Motorways in Ireland

I agree totally with Jimg, its totally the norm to have motorways connecting all the main cities of ireland, not just all to Dublin Which i think is a big mistake , it will cause major commuter problems and everything will filter out of the countryside as the as all the motorways will lead to Dublin .it takes hours and hours to get to any of the cities on a good day? its ridiculous that you have to snarl through towns that not need not to go through.

we have been blessed that you can go from Dublin to the bogs of ireland without gettin stuck in kildare town anymore !!!!
when you have a fantastic motorway !!!

Richar
i have to agree with you on the reasons you stated as the N7 was not to be Motorway standard ,the main reasons is that a dual carrigeway is cheaper than a motorway as their are different designs and speeds.
there is a alternate route, as their are building a road from Naas to Castlewadern near Rathcoole there. which is for regional and traffic travelling that not need to use the N7,
the Road is served by a motorway route the M7 and M50…

how can you explain the reasons for supposed to be M7 Nenagh to limerick section which was planned long before the national roads plan was carried out . the road has an alternate route (the old N7) and on greefield site and has a lot of traffic for a motorway to be built but yet it s now going to be a dual carrigeway!

It would be impossible to upgrade the N7 from Naas to the M50 to motorway standard because too many properties have access on to it. The upgrade will remove a lot of these, but not all.
The other section you mentioned is similar to several other “high-quality dual carriageways” which are in the National Development Plan. I haven’t managed to find a good reason why these won’t be classified as motorways and the NRA has been criticised by county councils and government for the inconsistency. The roads are of motorway standard with a design speed of 130km/h, and do not obstruct the old route, with the exception of the N1 from North of Dundalk to the border. The only difference between a high-quality dual carriageway and a motorway in the design handbook is that a dual carriageway is allowed “a limited number of left-on, left-off accesses”, presumably for access to farmland. Why these aren’t allowed on a motorway is unclear; they are in other countries.

Don’t know of 3 lane motorways, but there are 3 lane dual-carriageways including

• N4 from ~M50 (Liffey Valley) to ~Lucan
• N7 from ~M50 (Naas Road / Red Cow) to ~Rathcoole

There are plans for more 3 lane roads:

• Much of M50 to be upgraded to 3 lanes (motorway)
• N4 from M50 to Leixlip junction
• N7 from Rathcoole to Naas

You can get status and some maps for all the major road projects at the NRA website.

I support 2 lanes in each direction on all major routes, bypassing the towns and cities. The current situation is not acceptable. Decent roads are safer, business friendly, local friendly. In time they should encourage businesses to cheaper premises outside of Dublin, which will bring jobs, then families, helping to strengthen vulnerable communities.

I don’t like the trend of all all main roads leading into Dublin: The Outer Orbital Route currently being explored (possibly from Drogheda to Navan to Maynooth/Kilkock to Naas and maybe even Wicklow) sounds like a good idea to me. I also like the idea of a decent North/South road in the West. Something like Sligo to Galway to Limerick to Cork (and maybe Wexford).

Building these roads does have a cost, financially and arguably to heritage and the local environment. But I think the cost is worth it: lives saved, the hours waiting in traffic avoided (these hours are wasted forever!!!), the towns and cities that can breath, the communities that will get a new lease of life. Public transport (rail etc.) will help reduce cars, but we need to get jobs out of Dublin, not just the people.

I support 2 lanes in each direction on all major routes, bypassing the towns and cities.

Personally, I’d have a problem with blanket policies like this. I support motorway construction when the case has been proven with regard to benefits to justify the massive capital spending required and the accrued environmental costs. From my personal experience, I’d say that motorways were definitely required to replace large sections of the N7, N4 and N1. These routes had terrible bottlenecks and the motorway upgrades have improved journey times considerably. I’m sure there were other similar routes in the country which justified upgrading to motorway. On the other hand, the Shannon bypass (on the Limerick to Galway Route) or whatever it’s called seems to me to be a monumental waste of money. At best it has reduced journey times by 5 or 10 minutes on a route that was never that congested to begin with. Sure it looks nice on a map, but I don’t think any cost/benefit analysis could have justified such expenditure and this is my worry; motorways are being built for ideological or perversely aesthetic reasons (nice lines on maps) rather than for sound economic reasons.

@PTB wrote:

As for leesiders comment thats a governent thing done to indicate that if your not near Dublin you wont recieve the same privliges as the pale.

I agree you Cork folks don’t have the privilage of two hour commutes, I’m sure it can be arranged.

@A-ha wrote:

Has the motorway linking Cork and Limerick to Dublin been given some sort of green light or is it still some urban myth? Also, isn’t the bypass in Fermoy a motorway? I haven’t seen it yet, but I thought I heard it was. I think more emphasis should be put on public transport e.g. rail, instead of on roads. Ireland must be the only country in Europe (after Moldova) that still uses diesel engines to run it’s rail network. We were better off in the 1950’s when almost every town in Ireland was connected to a railway line, since then all of these stations have been dwindling away. I was so delighted to hear that the railway line will be extended to Midleton from Cork, providing a commuter service that is heavily needed. But an extension of the service isn’t good enough, it should be happening nation wide. My biggest disappointment is that we only have one railway provider, compared to countries such as England and Germany where they have 5 or 6 companies operating trains. What does everyone else think??

that’s a good idea

@A-ha wrote:

Has the motorway linking Cork and Limerick to Dublin been given some sort of green light or is it still some urban myth?

Approval has been given to build a collection of road segments and upgrades that, once strung together will form a road of at least dual carriageway standard between Dublin and Cork by 2010. A lot of it is built already or under construction.

Also, isn’t the bypass in Fermoy a motorway? I haven’t seen it yet, but I thought I heard it was.

Yes it is 17.5 km of tolled motorway, due to finish by summer 2007.

We were better off in the 1950’s when almost every town in Ireland was connected to a railway line, since then all of these stations have been dwindling away.

We were of course much worse off in every other way. The extensive rail network only existed because there was no competition from cars. Had we maintained the rail network we would have spent the last 40 years running trains that nobody used at huge expense. Rail infrastructure only lasts about 30-40 years so we would have had to renew the network by now anyway.

Increased employment and car congestion have made commuter rail systems a welcome prospect in Ireland. Watch the price of property along the MIdleton line shoot up over the next few years.

My biggest disappointment is that we only have one railway provider, compared to countries such as England and Germany where they have 5 or 6 companies operating trains. What does everyone else think??

It didn’t seem to work out so sweetly for the Brits. Ireland’s rail network may be too small to generate any interest in competition. However, allowing Connex to run the luas seems to have been a good idea. Their ticketing is about a million times better than the DART and Irish Rail have something to live up to now.

Glad to hear that the Cork-Dublin “motorway” is getting built piece by piece. At least it should cut down the time spent on the road.