The State's first Swedish-style road, designed specifically to eradicate head-on crashes, will open to traffic at the end of April, it has emerged.
The N20 between Mallow and Rathduff, Co Cork, will be the first in a series of pilot projects planned by the Government in an effort to cut road deaths caused by such collisions.
The National Roads Authority (NRA), which published its annual review of activities last week, plans to convert about one third of the State's road network to the safer "2+1" design. However, the safety measure will take at least 14 years to complete and will cost several billion euro.
The "2+1" road type consists of two lanes in one direction and one in the opposite direction. The two-lane section provides a safe overtaking zone and alternates with the one-lane section at intervals of two kilometres. Traffic is separated by a crash barrier.
The Mallow-Rathduff project is only nine kms in length and will consist of an upgrade of the existing road. Three other similar projects - 15 kms of the N2 between Clontibret and Castleblayney, eight kms of the N4 between Dromod and Rooskey, and 16 kms of the N15 between Ballybofey and Stranorlar - are expected to be finished within two or three years. These three projects will be built from scratch on greenfield sites.
The NRA said in its report that 12 more pilot projects, comprising 150 km, would be "progressed" this year, but actual building would not begin until about 2007. These projects include stretches of the N3, N4, N17, N20, N21,N22, N24 and the N52.
If the results from the 16 pilot projects are positive, the authority plans to build up to 900 kilometres of "2+1" roads in the next 14 years, representing about 20 per cent of the Republic's road network.
The NRA's head of corporate affairs, Michael Egan, says the authority had taken account of the Swedish arrangement where they have used these roads since 1998. Sweden has 25 examples representing 950 kilometres of such roads.
"They have had a 50 per cent reduction in fatal accidents," he says, "and at that the accidents that do occur are less severe." Some 20 per cent of all accidents are head-on collisions, while head-on collisions account for 37 per cent of all fatal accidents. "We are hoping to eliminate that."
The sting in the tail is the small matter of €4.1 million per kilometre of newly-built "2+1" roads and up to €400,000 per kilometre of roads that are upgraded to "2+1" standard. With additional inflation, it's impossible to put a final cost on the entire 900-km project, but it will certainly cost more than €4 billion.
Meanwhile, in a further move towards road safety on a European level, the European Commission has allocated a radar frequency that will let cars with the proper equipment detect nearby objects and warn drivers to avoid them.
The move, due to be implemented in EU member statesü national laws by mid-2005, is an important safety step that may curb the frequency and severity of rear-end accidents.
The idea is for short-range radar systems mounted on cars to detect objects within 20 metres, raising a signal that gives drivers time to head off an accident.
DaimlerChrysler, part of a consortium that had lobbied for a car radar frequency, said it aimed to be the first manufacturer to roll out the technology on its vehicles. "This is bringing us a decisive step closer to our objective of reducing the incidence of fatal road accidents by 50 per cent by the year 2010," said the groupüs head of research and technology, Thomas Weber.
The US allocated such a frequency in 2002.
