Irelands Ten Worst Roundabouts
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Not to split hairs, but the vikings did not establish Cork at all. It is only recently that any form of any scrap of viking remnants have been discovered. True for Waterford and Dublin though.
I just presumed given the excellent natural harbour that is Cork that the Vikings would have established a settlement there.
But back to Waterford, it really saddens me that when such an important discovery is made that it is not a case of real celebration. I appreciate that the situation in Waterford city is far from Ideal and that the N25 is one of the most strategic roads in the country. But a find of this quality is extremely rare, it has been stated that the only comparible site in Europe receives 2m+ visitors a year. If 20% of this number were to be attracted to Waterford it would provide a major boost to the local economy.
It is time to get out the CPO agents to reroute this by a couple of hundred metres, it is possible to have a road and an extremely attractive canidate for a world heritage site.
Originally published by RTE Interactive
Decision on Viking site in two weeks15 May 2004 18:54
The Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, has said he will announce within two weeks, a decision on the future of a newly discovered Viking settlement near Waterford.Speaking in Waterford at an informal meeting of EU environment ministers, Mr Cullen said the 9th Century remains, found in the path of a proposed ring road, were quite extraordinary.
The director of the national museum, Dr Pat Wallace, has called for the site to be excavated fully.
However, the National Roads Authority has proposed that the ring road be built on top of it.
Earlier, delegates from the 25 EU member states were welcomed to Waterford by Alderman Tom Cunningham as the talks got underway.
The three hours of talks were to focus on the issue of waste management and, in particular, the illegal transport of waste across borders.
A report published by the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this week found that while Ireland had exceeded its recycling targets, the amount of rubbish we generate is actually increasing.
NRA supremo Malone was quoted during the weeksaying
Originally published by RTE Interactive
that people who made a lot of noise were being listened to and that they should be listening to those who were quietly working awayWell if all my projects were often a multiple of their original budget I’d be silently unemployed, when one proposes to concrete over a potential World Heritage site, it is a good time to be quiet. Whether they should still be working is another question.
Originally published by RTE Interactive http://www.rte.ie/news
Heritage safeguards ‘worthless’: Gilmore17 June 2004 16:56
The Labour TD, Eamon Gilmore, has told the Dáil that safeguards included in the National Monuments Amendment Bill are worthless.Mr Gilmore said that the bill, which contains a provision to allow the Government to sell off national monuments, only gives the National Museum 14 days to investigate and assess the value of any monument or site of potential importance.
The main aim of the bill, which was published by the Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, earlier this week, is to allow for construction work on the M50 at Carrickmines Castle to be completed.
Does the roof of the Four Courts constitute a roundabout?
While I wish to see the completion of the M50 I can’t help thinking that Cullen has done it again. The provision for only 14 days of examination by the National Museum is just not enough.
Who would buy a National Monument to retain it as is and still give public access?
If it is legally this defective it will have no better success than Mullaghmore.
A viking Settlement 500+ metres in length and a few streets wide, it was a major trading outpost. It will be the most important Viking site in these Islands and possibly further if initial forecasts are bourne out.
Very good Kodak selling potential
The Infamous Kinsale Road rounabout
@Thomond Park wrote:
The Infamous Kinsale Road rounabout
Not for long
http://www.corkcorp.ie/ourservices/roads/pdf/eis_pg3.pdfYes but at what cost to the taxpayer?
@Thomond Park wrote:
Yes but at what cost to the taxpayer?
€42million
It a part for the upgrade for the Primary national routes ans its planned to start this year and finished in 2007. It to make the road a bypass of Cork, but it will probably have the same effect as the M50 (which was also supposed to be a By-Pass)
weehamster wrote:€]I read this very interseting thread and it needs to be said roundabouts on National roads are a disgrace, why couldn’t they get it right like every other country? How many roundabouts do you see in America?
don’t quite get all the fuss about the red cow seeing as there are two other identical roundabouts where the N81 & N4 cross the M50.
Walkinstown is probably one of the worst for the nerves, with 6 roads leading to it … works surprisingly well though given the amount of traffic it takes daily …
@JPD wrote:
I read this very interseting thread and it needs to be said roundabouts on National roads are a disgrace, why couldn’t they get it right like every other country? How many roundabouts do you see in America?
Well I think we’re very very slowly coming around to the idea that they’re more trouble than they’re worth. The Kinsale Road Roundabout is a good example of that. Cork City Council have been forced to get a move on with it’s long overdue flyover. At peak times, tail-backs approaching the roundabout from Douglas can stretch almost 2km and about the same from the Bishopstown approach. I remember last summer being stuck in tail-backs (with all 3 lanes full) for the good part of an hour before I even got onto the roundabout. It’s a disaster, with lanes criss-crossing and disappearing halfway through. It’s a wonder anyone makes it out alive. It’s traffic lights seem to add to the crisis. The original flyover was scheduled to cost just over 25m euro, the new 42m euro price tag seems like bit of a rise doesn’t it? Work is due to start in June, with Ascon as main contractors and a completion date set for early 2007. The original start date was supposedly set for late Feb, early March.
2 other roundabouts along the same stretch of motorway are also getting flyovers at a cost of 70m euro – those at Sarsfield and Bandon Road Roundabout. The combined daily movements for these 3 roundabouts is approx. a quarter of a million movements per day (that’s a quiet day).
Nice to see the tax-payer getting value for money.
NRA had no senior accountants when agreeing road costs
From:ireland.com
Thursday, 12th May, 2005The National Roads Authority (NRA) did not have an accountant at management level at a time it was negotiating road building contracts worth billions of euros, it emerged today.
It also emerged that the cost of projects originally estimated at €5.6 billion is now over €18 billion and rising.
The revelations emerged at the launch of the Dail Public Accounts Committee interim report on the Department of Transport.
The contracts for construction of roads under the National Development Plan 2000 – 2006 were awarded by the NRA on a closed tender system. When awarded, there was provision for cost over-runs based on a variety of factors. “It might have been that it was men against boys when it came to the settlement figure,” Committee chairman Michael Noonan said.
He referred to several examples in the report which showed the cost of some projects at more than twice that originally agreed. In one case, the Croom by-pass in Co Limerick, the original cost of €10.37 million rose to €26.2 million – an over-run of 160 per cent.
Mr Noonan said there was a lack of expertise at the NRA evidenced by the fact that last year “there wasn’t a single accountant at management level”.
“When we called them in 12 months later they were pleased to tell us they had hired their first accountant.”
The report found 40 per cent of the cost increases were due to inflation and 16 per cent due to “a systematic failure to cost certain elements of the schemes at planning stage”. It also said 20 per cent of extra costs could be attributed to changes to the plans and additional work added to the original project.
While the committee recognised that improved contracts and a tightening up of procedures at the NRA had likely improved the situation, this could only be properly established by a future audit.
Mr Noonan noted, however, that a contract awarded under the newer, design-and-build system at Youghal, Co Cork, had led to a cost over-run in excess of 400 per cent.
The report found cost over-runs of 42 per cent – in excess of €420 million – in a series of projects completed between 2000 and 2003.
Committee vice chairman John McGuinness of Fianna Fáil said that the public would not forgive politicians if lessons were not learned from what had been a serious waste of public money in road building.
“It’s been a steep learning curve that’s come at a considerable cost … We simply weren’t at the races when it comes to the spending of tax payers’ money,” Mr McGuinness said.
The Green Party’s Dan Boyle said questions were not answered at ministerial level and “there had been an unhealthy sense of complacency throughout the period”.
One of the committees recommendations included calling on the NRA to take “a more proactive approach to financial management” and developing better estimating procedures.
Mr Noonan also said it was difficult for the committee to asses the value of Public Private Partnerships because the private partner could regard information sought as commercially sensitive.
http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/5547210?view=Eircomnet
Dunkettle at present
Any thoughts?
Red cow/. Parkway in Limerick, Kinsale is bad but it’s being upgraded at the momeent.. most of our roundwboute are bad, every new road with a junction is provided as one. why do we have these bloody things built everywhere these days. All the new ones on the old N7 between Monasterevin at Portlaoise. I’d rather automated traffic lights as the side roads are minimul in traffic and IMO are much safer than steep roundabouts on wide national routes.
There is no harm in having a few traffic lights here and there. Imagine Newlnads cross and Newcastle N4 getting roundabouts? which will not happen when the N4 and N7 will be upgraded.
While Dunkettle in its present form is less than ideal to cater for the confluence of two major interurban roads, it’s really not that bad, insofar as it is reasonably quick to get through, especially following the installation of trafflic lights and addition of an extra lane. Certainly wouldn’t compare of the horror of the Kinsale Road Roundabout in bygone days. Unfortunately, its location is spatially constrained, and is far too close to the tunnel to allow for the construction of an adequate grade-seperated butterfly interchange, or something similar. Another fine example of the tremendous foresight displayed by the City Council, who would have us driving around the city on a two lane undivided ring road if they had had their way!
So you reckon that Dunkettle will remain unresolved
Newlands Cross is pretty bad & there are no plans to resolve it.
It will be the only remaining junction once the Naas Road Flyovers are finished (this September) & the Red Cow removed by 2008 …
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