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The NRA ("No Rest Areas") is already notorious for refusing to allow service stations on motorways, with the result that it is possible to drive from Portlaoise to Dundalk without passing anywhere one can refuel or get a coffee and take a break.
Uniquely in Europe, it also resisted installing barriers as a standard on the central reservations of dual carriageways and motorways. Only after a number of deaths and an even greater number of near misses did it concede there was nothing special about Irish conditions which meant such barriers are not needed here.
It then set about retrofitting wire rope and post barriers to a large number of roads, despite protests from motorcycling groups that these presented a severe hazard to motorcyclists.
From a report in today's (Sep 19) Irish Times:
The European Commission has launched a review of the use of wire rope crash barriers such as those currently being installed on Irish motorways and dual carriageways.
The Commission has asked the European Committee for Standardisation, which draws up technical specifications for industry, to review the use of such barriers, a Commission spokeswoman confirmed yesterday.
The review was prompted by concern over the effects the wire ropes and poles have in a collision, particularly with motorcyclists.
The installation of such barriers has now been banned in a number of European countries - including Britain, Austria, Norway and the Netherlands - on safety grounds.
However, the National Roads Authority (NRA) is currently installing the wire rope barriers on all major roads where the central median is 15 metres or less.
How long before the NRA accepts that this type of barrier is not fit for purpose, that it has wasted our money and placed road users lives at risk by installing them, and replaces them?
one esso just past naas and one just past newlands cross before you reach red cow roundabout.
one esso just past naas and one just past newlands cross before you reach red cow roundabout.
Is the Esso in Naas on the road north or the road south? If north (as I suspect), it is perhaps still possible to drive from Dundalk to Portlaoise without passing a rest-stop, even if this does not apply in the other direction?
you only need a rest stop in the motorway and there is a large part after naas that is not a motorway. I agree that there are no truck rest stops. But there are places for a car to pull in.
Well, the NRA have conceded the point, because they are belatedly putting out the provision of service areas to tender.
How many dead or maimed motorcyclists will it take for them to admit they are wrong on these wire rope barriers too?
Unfortunately, this sums it up nicely.Our agencies can always be relied on the choose the option that appears the cheapest but which turns out to be the most expensive. But when there is an endless supply of money and no accountability what should we expect?
I applaud the NRA for trying to introduce a system which leads to better driving conditions, but this particular example was ill thought out in the extreme.
Hmmm, wonder if they'll now come down and rectify the mess they've made of this particular 2+1 system then!This is another area where they have done a U-turn (if you'll excuse the pun). The NRA has recently decided not to install any more of these - they have concluded it would be just as cheap and more effective to upgrade to a full dual carriageway.
Hmmm, wonder if they'll now come down and rectify the mess they've made of this particular 2+1 system then!
'Fraid not. From the Irish Times, July 25 last:
An NRA spokesman said the existing stretches of 2+1 developed during the pilot scheme would be left unchanged, and the design would remain as an approved option.
[broken link removed]
It'll only take a few fatal accidents to change that decision - nothin like dead folk to make the NRA change their minds
I've heard bikers refer to that cable as 'cheese wire' which is understandable. UP near me, they removed the 'armco' barriers and put up the wire....
Armcos were probably dumped and the scrappie made a killing on it by selling it on.
Who pays in the end ?
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