Sean Sherlock restates case for upgrading Cork-Limerick road to motorway

The upgrading of the main Cork to Limerick road to a motorway is essential for balanced regional development as a counter to Dublin and the east coast, Minister of State Sean Sherlock has said.

The Labour TD said upgrading the N20 road to a motorway was needed to ensure Cork and Limerick continued to grow.

The N20 remained "the last great outlier" in terms of road connectivity following the completion of motorways between Dublin and Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Kilkenny over the last decade or so, he said.

Mr Sherlock, a Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said he raised the issue with Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin and Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe to see if funding could be made available for preparatory work.

The project had an €850 million price tag when it was shelved in 2011.

Off the shelf

“I don’t see it up to being made available at this juncture, but what I am anxious to do is dust it down off the shelf and have some monies allocated to at least allow for the planning process to progress.”

Mr Sherlock said the N20 was part of the planned Atlantic Corridor, which will run from Letterkenny to Waterford.

It is hoped the corridor will play a major role in attracting industry and developing tourism in Connacht and Munster. The N20 will also cut through Mr Sherlock's Cork East constituency.

Commit funding

Cork North Central

Fianna Fáil

TD Billy Kelleher has also called on the Government to commit funding to upgrading the route.

He said the current N20 was simply “not fit for purpose”, and it was “unacceptable that an adequate motorway connection still does not exist between the two cities”.

This week Mr Donohoe told Sinn Féin Cork East TD Sandra McLellan that, due to continuing budget constraints, he had no plans to review the decision by predecessor Leo Varadkar in 2011 when he directed the National Roads Authority (NRA) to withdraw its planning application for the motorway.

Sean O'Neill, of the National Roads Authority, explained a plan was submitted to An Bord Pleanála in 2010 following public consultation in 2008 and 2009.

An oral hearing was held in July 2010, but the plan was withdrawn from An Bord Pleanála in 2011 on the instructions of Mr Varadkar. The project remains frozen.

“It’s likely to take up to four years to proceed through the design and planning process and get consent to the scheme from An Bord Pleanála as the scheme will need to be reassessed . . . and require a full reassessment of the environmental impact.

“It will then take at least another four years to tender, procure and construct. If we were told tomorrow to go and build it you are looking at the better part of 10 years for it to be delivered,” Mr O’Neill said.

Land purchase

He said the most recent cost estimate of €850 million dates from 2010. Some €150 million of this €850 million was estimated to go on land purchase, with the remainder allocated for planning and design, survey works, site investigation, archaeological examination, environmental mitigation measures and actual construction.

A number of routes were examined by the National Roads Authority.

He said broadly speaking the routes varied on whether they went east or west of Mallow, Buttevant and Charleville in Co Cork, with all options going west of Croom in Co Limerick before a route was submitted to An Bord Pleanála.

The selected route submitted for planning, east of Mallow and Buttevant but west of Charleville, would have required the compulsory purchase of 16 residences and a total of 905 hectares affecting 235 farms and approximately 247 other properties, Mr O’Neill said.

New bridges

The motorway along this route would have involved the construction of 44 new road bridges, eight major river bridges, a number of smaller water crossings and two railway crossings, as well as 64km of local roads including national, regional, local and private-access roads.

The motorway would extend for about 80km from the junction with the proposed Cork northern ring road near Blarney outside Cork city to the junction with the N21 at Attyflynn in Co Limerick.

It would cut the travel time between Attyflynn and Blarney from 61 minutes to 45 minutes.

The environmental impact study, carried out in 2008, found traffic volumes on the road can vary from 12,000 to 20,000 vehicles per day depending on location, Mr O’Neill said.

A cost-benefit analysis taking account of time savings, reduced accidents and other factors showed a benefit of between 2 and 2.5 times on the investment, said Mr O’Neill.