A record allocation of €1.4 billion in funding for national roads will be announced today by the Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, it was learned last night.
The investment package will allow work to start this year on 19 new projects as well as finish such major schemes as the Dublin Port Tunnel, the M50-South Eastern Motorway and the Loughrea bypass.
However, although construction work on the €750 million port tunnel will be completed before the end of 2005, it will not open to traffic until "spring 2006" to allow for safety tests.
Mr Cullen is also expected to confirm that he has asked the National Roads Authority (NRA) to carry out a feasibility study on a new outer ring road for Dublin, running in an arc outside the M50.
Though the NRA is planning to upgrade the M50 at a cost of €1 billion, the provision of new interchanges and extra lanes will not eliminate congestion.
The new outer ring road will, in effect, be an "M50 bypass".
Some 200 km of new roads scheduled to start this year include the final phase of the M1, between Dundalk and the Border; the N4 bypass of Edgeworthstown, Co Longford; and part of the N6 between Athlone and Kinnegad, Co Westmeath.
Other major schemes for 2005 include the Waterford bypass, which will now avoid the Woodstown Viking site south-west of the city, and part of the M3 north of Dunshaughlin, Co Meath - though not the controversial stretch running past Tara.
In the Government's Estimates published last November, the allocation for national roads was €1.369 billion, including €50 million which was left unspent last year.
A further €245 million was expected to be raised from the private sector.
The public-private partnership (PPP) element of the overall figure would be recouped from tolling sections of the network, such as the M3 between Clonee and Kells, Co Meath.
The Kinnegad-Athlone motorway is also likely to be a PPP project.
This year's €1.5 billion investment in national roads forms part of a multi-annual funding "envelope" of €8 billion for the period 2004-2008 originally announced a year ago by Mr Cullen's immediate predecessor, Mr Séamus Brennan.
Of the €8 billion, State funding would amount to €6.8 billion, while a further €1.2 billion would come from the private sector through PPP projects, all of which will be recouped from tolls.
