Two major new road schemes which will ease traffic congestion in Limerick city are to be opened by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, today.
The new Southern Bypass will link four of the six national roads converging on Limerick - the N20 from Cork; the N21 bringing traffic from Killarney and Tralee; the N24 from Waterford; and the N7 from Dublin.
Built at a cost of €106 million, the bypass is expected to take more than 24,000 vehicles a day from existing national roads - at least 10,000 of which currently travel through the city centre.
When open the new road is expected to reduce a peak hour journey from Annacotty on the N7 Dublin road to Rosbrien on the N20 Cork road, from the current 30 minutes to slightly more than six minutes. The road from Rosbrien to Annacotty includes 9.5 km of dual carriageway, 3.5 km of national primary single carriageway as well as 4.8 km of side roads, three junctions and 13 bridges.
The second road scheme, the upgrading of the N7 Parkway to four lanes between the Parkway roundabout and the Plassey road junction, is expected to end one of the city's most notorious bottlenecks. Some 35,000 vehicles a day use this 1 km stretch of road and the extra lanes, working in tandem with the opening of the bypass, are expected to reduce drive times and ease congestion considerably.
Taken together the improvements will greatly speed access of traffic into the city from the Dublin road, while at the same time allowing traffic headed for the mid- and south-west to skirt the city cutting at least 30 minutes off journey times.
The schemes were significant enough for the National Roads Authority (NRA) to comment that driving in the mid-west will "never be the same again".
The Southern Bypass represents phase one of a complete ring road around Limerick city. Phase two is a new 10 km dual carriageway including a 900-metre tunnel under the Shannon, linking up with the N18 and the Ennis to Galway road through Co Clare. A contract for phase two is expected to be awarded in 2005.
The completion of the scheme is part of the NRA's strategic plan to complete more than 190 km of motorway/dual carriageway be- tween Dublin and Limerick. Some €150 million is to be spent on schemes on the N7 this year.
The N7 is one of the busiest national primary routes in the country carrying up to 60,000 vehicles per day, one-fifth of which are commercial, further highlighting the route's strategic importance to the economy of the mid-west.
When the Monasterevin bypass opens later this year a continuous motorway/dual carriageway will stretch from Dundalk, Co Louth, to south of Portlaoise on the M7, a distance of 159 km.
Work will also begin this year on the construction of new interchanges and a new lane in each direction on the N7 between Rathcoole and the Naas bypass motorway.
According to the chairman of the NRA, Mr Peter Malone, today's opening of new roads in Limerick will provide "efficient, uninterrupted travel past what was a major bottleneck on the network, reducing journey times.
"At a local level the city will benefit socially, commercially and environmentally from the elimination of through traffic of about 10,000 vehicles daily."
There is still doubt, however, about the overall completion date for the motorway programme between Dublin and Limerick. The Minister, Mr Brennan, has asked the NRA to prioritise the building of the motorways to Cork and Galway, a move which could see the Limerick motorway waiting until after 2008 to be completed.
