Julianstown Blog

Clonroche

Interesting site from Clonroche, a village similar in size to Julianstown in Co. Wexford. Interestingly thet don’t want a bypass.

They have tidy towns information and also have some of the same issues we have, e.g. lack of broadband.

It’s a nice site overall.

Add comment August 23rd, 2007

Yet another serious crash in Julianstown

Ambulances and Gardai had to attend another in a never ending series of car crashes in Julianstown village last week. Yet again a car speeding down the hill failed to see another car turing into the Duleek road and ended up embedded on the bridge. Luckily the bridge is tougher than cars and is hardly showing any sign of damage.

How long do we have to wait before one of our neighbours or children is killed or badly injured in an accident.

Julianstown residents are sick in the face pointing out the traffic volumes in the village and are being stonewalled by the council when it comes to progressing a solution. With the area population set to double in the next 10 years the only thing that is going to happen is that the traffic will get worse and the accidents will continue.

Add comment August 15th, 2007

Yet another by-pass (but not in for Julianstown)

Lucky old Ennis opens its bypass today for 10,000 cars. Half the volume in Julianstown.
What are we doing wrong?

Clare County Council today announced that up to 10,000 vehicles per day are expected to use section two of the N18 Ennis bypass project, which opens to traffic at 7pm today.

The 5km wide single carriageway, which forms part of the N85 western relief road, runs from Clareabbey to Claureen and opens a new bypass to the south and west of the County.

Paul Moroney, Project Resident Engineer with Clare County Council said: “This section of the bypass ties in to the old N18 at the Limerick road in the vicinity of Clareabbey. The roundabout at

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this tie in is called Clareabbey roundabout. The new bypass will provide relief to traffic wanting to bypass Ennis to the south and west of the town.

It will in particular provide welcome relief to traffic wanting to travel to Kilrush, Kilkee, Ennistymon and Lahinch and to the people of West Clare.”

“Roundabout junctions are provided at the Rocky road and Kilrush road, at the Beech park roundabout and at a new roundabout on the existing N85 at Claureen.

New bridges are provided over the N68 Kilrush road and the river Claureen”.

The Ennis Bypass project is funded by the Irish Government and part-financed by the European Union under the National Development Plan and Transport 21.

Add comment August 9th, 2007

Juliantown Traffic Volumes Exceed Dual Carriage-Way Level

According to the NRA’s own figures the traffic levels in the villiage of Julianstown exceed the capacity of a dual carriageway. These figures were revealed in an Irish Times article (see below). Julianstown with 22,000 vehicles per day is 10% above dual carriageway level.

We have written to TDs Shane McEntee of Fine Gael and Thomas Byrne of Fianna Fail. Deputy McEntee confirmed that he had seen the article and said he was continuing to seek meetings with the NRA and minster for the environment. Meanwhile Deputy Byrne has yet to reply.

The National Roads Authority has decided not to use a “2+1″ road design for an upgrade of more than 850km of national roads.

The system is designed to eradicate head-on crashes by providing overtaking lanes at 2km intervals in a bid to curb driver frustration and has been piloted on three national routes over the past two years.

The “2+1″ layout has two lanes in one direction, and one in the opposite. The two-lane section is a safe overtaking zone and alternates with the one-lane section at intervals of around two kilometres with a barrier separating traffic. Separating lanes of oncoming traffic is one of the recommendations in a draft of the new Road Safety Strategy 2007 to 2011.

However, the NRA found that there was a tendency for drivers to accelerate to try and pass traffic just before the double-lane section switched and that this was a hazard.

A cost-benefit analysis also showed that an upgrade on a single carriageway national route to a 2+2 - with two lanes in each direction separated by a central barrier cost - between 10 to 15 per cent more than a 2+1 format.

Because the 2+2 arrangement can also carry more traffic at 20,000 vehicles per day, compared to 14,000 for a 2+1, the NRA has decided to use this design layout as the basis for the widening of almost 850km of single carriageway national roads.

© 2007 The Irish Times

Add comment August 5th, 2007