Five major road schemes to open this year - NRA

Five major road schemes will open to traffic this year, the National Roads Authority (NRA) said yesterday.

They are:

While the 6 km Dublin Port Tunnel is due for completion in December, it will not open to traffic until the second quarter of 2006, to allow for fitting out and safety testing, the the roads authority said.

In its review of activity for 2004 and forecast for 2005, it said the statutory documentation for outstanding sections of the major inter-urban routes would be published during the first half of 2005 and submitted to An Bord Pleanála "to obtain approvals permitting the schemes concerned to go to construction".

The route between Dublin and the Border, the M1, is the most advanced with just the western bypass of Dundalk remaining to be completed.

Inter-urban routes to all the Republic's provincial cities are scheduled to be completed by 2010.