R136 road
Encyclopedia
The R136 road is a regional road
Regional road
A regional road in Ireland is a class of road not forming a major route , but nevertheless forming a link in the national route network. There are over 11,600 kilometres of regional roads. Regional roads are numbered with three digit route numbers, prefixed by "R" A regional road in Ireland is a...

 in Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

, located in the southwest of Dublin. Named the Outer Ring Road, the route (which is dual carriageway
Dual carriageway
A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...

), bypasses west of Clondalkin
Clondalkin
-Today:Modern Clondalkin is a busy satellite town of Dublin, with a population of 43,929 in 2006. Retail facilities include Tesco Ireland- and Dunnes Stores-led shopping centres, and Aldi and Lidl stores on the Fonthill Road and New Nangor Road respectively, and the village centre is a base for...

 (around Grange Castle) connecting the N4 to the Tallaght Bypass (N81)
N81 road
The N81 road is a national secondary road in Ireland, connecting the gates of Trinity College, Dublin to Tullow, County Carlow, north to south. The N81 continues past Tullow for another 8 km to terminate at the village of Closh, County Carlow, where it intersects the N80. The N81 is long...

, crossing the N7. It was built as part of the planning for the new town of Adamstown
Adamstown, Dublin
Adamstown is the first new town planned in Ireland since Shannon Town in 1982. The new settlement is being developed 16 km from Dublin city centre, on a 220 hectare site just south of Lucan, west of the Griffeen River and north of the Grand Canal. No date has been set for the official...

.

Route

The route was legislated in 2006 as commencing along the R835 near Lucan (Adamstown
Adamstown, Dublin
Adamstown is the first new town planned in Ireland since Shannon Town in 1982. The new settlement is being developed 16 km from Dublin city centre, on a 220 hectare site just south of Lucan, west of the Griffeen River and north of the Grand Canal. No date has been set for the official...

), and running south via Ballyowen Distributor Road and Grange Castle Road to Kingswood Interchange on the N7 (Junction 2). This forms "Phase 1" of the planned outer ring road
Ring road
A ring road, orbital motorway, beltway, circumferential highway, or loop highway is a road that encircles a town or city...

 (the M50 motorway
M50 motorway (Ireland)
The M50 motorway is a motorway in Ireland running in a C-shaped ring around the north-eastern, northern, western and southern sides of the capital city, Dublin. The northern end of the route is located at the entrance to the Dublin Port Tunnel. Anti-clockwise it heads northwest through the tunnel...

 being an inner ring road which should not be confused with the Inner Orbital Route, an Inner Ring in the inner City). Phase 2, which opened in December 2006, commences at the N4 road east of Lucan, passing through Ballyowen, with a junction for Adamstown, before linking up with the existing road at Grange Castle.

Almost the entire route is a dual carriageway
Dual carriageway
A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...

, apart from the bridge over the N4. From the N4 to Adamstown
Adamstown, Dublin
Adamstown is the first new town planned in Ireland since Shannon Town in 1982. The new settlement is being developed 16 km from Dublin city centre, on a 220 hectare site just south of Lucan, west of the Griffeen River and north of the Grand Canal. No date has been set for the official...

, there is only one traffic lane and a bus lane in each direction (As the carriageways as separated by a jersey barrier
Jersey barrier
A Jersey barrier or Jersey wall is a modular concrete barrier employed to separate lanes of traffic. It is designed to both minimize vehicle damage in cases of incidental contact while still preventing crossover in the case of head-on accidents....

 this is still technically a dual carriageway). From Adamstown to Kingswood, the route has two lanes and a bus lane in each direction. However all junctions, other than the N4 junction and N7 flyover, are at-grade, and the median is rather narrow.

The term Outer Ring Road should not be confused with Outer Orbital Route
Outer Orbital Route
The Outer Orbital Route is a proposed motorway that is to be built sometime between 2011 and 2019, around the city of Dublin, Ireland. It will serve as a second bypass of the city to complement the M50 road and will link all of Dublin's main trunk routes: M1, M2, M3, M4, and M7. The only route that...

, which refers to an indicative plan to construct a second motorway bypass ring around Dublin (after the M50), further out from the city. Nor should it be confused with the existing Outer Orbital Route which circles the inner city in the Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council is the local authority for the city of Dublin in Ireland. It has 52 members and is the largest local authority in Ireland. Until 2001, it was known as Dublin Corporation.-Legal status:...

 area, outside the Inner Orbital Route.

Phase 3 of the road opened in July 2008, from the Kingswood
Kingswood, Dublin
-General description:The area is located between Belgard Road and the M50 motorway. Traditionally considered to be part of the hinterland of Clondalkin Village yet lying inside of the historical Parish of Tallaght, the area is now divided by the Ballymount Road, with roughly two thirds in Tallaght...

 Interchange (N7 J2) to the N81
N81 road
The N81 road is a national secondary road in Ireland, connecting the gates of Trinity College, Dublin to Tullow, County Carlow, north to south. The N81 continues past Tullow for another 8 km to terminate at the village of Closh, County Carlow, where it intersects the N80. The N81 is long...

 Tallaght Bypass in Tallaght
Tallaght
Tallaght is the largest town, and county town, of South Dublin County, Ireland. The village area, dating from at least the 17th century, held one of the earliest settlements known in the southern part of the island, and one of medieval Ireland's more important monastic centres.Up to the 1960s...

. This road was half a new build, half an upgrade of Cheeverstown Road and the junction of Cheeverstown Road and the N81. This section also included a provision for Luas
Luas
Luas , also promoted in the development stage as the Dublin Light Rail System, is a tram or light rail system serving Dublin, the first such system in the decades since the closure of the last of the Dublin tramways. In 2007, the system carried 28.4 million passengers, a growth of 10% since...

 Line A1 to cross it (tracks in the roadway). This facilitated works on the line, which began in February 2009, to proceed without having to make any further alterations to the road.

Potential upgrades

Although provision had been made for the route to head further northwards, crossing the Liffey and joining the R121 road
R121 road
The R121 road is a regional road in south County Dublin and Fingal, Ireland.The official description of the R121 from the Roads Act 1993 Order 2006 reads:-See also:*Roads in Ireland*National primary road...

 at Porterstown, the future bridge to be built linking these points will be for the proposed Metro West
Dublin Metro
The Dublin Metro is a proposed metro system for the city of Dublin. The first two lines were set out in the Irish Government's 2005 Transport 21 transport plan: they are known as Metro North and Metro West...

only. Such a road link would have linked with existing relatively high grade sections of the R121 to provide a ring road link from Cherryhound at the M2 in the north west of Dublin's suburbs back to the N81 to the south west.

Planning dispute

When this road was being planned it was opposed by various interests. It was eventually completed with the semi-rural section through Grange Castle built as standard dual carriageway; two traffic lanes plus hard shoulder in each direction. It remained unopened for a time as Dublin City Council insisted that the bus lane run outside the hard shoulder so as to leave only one traffic lane (effectively the bus-lane would run down the centre of either carriageway). The local authority (South Dublin County Council) refused to open the road with such a bizarre arrangement and eventually the City Council relented.

External links

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