N4 Widening, Leixlip to M50 EIS published

impr0v

The EIS for this scheme was published by South Dublin County Council on the 22nd.

Scheme Details and Link to EIS

The whole length up to the M50 interchange in included in the scheme, though quite a lot of it is 3 lanes already.

EDIT: The scheme includes the grade separation of the Newcastle Road junction, which will create significant journey time savings, outbound at least.

spacetweek

impr0v wrote:

The EIS for this scheme was published by South Dublin County Council on the 22nd.

I live in Lucan and had been wondering for some time what the hell the delay was - the plan was originally put on display in summer 2002 and the (British) consultants there optimistically (over-optimistically, as it turned out) said they expected construction to begin early in 2003 and finish in 2005.

But in fairness the EIS gives the reason - the improvements are reliant on the M50 upgrade, and they wanted to wait and see what was gonna happen down at that end first. They're also somewhat reliant on the Outer Ring Road plans - same deal.

The new plan represents a down-scaling of the original proposals. There will be no reinstatement of the 2-way single carraigeway road between Lucan and Leixlip, which I am a bit disappointed about - you'll still have to join the N4, then immediately leave it again in order to travel between the two towns. In fairness, to construct such a road would have meant widening into Liffey Valley Park, which seemed a bit draconian.

The other reduction in scale is that there will be no service lane at the entrance to the Hermitage golf club extending all the way to Liffey Valley junction, to take in the entrances to buildings located along here - instead there will be a small link road built from the entrance of Woodies car park heading up to the western entrances, while the eastern ones (e.g. Sureweld) will still have direct access onto the road. Finally the direct entrance to St. Loman's will remain, with no improvement to the on-ramp. This is disappointing as this area was always messy from a traffic viewpoint.

In summary though I think the proposed improvements will be very welcome, particularly the Newcastle Road junction. With the improvements to the M50/N4 junction as part of the M50 upgrade, N4 traffic should become much more free-flowing, as I believe much traffic reaching the M50 from the N4 turns onto the motorway, instead of going straight through. I don't think Palmerstown will become a bottleneck.

BTW, Impr0v, the widths will be as follows:
M50-Liffey valley: 8 lanes
Liffey valley - Leixlip: 6 lanes
Leixlip - onwards (M4): 4 lanes
This should be more than adequate for the foreseeable future, especially with the removal of the traffic light bottleneck at Newcastle Rd.

Victor

I had a gander at it last night. I dislike the way it tries to be motorway and general purpose road / access road all at the same time. The way the cycle lanes cross on/off ramps is daft.

murphaph

It's a tricky enough thing to do, to get an old dual carriageway and turn it into a high quality one. The biggest part is the Newcastle Road junction. That's the current killer, especially outbound on a Friday evening! I agree that it's a pity that Loman's and Sureweld will still have direct access. What's the story with the Foxhunter Texaco? Will they still have direct access? It's a crazy spot to have a petrol station. Don't know how people haven't been killed exiting it. I know there have been plenty of shunts and worse with traffic crossing the central reservation (legally) to get to the pumps.

fiachs

"M50 Junction-Leixlip Widening 8 km CPO/EIS to be published in 2005"

does anyone know what this is about? what's being planned?

Andrew Duffy

http://www.sdublincoco.ie/index.aspx?pageid=22&deptid=12&dpageid=351

fiachs

ok great thanks. wow grade separation at the newcastle junction.. that'll be great