N8/N25/N40 - Dunkettle Interchange [open to traffic]

Very significant retaining wall has been built for the N25 West to M8 North movement just north of the old roundabout. Suspect there will be a lot of earthworks here to bring the road up to the new bridge.

The N25 heading out of the city and towards Midleton is now back to 2 lanes again.

Not sure of timelines but there are 2 main reasons.

1. Still doing waterproofing over the old roundabout.
2. Where the dumbbell exists onto the mainline (westwards) will be revised after earthworks south of the main carriageway are completed.

Yup, thats open which is nice, should help with morning jams due to the 2 -> 1 and merge on the N25W towards Tivoli, as you now can get in the left lane earlier.

Still 80kmh and 60kmh though, so keep an eye out.

Ya, I think there's a broken yellow between lanes 2 and 3 though. I'd guess 3 is just hard shoulder but would definitely be required if there was a collision.

Just reading the weekly newsletter today, I bloody love the amateur photoshop drawings. Really shows that people like info, sped and regularity of updates are more important than having glossy professional graphics

I'd be laning in that direction as well.

Terrible traffic today, a combination of Friday and bad weather.

Looks like the Dunkettle upgrade won't have the positive effect we would have hoped, particularly eastbound.

Yeah I think today broke all of the rules. No-one going more than about 60kmh at 630pm along the south ring. Everyone being gasp sensible??

Yes, every day it's as bad as it ever was and it's not because some rain fell.

Yesterday (sunny) it was backed up past Smyths on the Kinsale flyover.

IMO It's a combination of the curve in the road before the tunnel, the temp 60kmh speed limit and the merging traffic from the Mahon slip cutting across that is causing the tailbacks.

There may be an improvement once the 60kmh restriction is removed but only time will tell I suppose.

It is free flow though, there's no lights. It was always going to be an issue at peak times due to sheer volume of traffic. There's now only 1 dedicated lane coming from East into the tunnel (at least until just before tunnel but other traffic coukd make it unfeasibleto get into that lane), rather than 2, but if kept it at 2 lanes the solutions were either not full free flow (would have to stop traffic from m8) or else widen the tunnel. There are some more lanes to open which should help, but imagine traffic will start picking up soon too.

That's my point. I'm struggling to see what the point of any of this work was now.

I've been through the new layout off-peak a fair amount, and yes, it's fine. Nice driving through with no lights, grand. But it was absolutely grand at off peak times in the past too, despite lights and and a roundabout. It was the commuting congestion that was the issue. And now despite this gargantuan amount of engineering work, it now appears to be even worse than it was before. The whole thing was a scandalous waste of time, resources and money if that isn't alleviated, and as you rightly point out the traffic volume is only going to increase heading into september. I admit to being a layman when it comes to this kind of thing, but I'm not seeing a missing piece that's going to improve matters? should have just been left as it was if this is it

There are still:

• merge distances that are much shorter than final configuration
• lanes that are narrower than final configuration or closed entirely
• temp 60 limits, construction equipment, barriers, and workers, all of which make people cautious
• etc., etc.

I think concern about the final efficacy of the scheme is premature.

That's all true, but I will also reserve the right to point out in February 2024 that anybody suggesting more "N40 South" or even N25 or M8 measures to resolve Dunkettle traffic are wasted effort.

Dunkettle's problem is basically too many cars. There's no other realistic connectivity between the populations/businesses at the North/East (>30,000 people, major industrial areas of Carrigtoill, Little Island) and the populations/businesses to the South (Mahon, Douglas, Ringaskiddy, Airport, Kinsale Road etc.). I don't blame most of the people commuting through the tunnel by car because there is no reasonable alternative.

In my opinion it will not significantly improve: I believe that the limit is not the capacity of the tunnel, but rather people's tolerance for sitting in traffic. So if Dunkettle can get another 10k people through at rush hour, then those people will come. They'll come from further away to work in the harbour area. I know plenty people living in Killarney and commuting through the tunnel every day to work: when there's more capacity then more people will use it.

I saw about 20 idiots turn and come back down!