Naas road update will take two years

A €200m upgrade of a section of the Naas road between the Dublin/Kildare border and the Naas interchange will result in road works on the busy route for the next two years, it has emerged.

The Minister for Transport Mr Brennan will this morning turn the sod on the installation of a third lane on the 15-kilometre stretch of the N7 dual carriageway. The scheme also includes four new interchanges and the complete realignment of sections of the existing road.

The National Roads Authority says traffic disruption will be as little as possible, but concedes that sections of the N7 will effectively be rebuilt over the next 18 months.

While the official sod-turning is scheduled for this morning, construction work will not begin in earnest for a few months.

Construction should be underway by the time the Monasterevin by-pass also in Co Kildare is opened later this year. The Monasterevin by-pass was to have facilitated uninterrupted dual carriageway or motorway from Dundalk Co Louth to the Portlaoise by-pass in Co Laois.

However motorists who were looking forward to an uninterrupted run are now facing further delays, at least until late 2006 or early 2007.

The third lane on the Naas Road is required to deal with the high volumes of traffic on the route which carries the main bulk of traffic between Dublin and the cities of Waterford, Cork, and Limerick.

The third land is to be provided on the inside of the existing dual carriageway in some sections of the road - while in others it is on the outside and intervening sections will be realigned. Traffic numbers on the route are currently reaching a daily average of more than 50,000 vehicles a day.

The NRA says the disruption is regretted but necessary, and the scheme will be completed in full by 2006.

The upgrade starts at the end of the existing three-lane carriageway in Rathcoole west Co Dublin and ends at the Maudlins Interchange at Naas where the N7 joins the M7 Naas by-pass.

The four new interchanges are to be built at Johnstown, Kill, Castlewarden and Steelstown. The new junctions are expected to greatly improve traffic throughput and will involve the removal of a number of traffic light-controlled junctions and crossings on the N7.

The next stage of the upgrading of the N7, the separation of traffic at the Red Cow interchange could also begin before the end of this year and be completed by 2006, the Minister said.

Part of the €600 million works on improving the M50, the upgrading would ultimately ease traffic congestion at the Red Cow roundabout and separate it from the Luas. Up to 90,000 cars a day travel on the M50 through the Red Cow interchange.

Mr Brennan told the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis last March that that progress was being made in unclogging the traffic around the country and the Red Cow interchange was a large part of that. The Minister is also examining the proposals for dealing with the delays at the Westlink toll booths.