MAJOR road schemes worth about £140 million, including the long awaited Portlaoise Bypass, are due to open in 1997, according to the National Roads Authority.
The first schemer will be officially opened next Friday at Straight's Cross, Co Clare, by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin. It involves a new overbridge and ramps, with separate pedestrian and railway bridges, to eliminate a dangerous junction on the Limerick Shannon road.
The £47 million Portlaoise Bypass, which will facilitate traffic on the N7 (Dublin Limerick) and N8 (Dublin Cork), is scheduled for completion in the first half of 1997. Its opening will relegate the 1970s bypass, which has since become the town's main street, to a national secondary road.
Also due to be finished soon is a £5 million bypass of Callan, Co Kilkenny, to eliminate a "notorious" bottleneck on the N76 (Kilkenny Clonmel) route.
Traffic is also expected to be relieved by a £7.5 million realignment at Barntown on the New Ross Wexford road and another realignment on the N20 KillarneyCork road between Ballyvourney and the Cork border. It is costing £11 million.
The NRA expects that the £51 million Dunkettle Carrigtwohill dual carriageway in Cork will be finished in the second half of 1997. Only 11 km long, the high cost is explained by a large number of bridge structures. This will facilitate traffic on the N25 (CorkWaterford) road.
In Dublin, a £7 million extension to the recently opened Northern Cross section of the M50 "Cring" motorway, taking it as far as the Malahide road, is due for completion in mid 1997. Work is also expected to start soon on the long delayed Southern Cross section.
Now that the last legal challenge by objectors to this road scheme has been settled, the NRA said it was its "highest priority to get the contract under way as early as possible".
Major road projects under way include the Arklow and Balbriggan bypass roads, the Curlews Bypass on the N4, between Boyle and Sligo; a further realignment of the N4 at Colooney, Co Sligo; and a widening of the Naas road with a new overbridge at Rathcoole, in Co Dublin.
The largest NRA project currently on hand is the downstream crossing of the River Lee in Cork, which involves a largely tunnelled link between Dunkettle and the already completed southern ring road. Due for completion in mid 1998, its current estimate is £90 million plus.
The work is expected to start early in 1997 on the Donegal Bypass, following the NRA's approval of a contract for its main bridge. Other projects in hand include "minor contracts" for the Dunleer Dundalk road as well as stage three of the Clonmel relief road, in Co Tipperary.
