Cavan bypass to ease another bottleneck

Another of the State's traffic bottlenecks will be eased from Monday with the opening of the Cavan town bypass.

It is expected to cut 30 minute s off the journey to Dublin during peak times. The N3 route through Cavan town has been a particularly slow route for traffic between Dublin and Donegal via Northern Ireland.

The £20 million project, which follows similar schemes for Carlow town and Kinnegad in Co Westmeath, is part of a National Roads Authority plan to improve travelling times between Dublin and regional centres.

Further improvements planned for the N3 include bypasses in Belturbet, Co Cavan, and Navan and Dunshaughlin, Co Meath. Planning is also under way on a scheme which will link the N3 from the Dublin road roundabout on the Cavan bypass to the N55 at Tullycoe.

The improvements are designed to create a major cross-Border corridor providing access for Fermanagh to Dublin and the eastern seaboard. The Belturbet/Aghalane road project incorporating the Senator George Mitchell Bridge was opened in April. This route restored direct access from Fermanagh to Cavan for the first time in 27 years. The proposed Belturbet bypass will connect the Cavan bypass with the Aghalane scheme, creating a road network which is "blind" to the Border.

The new roads are co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The Cavan town bypass involved the construction of 9.5 km of single carriageway from Tullycoe to north of Butler's Bridge. A new roundabout was constructed on the Dublin road, overbridges at the regional roads R188 (Cootehill) and R212 (Ballyhaise), and the Annalee River Bridge and Bills Bridge.

Ancillary works included 34.7 km of surface water drainage, 12.8 km of service ducting, 31.3 km of fencing, archaeological excavations and landscaping.

Seven sites of archaeological interest spanning some 8,000 years were identified during construction. They include five fulachta fiadh - cooking pits dating to the Bronze Age - and two sites of multi-phase activity which were uncovered in the Drumany townland in the Butler's Bridge and Annalee River area.

Finds from the Drumany site included a piece of woodland flint dating to the Later Mesolithic period.