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.
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.
A young child was killed by a truck in Mountrath Co. Laois. In Julianstown over a 1000 HGVs go through the village every day. Trucks and pedestrians/cyclists are incompatible. Why do we have this situation where our children are in danger constantly from the heavy traffic?
Can someone explain to me how Gorey can be bypassed for 10,000 vehicles when there are still 22,000 vehicles per day driving through Julianstown. All the talk about improved quality of life, etc. is as relevant for our village as for Gorey or any other bypassed town for that matter.
We compared the traffic profiles in the similar villages of Julianstown and Clonard. Julianstown was on the old N1 and was supposedly bypassed with the opening of the M1. Clonard was on the old N4 and was bypassed when the M4 was opened. Both new roads are tolled. The contrast between the two villages is stark. Before the toll both villages had similar levels of chronic traffic, however after the motorways opened the Julianstown traffic hardly dropped whereas in clonrd it is down by more than 60%. This is proof that traffic in Julianstown is not influenced by the toll. See this graph.
The toll is often used as an excuse for the traffic in Julianstown in the context that Julianstown has got its bypass and won’t be getting a new one. It is hard to see why a toll would have such an effect on Julianstown and not on Clonard, where the toll is in fact higher. Granted a toll is a deterent to use, but it is obvious that most of the traffic in Julianstown is not toll avoiding.
Interestingly the data for Clonard show that almost a quarter of the traffic is HGV traffic which pays a higher toll. It looks like HGV traffic is more sensitive to tolling and in fact would be the main body of traffic to avoid a toll. That means the toll should lead to a relative increase in HGV traffic. In Julianstown the opposite has occurred. In fact the proportion of HGV traffic in Julianstown is decreasing again indicating that the toll is not diverting traffic into Julianstown.
So what does this mean? It means that most of the traffic in Julianstown is local, travelling from or to Drogheda and East Meath, an area where the population is doubling every 5 years. The M1 did not effectively bypass Julianstown and the County Council’s claim that the tolls are the cause of the problem are not supported by the facts.
What needs to be done? The council needs to acknowledge this as the situation and immediately start planning an adequate road network to effectively transport the East Meath population to the M1, a route that should not pass through Julianstown. The situation is very poor in Julianstown and the Council’s reponses are inadequate and unprofessional.
I’ve lived in Stamullen for 3 decades now and I must agree that it’s ridiculous that there’s no provision for a bypass in Julianstown despite the fact that over 20k PCUs pass through each day. In fact, anything over 17k PCUs would justify a dual carriageway according to the NRA, not to mention that roads carrying just 8k PUs are being by-passed with motorway/HQDC schemes around the country.
Now, the R132 from Gormanston to Drogheda should be designated as a branch national primary road - ie. N34 is the next available number. This route serves one of the main Dublin to Drogheda South traffic desire lines, as the M1 Toll would only represent value for money regarding motorists heading for Drogheda North or further afield. In any case, daily toll payments would prove costly over time.
On a side track issue, do you know why the council has removed the hard shoulders on the R132 south of the Europa Hotel? – there’s nowhere safe to walk or cycle now – where’s the green party regarding this issue? Much of the road through Julianstown was also narrowed – this happened during the 1997 traffic calming works – on the southern approach to the River Nanny bridge, the road was reduced by at least one cycle lane width – what a waste! As a cyclist, the message that I’m getting from the above is that cyclists and pedestrians are not welcome along the R132!
PCU=Passenger car unit
HQDC=High Quality Dual Carriageway
