Limerick Transport
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At present ambulances pass by sirening cars ahead of them who then move over as close as possible to parked cars on their side of the street.
The ambulance then runs down the middle of the road between the 2 jammed lanes of cars.Trans-commuting cars would be encouraged to use alternative routes by a combination of traffic flow design that would allow quicker flow via these routes — making it a matter of self-interest for motorists to use them and save commuting time — and smart signposting at junctions on commuter routes into/out of the city.
For example, a car coming in off the M20 to the South Ring Road (I know, it needs to be reconnected but it is to be done, we’re told) would see an electronic sign at the Treaty Tools traffic lights. This would show inward route options, where they meet the city orbital route and an indication of what the relative traffic density on each route was at that moment (Heavy, Moderate, Light).
At junctions from the South Ring Road onto each of the 3 inward routes, prominent symbol signposts would be placed, clearly showing the point at which this route meets the city orbital route. (I think that all signposts guiding traffic onto or off the orbital route ought have a distinctive symbol for the COR, perhaps a scaled plan of it with a traffic direction arrow within it.)
Cars leaving the city at evening rush hours would see simple symbol signposts at street corners to lead them onto the orbital route from city centre streets and then bigger prominent signs at various points at which they could leave the COR for their southern destinations.
The prominent signs at COR nodes would show a spur off the COR symbol and a list of destinations reachable via that route.Sure, there is no way to keep trans-commuters out if they really want to go down O’Connell Ave.
But with good traffic flow design, clear signposting and, above all, effective promotion by the councillors and LCC management alike on local media, the vast majority would see it as advantageous to themselves to adhere to it.@foinse wrote:
PS while I’m on here has anyone heard of / able to verify the rumours that the roundabout at Shannon Bridge is to be removed in favour of traffic lights?
See this weekend’s edition of the Limerick Leader (page 7).
The tunnel dodgers won’t like it. 😉
The city centre orbital route (Mallow Street) will now get a higher profile here.
Obviously a traffic calming measure and it should make the riverfront promenade safer for pedestrians to cross.
@teak wrote:
At present ambulances pass by sirening cars ahead of them who then move over as close as possible to parked cars on their side of the street.
The ambulance then runs down the middle of the road between the 2 jammed lanes of cars.But there is only one lane per side with parking either side, so it is self evident that ambulances are more trapped at present. With a bus lane there would be no parking on one side and the bus would only run (about 4/5 times per hour?) occasionally meaning there would plenty of room for the ambulances. This notion of ambulances having more of a problem with a bus lane is pure nonsense cooked up to worry people.
@CologneMike wrote:
See this weekend’s edition of the Limerick Leader (page 7).
The tunnel dodgers won’t like it. 😉
The city centre orbital route (Mallow Street) will now get a higher profile here.
Obviously a traffic calming measure and it should make the riverfront promenade safer for pedestrians to cross.
There are also plans to change the parkway roundabout to traffic lights. The plans include moving the Parkway entrance further down Childers road.
Double post
The ambulance overtaking manoeuvre described is what ambulances presently do when they are called out during rush hours.
Under the proposed scheme, the passage of an ambulance during rush-hours will be determined by the pace of vehicles ahead of them on the bus-lane, i.e. buses and taxis.
You say there’ll be no more than 4/5 buses per hour down O’Connell Ave.
Even one bus route alone at present is scheduled to deliver buses at the rate of 1 per 10 minutes. With the new Green Route southern axis, I’d expect more buses to be put on so as to enable collection of people from all the main estates on either side of the road to Raheen.
With the additional bus routes and a 10 minute interval on each of them, there would be a bus on O’Connell Avenue every 2 minutes.
Then of course there is the taxis. These will be much more frequent than buses.
At rush hours it will not always be possible or advantageous for them to switch lanes so as to overtake buses.
So how does an ambulance (or squad car or fire tender) proceed ?This is an observation, not a scare-off.
And it is not against buses on this route, nor a much-needed improvement of our bus service.
It is simply against the way the road-space is being appropriated by through-commuters in the name of bus-users but at the expense of residents and business owners.
Alternative routes are available for the through-commuters.
These ought be utilised.
That way one can have both an improved bus-service and a vital community.@teak wrote:
The ambulance overtaking manoeuvre described is what ambulances presently do when they are called out during rush hours.
Under the proposed scheme, the passage of an ambulance during rush-hours will be determined by the pace of vehicles ahead of them on the bus-lane, i.e. buses and taxis.
You say there’ll be no more than 4/5 buses per hour down O’Connell Ave.
Even one bus route alone at present is scheduled to deliver buses at the rate of 1 per 10 minutes. With the new Green Route southern axis, I’d expect more buses to be put on so as to enable collection of people from all the main estates on either side of the road to Raheen.
With the additional bus routes and a 10 minute interval on each of them, there would be a bus on O’Connell Avenue every 2 minutes.
Then of course there is the taxis. These will be much more frequent than buses.
At rush hours it will not always be possible or advantageous for them to switch lanes so as to overtake buses.
So how does an ambulance (or squad car or fire tender) proceed ?This is an observation, not a scare-off.
And it is not against buses on this route, nor a much-needed improvement of our bus service.
It is simply against the way the road-space is being appropriated by through-commuters in the name of bus-users but at the expense of residents and business owners.
Alternative routes are available for the through-commuters.
These ought be utilised.
That way one can have both an improved bus-service and a vital community.As a member of the local emergency services (i won’t say which), I have to say. We love bus lanes, there’s either a free lane on the left to go up, or it acts as a lane for other vehicles to go into allowing us to proceed much safer than the present system allows.. Cities which are way way way busier than Limerick seem to be able to get around this “issue”.
Confirmation that M7 Limerick to Birdhill will finally open at 4pm on Tuesday next, almost 18 months late. They have been testing the repaired section over the last couple of weeks so hopefully this is the end of the sorry saga.
No more Daly’s Cross on dark, miserable Winter evening’s!! 🙂
‘Bog’ motorway to open next week (Irish Independent)
By Paul Melia
ENGINEERS have constructed massive reinforced concrete enforcements to support a road that collapsed into a bog late last year.
And the National Roads Authority (NRA) said yesterday that the successful works mean the M7 Nenagh to Limerick road will finally open next Tuesday, September 28 — more than a year behind schedule.
The construction of the 38km road from Annacotty to Nenagh in Co Tipperary was contracted to Bothar Hibernian almost four years ago and was due for completion in June 2009.
However, the contractors ran into serious difficulties at Anaholty bog, where the almost-completed road collapsed into the bog in December last year.
The contractors built a concrete-and-steel bridge — called a Load Transfer Platform — to provide a stable base, and the NRA said this meant the road could finally open.
The €425m road is the second-last section of the Dublin to Limerick motorway, and will link the Limerick southern ring road with the existing Nenagh bypass.
It includes 28km of motorway, and a 10km upgrade of the Nenagh bypass to motorway standard.
The road will bypass the towns of Birdhill, Daly’s Cross and the Lisnagry rail level crossing.
Up to 20,000 vehicles a day will use it, and it will knock eight minutes from journey times.
Public not liable for motorway sinking into bog (Irish Times)
TIM O’BRIEN
THE NATIONAL Roads Authority has said the taxpayer will not be liable for delays caused by a section of the new M7 motorway sinking into a bog in Co Tipperary.
The €425 million 28km dual-carriageway section between the Nenagh bypass and the Limerick Southern Ring Road was initially to have opened completely in June 2009, but subsidence was noticed on a section of the road at Annaholty bog near Birdhill.
A section between Nenagh and Birdhill junction was opened to traffic at Easter, but motorists travelling the route to Limerick have had to use the old N7 between Birdhill and Annacotty due to the delay caused by the difficulties at Annaholty bog.
According to the National Roads Authority, the final section will now open next Tuesday, September 28th, following the building of “an underground bridge†across the bog.
The road authority said that a 100-metre section of the road was excavated and replaced with a reinforced concrete slab, which was connected to solid ground at depths of up to 30 metres by a series of reinforced piles.
The cost of the extra work was estimated in the region of €2 million to €3 million.
However, an authority spokesman said the design-and-build nature of the contract would ensure the taxpayer was not liable for the additional cost.
The remedial works were successfully completed in August. This was followed by load testing to ensure the integrity of the road in the area before it was certified fit for traffic.
The opening paves the way for the final section of the M7, between Castletown and Nenagh, which is now expected in November.
This project starts at the most easterly junction of the Nenagh bypass and finishes at the Borris- in-Ossory interchange.
The final section will then deliver motorway continuous standard connections between Northern Ireland and Co Clare via the M50 and the new Shannon tunnel.
@Dan Sullivan wrote:
I think it is curious that in the various discussions about the bus lanes in from the south that the issue of having to reroute the buses away from Todds (because we’re going to have a pedestrian only O’Connell st. at that point hasn’t been raised. The opportunity is there to connect the city buses with the regional services at the station if we’re going to move from Todds as the main city centre stop.
I have yet to see a system bus-flow plan (if any) for all of the city routes operating through the proposed Orbital Route.
The University and the Regional Hospital destinations must connect with the bus / railway station.
Alternatively a new bus service just circulating around the Orbital Route could link up with all the other bus routes criss-crossing the city centre?
Any updates on the new bus station proposal?
Limerick city to get 16 new sets of traffic lights (Limerick Leader)
By Nick Rabbitts
FURTHER traffic disruption could be on the way after Limerick City Council confirmed the orbital route is to have 16 new sets of traffic lights.
As part of the circular route around the city centre, senior engineer Vincent Murray has said sets of traffic lights are still to be installed at the Abbey Bridge, the Parnell Street/Mallow Street junction as part of a junction alteration, and at the Dock Road/Shannon Bridge junction, meaning the removal of the Shannon Bridge roundabout.
There are also expected to be traffic lights installed on side-streets to give traffic entering main streets ample opportunity to join.
Mr Murray confirmed this will eventually mean 16 new sets of traffic lights in the city – with many already in place, including the junction at Upper William Street.
This week, new traffic lights on the Condell Road, near the Salesians School, were switched on for the first time.
The move led to chaos at rush hour, with some claiming it was a ploy designed to force people into the €1.80-a-car Limerick Tunnel to save time.
But tunnel general manager Tom King described this as a “conspiracy theory”.
Mr Murray also dismissed the claims: “No, the lights are not designed to force people into the tunnel. We need to balance the needs of motorists commuting through the city with the needs of other people in the city, including schools and local traffic,” he said.
The remaining sets of traffic lights on the orbital route are expected to be fitted over the next few months
Let’s hope that they will be synchronised along the orbital route.
New section of M7 motorway opens (Irish Times)
KATHRYN HAYES
THE LAST section of the €424 million motorway from Limerick to Nenagh was finally opened yesterday, with up to 20,000 vehicles expected to bypass some of the country’s worst accident spots.
The opening of the Birdhill to Limerick section of the M7 was delayed by over a year. Work started on the 12.5km section of the scheme in 2006 and it was scheduled to open in May 2009. However, the contractors ran into major difficulties when part of the road sank into a bog at Annaholty. As a result, a 100m section of the road had to be excavated and rebuilt from scratch.
Speaking at yesterday’s official opening, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said: “It was extremely difficult, it delayed the project by almost 12 months and undoubtedly caused huge difficulties but they’ve found a solution which I’m told is very reliable.â€
The completed €424 million contract won by Bothar Hibernian included 28km of dual carriageway, with a single carriageway link to the main road at Birdhill and the upgrading of 10km of the Nenagh bypass to dual carriageway standard.
According to the National Roads Authority, the Nenagh to Limerick section of the M7 will result in safer journeys and time savings for some 20,000 motorists, who will bypass accident spots like Daly’s Cross and Yellowbridge.
Journey times to Dublin will be reduced further when the final section of the M7, from Castletown in Co Laois to Nenagh, opens later this year.
This will allow motorists to bypass Roscrea, Moneygall and Toomevara, completing the M7 motorway between Limerick and Dublin. Mr Dempsey said the roads authority was reviewing roads plans for the next 25 years, but said no new motorways were planned.
Instead, work would be carried out on upkeep and maintenance of existing road networks.
© 2010 The Irish Times
Speaking at yesterday’s official opening, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said: “It was extremely difficult, it delayed the project by almost 12 months and undoubtedly caused huge difficulties but they’ve found a solution which I’m told is very reliable.â€Better late than never!
However only time will tell how very reliable the solution is.
See previous post.
I have done a bit of crayoning and attached is my fantasy rail network for Limerick.
http://maps.google.ie/maps?hl=en&xhr=t&q=ireland&cp=3&safe=off&qscrl=1&nord=1&rlz=1T4GGLL_enIE385IE385&um=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&ion=1&biw=1366&bih=532&wrapid=tlif130930018798410&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=nl
It includes 5 heavy rail lines that I would envisage running hourly at peak and and every two hours off peak, apart from the Ennis line which would run hourly throughout the day.A more concise suburban network would run every 15 minutes on the lines between Patrickswell, Annacotty Industrial Estate and Cratloe. To eliminate the need to reverse out Colbert Station, a new station would be constructed on the existing bus maintenance yard.
Two tram lines would run every 15 minutes North-South and East-West through the city, with the East-West line connecting up both Colbert Station and the new station. The North-South line terminates at an interchange with heavy rail at Father Russell Road but I wonder would it make sense* to continue the tram line through a tunnell as far as the regional hospital as it is the only way I can think of to link the hospital up with the network.
I haven’t included stops because a) there are too many and b) they clutter up the map.
So, what say you?
* obviously it wouldn’t make sense to build most of this proposal now but a tunnel is a significant undertaking.That’s just a zoomed out image of Ireland.
Yeah, you messed up somewhere there.
Got us all excited about a new train transport system and then a fierce let-down.Fix it up and make a real image out of it, then upload that image.
Right I cant’ figure out how to ink to my google maps so heres some print screened images of it. I can zoom in closer again if ye like.
Railway/metro would be generally better used for bringing the country commuters in rather
than for hauling city-based people around town, exceptions being the Uni and Shannon
AP/Ind Estate runs.Cutting the Tralee line at NCW and earmarking the same line as a bypass route for Adare
were cardinal errors.
Never mind the fact that a good many parts of that line needed upgrading, having a
continuous run from Limerick to Tralee and thence Fenit would always hold internal
traffic and tourist potential.On your map there are large blocks of the city within which people would have a long old
walk to the nearest rail/metro stop.
Small local bus + rail/metro is too expensive and too slow.
Around town, I think that bus is the cheapest option.Railway/metro would be generally better used for bringing the country commuters in rather
than for hauling city-based people around town, exceptions being the Uni and Shannon
AP/Ind Estate runs.Well I had thought that your typical IE commuter trains would run the longer distance lines while a DART style train would run on the more concise suburban route, but only because thats what I’m familar with.
Cutting the Tralee line at NCW and earmarking the same line as a bypass route for Adare
were cardinal errors.Didn’t realise this happened. Was it to run along the line or just cut a huge D/C-way sized hole across it?
Around town, I think that bus is the cheapest option
Ya probably but I like trains so thats why I focused on them.
On your map there are large blocks of the city within which people would have a long old
walk to the nearest rail/metro stop.I have marked in the stops below, any suggestions for more?
Finally the powers that be are getting their act together about this joke of a junction.
From Limerick Leader:By David Hurley
Published on Tuesday 8 November 2011 08:00WORKS to increase capacity at one of Limerick’s worst bottle-necks are expected to begin early next year
Limerick County Council hopes to appoint a contractor before Christmas to carry out the upgrade works at the N24 / N7 interchange.
At present up to 18,000 vehicles use the interchange every day and lengthy delays are a daily occurrence at peak times.
The project, which is expected to cost several million euro to complete, was formally approved by councillors last month following the conclusion of the Part 8 planning process.
The deadline for receipt of contractors is this Thursday and negotiations with the prospective contractor are likely to begin next week.
The works, which will last for a number of months, will see the construction of a new roundabout at the junction of the N24 and the Old Ballysimon Road.
A new slip-road will be constructed to facilitate direct access to the N24 for traffic exiting from the northbound lane of the N7.
The existing lanes of the N24 will be widened over a 2km stretch of road and there will be four lanes (two in each direction) between the new roundabout and the Garryglass Roundabout.
The existing traffic lights, which were installed at the junction number of years ago will remain in place but they will be reconfigured to facilitate the additional traffic.
Do you think the plan is to get as many people to bypass the junction as possible?
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