[IRL] M11 Enniscorthy Bypass

[Brownfools]

Can anyone confirm the opening date posted above. While we all hope that this is true, I can't find anything on websites or the press.

[odlum]

I have no information on actual date.

I have nice pics though.

https://www.m11gtoe.ie/wordpress/wp-con ... 5I5900.jpg

Southern terminus:
https://www.m11gtoe.ie/wordpress/wp-con ... 5I6373.jpg


The mway will continue from there in the next scheme to Rosslare.

[jdwexford]

The confirmed date for opening is July 18th, and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will officially open it.

[IAN]

The mway will continue from there in the next scheme to Rosslare.

In that case it appears that once again no future proofing in the form of an unfinished GSJ has been included in the terminal junction, they managed that with the M18 so why not here?

Ian (M5 Driver)

[Brownfools]

Lovely drone shots from Odlum. Obviously taken within the last week.
Thanks to jdwexford for the opening date information. Sods law! I'm driving down from Dublin to Wexford the previous evening!
Ian; future-proofing was unnecessary here. The new junction will be offline, similar the Frankfort junction. The M11 will continue to the east of Oilgate. Thus the current junction keeps the traffic flow away from the Oilgate to Rosslare works, when they start. Consultants were appointed a couple of weeks ago to examine the proposals.
RoI is such a refreshing change from the UK. Things get built!

[bothar]

Road opens today

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/n ... 24516.html
https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2019/0 ... y-wexford/

[c2R]

Cheers,that should make my next journey to Rosslare next month substantially quicker! Shame it'll be dark and I'll not be able to get any photos!

[Brownfools]

Lovely!!
Saved me 13 minutes this afternoon. From my driveway to Dublin airport is now exactly two hours.
Love the layout at the southern end, giving away exactly how it will be modified for the extension to Rosslare.
On the downside, one wonders how long the village of Camolin will be able to support two petrol stations.

[Enceladus]

Drove down Wexford way a couple of days before the new M11 Enniscorthy by-pass opened. Got myself some delicious Wexford strawberries from a roadside stall just outside Ferns.

I’m sure it has brought great relief to Enniscorthy but according to posters on the roads forum of boards.ie the tailbacks southbound in the village of Oilgate are brutal at times...

[Viator]

I had the pleasure of driving the whole bypass northbound last Saturday (just over a week after the official opening) at around 17.45 -- and was astounded that in the whole 27 km I saw not even one other vehicle either ahead of or behind me! (Is this what driving in the very earliest days of British motorway construction was like?)

A curiosity (to me) was that in, I think, three locations there were long two-lane "Garda only" laybys presently barriered off at their exits and actually gated at their entrances. The cones and barriers currently in place look temporary. Have these laybys perhaps been installed to serve as vehicle inspection points of some kind?

[c2R]

I'm not sure...

also... we've got this wiki page: https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/ind ... e_Junction But looking at the maps, I doubt there is proposed to be a motorway junction at this location - it looks like a LAR has been built alongside, linking it with J25.

Does anyone know if anything is planned here, e.g. some development, or is our wiki page based on old plans that aren't going to come to fruition, or is it just wrong?

[jdwexford]

Junction north of Oylegate will be something like this, so they will make use of the existing roundabout when they design the alignment to Rosslare.

[jdwexford]

A curiosity (to me) was that in, I think, three locations there were long two-lane "Garda only" laybys presently barriered off at their exits and actually gated at their entrances. The cones and barriers currently in place look temporary. Have these laybys perhaps been installed to serve as vehicle inspection points of some kind?

They were designed as lay-bys. However with Gorey and Coyne's Cross Service Areas open they won't be needed. You stick with the contracted design when working with BAM, otherwise it'll cost ye! They will probably be used by the Gardai, Revenue. and Customs for inspection areas as you said.

[jdwexford]

I’m sure it has brought great relief to Enniscorthy but according to posters on the roads forum of boards.ie the tailbacks southbound in the village of Oilgate are brutal at times...

That was because they installed traffic lights that would let 5 or 6 cars through at a time in Oylegate when the motorway opened! I think it has been rectified, traffic volumes are much the same.

[Viator]

A curiosity (to me) was that in, I think, three locations there were long two-lane "Garda only" laybys presently barriered off at their exits and actually gated at their entrances. The cones and barriers currently in place look temporary. Have these laybys perhaps been installed to serve as vehicle inspection points of some kind?

They were designed as lay-bys. However with Gorey and Coyne's Cross Service Areas open they won't be needed. You stick with the contracted design when working with BAM, otherwise it'll cost ye! They will probably be used by the Gardai, Revenue. and Customs for inspection areas as you said.

Thanks for all the info on this and other points, jd.

[Johnathan404]

I used it at 7pm on a Tuesday evening. I'd by lying if I said it was totally deserted, but it came pretty darn close, as these pictures show:























The position of the start/end motorway signs is very odd. They are 500 metres north of the roundabout, with the hard shoulder marked as a non-motorway south of there. I'd like to think this is to do with a future extension, but Irish chopsticks have a tendency to be in odd places. It is also strange how there are about four ADSs approaching the roundabout, which I suppose are provided as substitutes for normal junction signage: they provide very advance warning!

I didn't have any problems getting through Oilgate, but it did feel like a drag after this blissful run. It is remarkable that the N/M11 is D2 pretty much the whole way from Donnybrook to Wexford: it highlights just how overloaded the Dublin commuter section is. I'd say this is the very same mistake as the English M1/M6 being built as D3M the whole way from London to Carlisle, despite the totally predictable variances in traffic levels along the route.

[Enceladus]

Great photos of the new section of the M11 motorway, Jonathan!
I presume they were taken from a dash cam you have in your car?


Some lovely new vistas of the rich Wexford countryside opened up by the Enniscorthy by-pass. I can only imagine that the service stations in Camolin and Ferns on the old road are suffering badly, with one of them bound to close within a year.

Also, from the Roads Forum on boards.ie, the N30 Enniscothy Northern by-pass section project opened to traffic today. This takes all the strategic long distance traffic away from the town.

[bothar]

I didn't have any problems getting through Oilgate, but it did feel like a drag after this blissful run. It is remarkable that the N/M11 is D2 pretty much the whole way from Donnybrook to Wexford: it highlights just how overloaded the Dublin commuter section is. I'd say this is the very same mistake as the English M1/M6 being built as D3M the whole way from London to Carlisle, despite the totally predictable variances in traffic levels along the route.

Of course the N11 no longer runs to Donnybrook, it is the R138. However, the urban section is D3, except one lane is a bus lane.
THe M11/N11 will be increased to 3 lanes to Kilmanogue.

[odlum]

THe M11/N11 will be increased to 3 lanes to Kilmanogue.

Think the extra lanes are going a good bit further than that through the Glen of the Downs.

[Enceladus]

A drive from North to South on the new M11 Enniscorthy by-pass. Originally posted up on the Roads forum of boards.ie.

I drove it last week for the first time - a really superb stretch of motorway.