National Roads Programme to receive €877m investment this year

WORK IS to begin this year on four major new road schemes including interchanges on the Cork Southern Ring Road and bypasses of Belturbet, Co Cavan, Longford town and Tralee, Co Kerry.

In addition it is hoped to sign contracts for two large-scale public-private partnerships that are scheduled to begin before the year’s end. These are the M17/M18 Gort to Tuam motorway and the N11 Arklow to Rathnew and Newlands Cross upgrades.

Confirmation of the inclusion of the schemes in 2011 allocation was announced yesterday by Minister for Transport Pat Carey.

Some €877 million is to be spent on the National Roads Programme, which Fine Gael transport spokesman Simon Coveney described as a cut of 20 per cent on last year’s budget.

Mr Coveney said the allocation would “condemn motorists to another year of dangerous roads strewn with dangerous potholes”.

The Cork ring-road junction improvements will involve construction of Bandon Road and Sarsfield Road flyovers. Both junctions have been bottlenecks on the ring road and the new interchanges are considered an important infrastructural asset for the region.

The bypass of Longford will divert Mayo-bound traffic away from the centre of the county town, passing it to the southwest. Longford is already bypassed to the northeast by the N4.

The Belturbet bypass is part of the N3 Butlersbridge to Belturbet road-improvement scheme that involves the construction of some seven kilometres of standard single carriageway and a major river crossing of the river Erne.

The bypass of Tralee on the N22 will link the N69 Listowel road with the N70 Killorglin road, via the N21 Limerick road.

The M17/18 Gort to Tuam road is part of the Atlantic corridor and and consists of 57km of motorway. The scheme commences at the northern extremity of the N18 Gort to Crusheen scheme and extends in a northerly direction with junctions at Kiltiernan connecting to the N67, at Rathmorrissy connecting to the new M6 Dublin Galway route, at Annagh Hill connecting to N63, and at Tuam connecting to the existing N17.

The allocation does not mention the commitment of the Government to spend some €480 million on roads in the North. About €30 million in planning costs are understood to have already been made for roads linking Aughnacloy to Derry and from the Port of Larne towards Belfast. The next payment, of about €13 million, is due this year.

Construction is to begin in August 2012 and end in July 2015.

The allocation does not include any money for a range of other bypasses of county towns around the country, such as the Carrick on Shannon bypass in Co Leitrim. Nor does it include upgrading of the N2 between Clontibret village and the Border over a distance of approximately 28 kilometres.