Last part of €2.6bn motorway set to open

THE FINAL section of motorway between Dublin and Cork is to open next month.

Developed for almost €2.6 billion, the entire 250km route from Dublin’s M50 to Cork’s Dunkettle interchange works out at about €10.4 million a kilometre.

The opening of the completed Portlaoise to Cullahill section will bypass the towns of Abbeyleix, Durrow and Cullahill in Co Laois and is expected to cut the journey time from the M50 to Dunkettle by as much as 45 minutes.

At 250km, it should be possible to drive from the Red Cow and Dunkettle in about two hours and 30 minutes, allowing for lower speed limits along sections such as Newlands Cross in Dublin.

The final section of the Cork motorway also encompassed the division of the M7 Limerick and M8 Cork roads southwest of Portlaoise.

The 40km Y-shaped section will take Cork-bound traffic from the existing Portlaoise bypass to the existing M8 at Cullahill. It will also take Limerick-bound traffic from the Portlaoise bypass to Castletown, where remaining sections of the M7 Limerick motorway are under construction.

The Portlaoise/Cullahill/Castletown section was developed for €405 million, bringing the cost of upgrading the route between Portlaoise and Cork to just over €2 billion.

A toll plaza is to be installed, taking in traffic on both the Limerick and Cork routes. The toll has been pitched at 90 cents for a motorbike, rising to €5.70 for heavy goods vehicles. Passenger cars are to be charged €1.80.

This is the second toll on the route. Charges for using the Fermoy bypass are €1 for a motorbike, €1.90 for a passenger car and €6 for a heavy goods vehicle. Charges for a round trip for a passenger car will amount to €7.40 and €23.40 for a heavy goods vehicle.

From 1992, when the bypass of Glanmire in Co Cork was opened at a cost of €60 million, other bypass schemes have included: Watergrasshill (€144 million), Cashel (€48 million) and Fermoy (€300 million). Motorway stretches from Cashel to Mitchelstown (€445 million), Cashel to Cullahill (€434 million) and Mitchelstown to Fermoy (€174 million) were also constructed.

On the Cork-Dublin route between Dublin and Portlaoise, the Naas bypass was opened in 1983, at a cost of about €23 million. The Kildare-Monasterevin section and widening of the Naas to Red Cow stretch to three lanes cost about €570 million.

A spokesman for the National Roads Authority confirmed the latest road was likely to open over the last days of June, having previously been pencilled in for the third quarter of 2010.

Just over a decade ago, then taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced the Republic’s motorway building programme as part of the National Development Plan 2000-2006.

A total of €6 billion was allocated for the programme, which has turned out to take 10 years and cost three times that amount.