Red Cow interchange

The Red Cow interchange is a busy road junction in west Dublin, Ireland on the M50, meeting the N7 Naas Road (to Cork and Limerick) as a partially signal-controlled junction. The N7 route commences at this junction, junction 1 on the N7 and junction 9 on the M50, and the "Naas Road" from the city centre via Inchicore to the Red Cow roundabout comprises part of the R110 and the R810. The junction is the busiest road junction in Ireland and frequently has tailbacks several kilometres long on the routes leading to it.

Original configuration

Opened in 1990 as part of the M50 Western Parkway project, the junction was originally a grade separated interchange from the point of view of M50 travellers, however for N7 motorists it was a signal-controlled roundabout with negotiation of traffic lights required for all movements. From 1994 onwards the roundabout became the terminus of the N7 road following the decision to detrunk the road inside the M50 (becoming the R110 road).

The nickname "Mad Cow roundabout" is commonly used to refer to the junction, referring to the slang term given to cattle suffering from the brain disease BSE. The actual proper name of the roundabout refers to the adjoining "Red Cow Moran Hotel".

Upgrade

The junction is being upgraded as part of works on the M50 motorway. The plans are intended to alleviate some of the junction problems by providing a third level of grade-separation, allowing Dublin–Cork/Limerick traffic to travel from the M50 to the N7 without having to navigate the roundabout. The [http://www.m50.ie/pages/pressarea-n7-interchange2.htm junction upgrade] is well advanced. A similar upgrade of the N4/M50 interchange was completed on 20 December 2007. [http://www.m50.ie/pages/n4.htm] .

As of July 2008, works are still in progress and are scheduled to be for several months. However some of the freeflow slip roads are already in place. As a consequence of the works the junction is no longer technically a roundabout, although traffic lights are still in place for several movements. When completed it will be a rather tight spaghetti style interchange.When the Interchange is complete it will be completely freeflow and will reduce driving and commute times greatly. There is also plans to upgrade the junction at Newland's Cross to a Grade-separated Interchange.

Luas depot

The tram depot for the Luas Red Line, a halt (Red Cow) and a "Park and Ride" are located at the interchange.The Luas complex added extra traffic to the already-busy junction when it opened in 2004. The tramline crossed the slip roads on the southern side of the junction, as well as crossing half of the road from the city centre before it met the junction (the tram line reaches this point by following the median of the road). The issue of the traffic disruption added by the tram system was seemingly ignored during the original planning of the Luas system. After an outcry over this, government ministers were involved in discussions about the system passing over the junction on "stilts", while the actual construction of the system was underway.

The new interchange will keep the trams separated from all other traffic.

ee also

*Roads in Ireland
*N25: "Kinsale Road Roundabout" on the Cork southern ring road is another notable junction in Ireland.

External links

* [http://www.m50.ie/pages/n7.htm M50 Motorway Upgrade]

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