereas the one burning at the moment is clearly out of hand), surely the same levels of destruction to nature/wildlife/vegetation would have occurred.

Sickening to think one of these fires was started deliberately, while another was started by mindless idiots who left a disposable barbecue after them.

When you say controlled, do you mean the farmers doing the burning. I remember that but it was never legal or allowed. Or did the fire brigade do it to remove bridging points?

1bryan

CramCycle wrote: »

When you say controlled, do you mean the farmers doing the burning. I remember that but it was never legal or allowed. Or did the fire brigade do it to remove bridging points?

good question, and I don't know who did it. I just remember it happening and it being reported as being 'controlled gorse burning'. One year (maybe 5 years back) I recall the road being closed from glencree to sally gap for such burning, so just always assumed it was conservationists, or the council, that were doing it.

I do remember gorse burning by farmers being a massive issue around Mount Leinster a few years ago. I thought that was something to do with EU grants though. Something about land with gorse on it not qualifying them for additional funds (can't recall the details). That tended to happen around March/April though, if memory serves.

Plastik

Was anyone up that direction this afternoon. Still closed? Between where?

Highway_To_Hell

Plastik wrote: »

Was anyone up that direction this afternoon. Still closed? Between where?

Was up around Sally Gap today. road is still blocked to cars, we went through and it is still passable and no smoke. a lot less activity than last week when there was a helicopter doing water drops and Coillte staff around. no sign of any working on the fires today. plenty of cyclists.

Road blocks are at the Glencree/Chrone junction and at Sally Gap cross roads.

magicbastarder

drove home from athlone today, on the old galway road. if anyone is cycling it (think i spotted some audaxers?), beware of the turf - everyone in the midlands seems to be driving round with turf in trailers, and it's not an exaggeration to say that if we stopped and picked up every sod which had fallen out onto the road, we'd have a couple of sacks.