Engineering works to improve the merging of traffic onto the M50 are expected to be extended throughout the motorway from next year.
A new merging lane layout is currently under trial at the junction of the M3 and the M50. Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) said if the project is successful it could be extended along the route from early next year.
“This is an engineering step that will force drivers to stay in their merging lane longer, giving them time to get up to the merging speed,” TII spokesman Sean O’Neill said.
“What happens currently is the merging driver tries to get over as quickly as possible, so they are not at the right speed, and drivers on the M50 brake, which also reduces the flow.”
The M3 trial “seems to be going well” Mr O’Neill said. “If it continues to go well, the potential in the coming year is that it will be extended to the critical section of it M50 from the M1 to the N81 Tallaght/Templeogue junction, and then to the full length.”
The measure is the first step in a new plan to ease the worsening congestion on the road which caters for in excess of 350,000 vehicle trips each weekday.
Over the next two to three years TII is planning to introduce variable speed limits to improve traffic flows and reduce congestion on the M50.
New overhead gantry signage will direct motorists to alternative routes in the event of lane closures caused by collisions, and will alert drivers to changing speed limits on the road. This results in a more even speed on the road and reduces the potential of crashes Mr O’Neill said.
However speaking on RTÉ radio's Today with Sean O'Rourke show Irish Road Haulage Association president Verona Murphy said a similar speed limit system had not worked on the M25 in London.
“It’s outrageous to say the M25 works, it doesn’t work. This system doesn’t work, its just more spin from the Government.”
A demand management study, commissioned by the National Roads Authority, which has now been subsumed into TII, last year recommended more tolling points along the M50 to reduce congestion.
“Multipoint tolling could decrease traffic by 10 per cent,” Mr O’Neill said. “But we’re been told by the Government to implement the lane merging and the gantry signs first, to sweat the existing asset.”
