Motorists asked to be aware on Cork’s new Dunkettle roundabout links designed to tackle traffic

Motorists have been urged to obey speed limits and follow the signage as a series of new link roads open on Sunday on the €215 million Dunkettle roundabout outside Cork city, which is designed to reduce tailbacks at one of the country’s most notorious bottlenecks.

The Dunkettle project’s resident engineer Kieran Lehane, said Transport Infrastructure Ireland were pleased to open the six new link roads on the project, which connects the N40 South Ring Road around Cork with both the M8 Cork-Dublin motorway and the N25 Cork-Waterford road.

The upgrade of the Dunkettle interchange, 6km east of Cork city and just north of the Jack Lynch Tunnel, means motorists can now travel from the Kinsale Road roundabout on the N40 in Cork all the way to the Red Cow roundabout on the M50 in Dublin without encountering a traffic light.

“It would be fair to compare Dunkettle with the Red Cow roundabout in terms of complexity – it will be free flowing but slow moving at peak times. Currently traffic volumes are still recovering post-Covid but on busy days we are seeing north of 110,000 traffic movements through the interchange,” Mr Lehane said.

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“Most of the traffic movements are from the N40 to the N25 and vice versa. There are about twice as many as those from the N40 to the M8 and vice versa, and that’s why we needed the upgrade because N40 to N25 traffic had to go three quarters around the roundabout and blocked other cars.”

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The first of the 18 link roads, taking M8 southbound traffic on a new route to the tunnel, opened in February 2022 with three others opening in October 2022, four opened the following month and another link road into Little Island opened in February 2023, but motorists will see even greater benefits from Sunday.

Mr Lehane said the links being opened now are some of the most strategically important at the interchange as they take most of the traffic and together with the switching off of traffic lights means Sunday marks a “really significant milestone on the scheme to date”.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland first applied for planning for the project in 2010 and planning was granted two years later. Construction finally started in 2018 following land acquisition, with contractors Sisk employing 180 people at peak on the scheme.

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According to Mr Lehane, 18 new road links have been constructed, consisting of more than 10km of new road with the work involving the pouring of 25,000 cubic metres of concrete, the movement of 1,000,000 cubic metres of earth and the laying of 150,00sq m of new pavement.

Mr Lehane said there are still a number of links to be completed – most notably that carrying traffic from Midleton, Youghal and Waterford on the N25 and going north to the M8 serving Fermoy, Mitchelstown and Dublin, which is scheduled to be completed before the end of the year.

“We are looking forward to switching off the traffic lights on Sunday for traffic moving east-west and north-south, but we would urge motorists to adhere to the speed limits and follow the signage as it will take people some time to become familiar with the new layouts and links,” said Mr Lehane.