Weekend road and train travellers face disruption

An “advisory” speed limit of 25 km/h will be in place on the M7 roadworks near Naas, Co Kildare over the weekend, gardaí have said.

Motorists have been warned to expect long delays between Junction 9 Naas North and Junction 10 Naas South as work gets underway to demolish an overpass as part of the road widening and improvements scheme.

Traffic is to be directed around the demolition area via newly constructed off/on slip roads. The diversion will begin at 9pm on Friday and this arrangement will continue through the weekend until 6am on Monday.

The road works are currently the regular location for two speed camera vans after it was noted that motorists were not obeying speed limits put in place to accommodate the roadworks. Following the first weeks of road works last November in excess of 500 fixed penalty notices were issued by An Garda Síochána to motorists for exceeding the speed limit.

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The M7 is the State’s second busiest road, and follows the M50 in the ranking of traffic volumes.

Superintendent Oliver Henry from Naas Garda station, said it was desirable for people to drive at 25km/h on the slip road diversion route but added that it is only a suggested speed limit.

He said “it’s not an enforcement, the 25km/h, we are just asking people to slow down on the slip roads which are less than a kilometre in length”.

In Wexford, a reduced speed limit of 50km/h and lane restrictions are in place for works on the N11 at the Scarawalsh roundabout north of Enniscorthy. Further road works will continue on the M11 between Junction 23 Courtown and the Clogh roundabout until June.

Cork line

For those travelling by rail to Cork from Dublin, disruptions will apply from Friday night when trains will operate only as far as Charleville. The return journey will also be affected over the weekend and there will be disruptions on Tralee and Killarney services. Intending passengers are advised to consult the website irishrail.ie.

Driving conditions for the weekend are expected to be generally good with Friday being a bright and mainly dry day. Some hazy sunshine will be best over the south and east, but the island will be generally cloudy and with a few spots of drizzle in the northwest later.

Highest daytimes temperatures are expected to be 12 to 16 degrees. Driving conditions are good, with the exception of any lingering fog in the southeast.

Met Éireann said Saturday will start mostly dry over the southern half of the country but patchy rain in the northern half will clear southwards during the day with brighter weather to follow from the north. Light variable winds will become northerly and freshen later over Connacht and Ulster. It will turn cooler in the northerly winds with top temperatures reaching 9 or 10 degrees in the north and 11 to 13 degrees further south.

Sunday will also be a mostly dry day with sunny spells, although there may be a few isolated spots of rain. It will be cool, with maximum temperatures of 9 or 10 degrees in the north and and east and 11 to 13 degrees in the west and south, in light to moderate northeast to east winds. Sunday night will be mostly dry and cloudy. Not quite as cold as Saturday night, with minimum temperatures of 3 to 7 degrees.