Annacotty to Finnegans Roadworks

lazyman

I see that roadworks are starting tomorrow until early December between the Finnegans/Mackey roundabout and the next one in at Vistakon.
I have looked on the council website and it says they will mainly happen overnight,
Does anyone know what they are doing? Hardly just resurfacing for that length of time.

sonyair

Limerick City and County Council is beginning works that will add capacity to a section of R445 (Old Dublin Road) in order to help reduce peak waiting times for motorists.

Work will be scheduled to minimise disruption to traffic

The works will be carried out between the Mackey Roundabout and the entrance to St Vincent’s School.

They will include:

• Upgrade of the Traffic Lights and Controllers at the R445/R506 Cappamore Junction.
• Remarking ​the road lanes between Mackey Roundabout and Annacotty to increase road capacity

• These works will involve alterations to the existing traffic lights, traffic islands and resurfacing and remarking of the existing road carriageway and are planned to improve traffic flows through the Cappamore Road junction.

Works that will result in delays to traffic including road resurfacing and marking are scheduled to take place at night between the hours of 9pm and 6am.

Minor works will take place during the day after 9.30am and will minimise impact on traffic.

Motorists and other members of the public are advised that Limerick City and County Council will endeavour to minimise disruption during the works but some delays will be inevitable to traffic during the night time works, so please plan your journey accordingly.

This project is being co-financed by Limerick City and County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

Mc Love

Badly needed

Berty

They've being measuring traffic flow on the incoming roads towards it for weeks now so hopefully they can improve the flow at the cappamore junction.

It's horrible there, except this week with the school's off.

um7y1h83ge06nx

Berty wrote: »

They've being measuring traffic flow on the incoming roads towards it for weeks now so hopefully they can improve the flow at the cappamore junction.

It's horrible there, except this week with the school's off.

I'm living in Murroe for the last 2 years and I've never seen it as bad since the schools went back in September. From 8 onward it's getting backed up. Some occasions when I have been running late it's been backed up as far as the entrance to the Annacotty industrial estate.

Berty

Leonidas Cold Theft wrote: »

I'm living in Murroe for the last 2 years and I've never seen it as bad since the schools went back in September. From 8 onward it's getting backed up. Some occasions when I have been running late it's been backed up as far as the entrance to the Annacotty industrial estate.

Would you not go through Boher onto the N24 and in that way?

um7y1h83ge06nx

I should try it although I work in Castletroy close to Kilmurray Lodge so once I'm through the junction I'm almost there.

Going that other way I would be going through Groody and back into Castletroy, not sure how busy that gets in the morning.

coffey87

Leonidas Cold Theft wrote: »

I should try it although I work in Castletroy close to Kilmurray Lodge so once I'm through the junction I'm almost there.

Going that other way I would be going through Groody and back into Castletroy, not sure how busy that gets in the morning.

Go by Killonan, you get no traffic

Mc Love

And when I asked the Council about it - they said they have smart traffic lights. Looks like they have gotten a lot more complaints, theyve had to do something about it

Berty

Mc Love wrote: »

And when I asked the Council about it - they said they have smart traffic lights. Looks like they have gotten a lot more complaints, theyve had to do something about it

I'd say more than likely a council employee with some senior management position was either hired recently and lives out that way or moved out that way.

testicles

This post has been deleted.

Berty

testicles wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Slow yes, stopped No. I drive against the line of traffic a lot of days and it's fine. It's getting out from the Murroe side into the flow of traffic that would annoy you.

topper75

The traffic lights are inappropriate there at the Murroe turnoff. No need for them as pedestrians almost never cross there.

A roundabout would work fine.

The Mackey roundabout has been a disaster from all approaches for some time now at rush hours. The backing up of motorway offramps isn't an inconvenience only - it is a safety issue.

Cityslicker1

topper75 wrote: »

The traffic lights are inappropriate there at the Murroe turnoff. No need for them as pedestrians almost never cross there.

A roundabout would work fine.

The Mackey roundabout has been a disaster from all approaches for some time now at rush hours. The backing up of motorway offramps isn't an inconvenience only - it is a safety issue.

It really is a safety issue with backed up traffic on the motorway especially now with the dark evenings - For some reason there is no public lighting approaching the Castletroy exit or the Ballysimon exit on the motorway - two very busy city exits. It's complete darkness on approach to both of these exits which is dangerous when queues build up.

Berty

When they finished the road I noticed that flyover had no lighting and I emailed directroute wondering where the lighting was and they said they weren't asked to build them and seeing as the roads open it's nothing to do with them anymore, fair enough. I asked the county council who said it was nothing to do with them because it should have been flagged before the road was commissioned.

So obviously my fault I didn't tell them before they did the plans. Sorry guys.

steveon

They should build a road down onto the motorway from the bridge coming from murroe towards raheen direction for a lot of the trucks coming out of the industrial estate, theres plenty of room there and could be done easily. all the traffic at these junctions have been caused by the enginners who designed these stupid junctions in the first place and whom should be sacked as there a joke. They reduced the capacity of the road years ago for bike lanes that very few people use as they are at the same level as the road a serious waste of taxpayers money.

Berty

Actually I always maintained that they could have reduced the traffic IF Newport had it's own link to the Birdhill flyover. Instead Newport would have to drive over the flyover, into birdhill back up a link and over another flyover. If they could build the 2-3km road to the roundabout(which already exists) from the Newport side of the M7 then we could all use the M7 thus avoiding the roundabout and freeing it up for everyone else.

The amount of people who use the Newport(Mackey) Roundabout and then take the onramp onto the M7 is way more than those going in the Dublin road so most of us would be on the M7.

Then there's those who use the Mountshannon road(sssshhh it's a secret)

topper75

Berty wrote: »

Then there's those who use the Mountshannon road(sssshhh it's a secret)

Funny. My personal suspicion is that it was probably actually complaints about increased traffic on that ratrun which finally prompted this proposed change on the R443.
No evidence, just suspicion. :pac:

topper75

Anything actually being done there yet? All I saw were a few trimmed trees when I passed this morning.

Berty

topper75 wrote: »

Anything actually being done there yet? All I saw were a few trimmed trees when I passed this morning.

Lots of vans there last night around 8pm and a trailer with a blacktop removing vehicle.

Guess if they want to change the lights they need to change the sensors under the ground as well.

But yeah, passed a few times. Nothing really looked like it was done.

yankinlk

Stop looking at the trees lads they are resurfacing the road. Look down and see the new road they are laying at night.

Berty

I've never seen it so bad. Both lanes were full this morning around 8:30am. There was a queue to get off onto the Dublin road but there was a queue trying to get from the Dublin road onto the roundabout along with the queues from the Old Dublin Road, Newport Road and Nothbound&Southbound off the M7. It was a mess.

Whatever they're doing is getting worse

Please let it be, what it looks like it could be, two lanes inbound with a new slip road to Annacotty Ind Estate/Murroe?

h3000

Berty wrote: »

Please let it be, what it looks like it could be, two lanes inbound with a new slip road to Annacotty Ind Estate/Murroe?

That's what it looks like so far anyway.

I just wish they had slip access from the motorway to the Ind Est / Murroe in the first place. It would make that section of the Finnegan's to Vistakon much quieter.

I'm no road designer but something like the below would work.

Cookiemunster

h3000 wrote: »

That's what it looks like so far anyway.

I just wish they had slip access from the motorway to the Ind Est / Murroe in the first place. It would make that section of the Finnegan's to Vistakon much quieter.

I'm no road designer but something like the below would work.

It's too close to the J28. You can't put 2 full junctions that close together on a motorway.

h3000

Cookiemunster wrote: »

It's too close to the J28. You can't put 2 full junctions that close together on a motorway.

Maybe it should have always been designed as a dual carriageway though. I think Annacotty Ind Est should have access like above. The Ballyneety road should probably have access. There should be access to Roxboro when heading towards the tunnel. I (not a civil engineer) believe it would help a lot of the traffic problems.

Vanquished

h3000 wrote: »

Maybe it should have always been designed as a dual carriageway though. I think Annacotty Ind Est should have access like above. The Ballyneety road should probably have access. There should be access to Roxboro when heading towards the tunnel. I (not a civil engineer) believe it would help a lot of the traffic problems.

This stretch of the M7 is part of the national Motorway network and also serves to divert unnecessary traffic away from lower capacity roads within Limerick city. Peppering it with junctions would completely dilute it's effectiveness and operating capacity. Not to mention compromise safety as a result of extra weaving, merging movements etc.

bazz26

So how would the current volume of traffic say from Raheen get to Castletroy, Newport, Castleconnell or Murroe and vice versa without using the M7? Go through the city? It's not just used as a national bypass route but also as a ring road to avoid going from one part of the city to another without having to go through the city itself. The current intersections are not able to cope with today's volume of traffic at peak times, they were never designed for that.

They also took away the Rosbrien exit which put extra strain on the Ballysimon and Newport exit. It also wasn't very clever making the only entry and exit of the M7 for Castleconnell, Newport and Murroe all on the same slip road and roundabout.

Vanquished

bazz26 wrote: »

So how would the current volume of traffic say from Raheen get to Castletroy, Newport, Castleconnell or Murroe and vice versa without using the M7? Go through the city? It's not just used as a national bypass route but also as a ring road to avoid going from one part of the city to another without having to go through the city itself.

If you read my post properly, you'd have seen that I said it also diverts unnecessary traffic away from the city.

They also took away the Rosbrien exit which put extra strain on the Ballysimon and Newport exit. It also wasn't very clever making the only entry and exit of the M7 for Castleconnell, Newport and Murroe all on the same slip road and roundabout.

Reinstating the Rosbrien inbound access would create more problems than it would solve. The Carew Park link road simply isn't up to the required standard to handle exiting motorway traffic. There are too many access points to business and residential premises and the junction with the Childers road would also pose a major problem. Just as it did even prior to the opening of phase 2 of the southern ring road when traffic frequently backed up on to the M20 due to congestion on the short link road and at the Childers road junction. This would be even more pronounced now with higher traffic volumes.

bazz26

Vanquished wrote: »

Reinstating the Rosbrien inbound access would create more problems than it would solve. The Carew Park link road simply isn't up to the required standard to handle exiting motorway traffic. There are too many access points to business and residential premises and the junction with the Childers road would also pose a major problem. Just as it did even prior to the opening of phase 2 of the southern ring road when traffic frequently backed up on to the M20 due to congestion on the short link road and at the Childers road junction. This would be even more pronounced now with higher traffic volumes.

I really cannot see it being worse to be honest, the traffic volume is still there and it just uses the Dooradoyle and Ballysimon interchanges instead which even with the redesign in recent years still isn't able to cope.

The slip roads at Ballysimon and Newport at least need to be upgraded to dual lanes at the very least as the current single lane slip road exits are a bottleneck at peak times and I'm surprised there haven't been fatalities yet given that inside approaching driving lane on M7 are usual backed up for about 2 miles back.

Cookiemunster

bazz26 wrote: »

I really cannot see it being worse to be honest, the traffic volume is still there and it just uses the Dooradoyle and Ballysimon interchanges instead which even with the redesign in recent years still isn't able to cope.

The slip roads at Ballysimon and Newport at least need to be upgraded to dual lanes at the very least as the current single lane slip road exits are a bottleneck at peak times and I'm surprised there haven't been fatalities yet given that inside approaching driving lane on M7 are usual backed up for about 2 miles back.

Those junctions exit onto the Dock Rd and Ballysimon Rd which lead directly into the city. The Carew Park link road is 300m long and ends at a T junction with traffic lights. If the access to the M20 from here was reinstated you would again have traffic backed up onto the M20.

The Newport exit would not be affected in any way by opening this access.

topper75

Berty wrote: »

I've never seen it so bad. Both lanes were full this morning around 8:30am. There was a queue to get off onto the Dublin road but there was a queue trying to get from the Dublin road onto the roundabout along with the queues from the Old Dublin Road, Newport Road and Nothbound&Southbound off the M7. It was a mess.

Whatever they're doing is getting worse

Please let it be, what it looks like it could be, two lanes inbound with a new slip road to Annacotty Ind Estate/Murroe?

Rough one again this morning.

Let's hope that these will be the last of our woes and that this 'fix' of theirs will work. That Mackey r'about is a giant pile of stress before I ever even get to work!

Any drawings available that I could look at?