A £42 MILLION section of the Cork Southern Ring Road, linking the city to western parts of the county, was opened yesterday by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin.
The section, in three stages, includes six miles of dual carriageway, two major roundabouts, four bridges and a pedestrian/cyclist bridge.
The completion of this part of the ring road means that in two years, when the Lee tunnel is opened, traffic from west Cork bound for Dublin or the east coast, will be able to skirt Cork city centre. The system is also linked to new sections of motorway to the west, giving a significant reduction in travelling time to places such as Limerick.
Both the ring road and the tunnel, which is at an advanced stage of construction, are key elements provided for in the Cork Land Use and Transportation Study - the blueprint for the development, of the city's infrastructure.
At the official opening yesterday, Mr Howlin said that State investment in the national road network in Cork had been exceptional. "Major schemes recently completed or under construction involve an investment of almost £300 million. This year alone, the national road grants for Cork city and county amount to more than £52 million. This is almost 25 per cent of the budget available for the improvement of the entire network of national roads this year," he said.
Investment in the national roads network amounted to more than half a million pounds per day, Mr Howlin said. "In total, expenditure on national primary roads will amount to £1.1 billion; over the next six year period of, the programme, and will attract EU grants of about £800 million.
Construction of the new road presented major engineering challenges for Cork Corporation's road design team. Following the path of the Tramore and Glasheen rivers, the engineers encountered weak soil strata to a significant depth. Up to 11 metres depth of peat and silt had to be removed along sections of the road and replaced with 780,000 tonnes of rockfill materials to provide a stable foundation.