New €115m road to link Dublin and North

The National Roads Authority (NRA) has formed a partnership with the Northern Ireland Roads Agency to extend the M1 motorway to Cloghoge in Co Armagh.

The €115 million road, to be built to dual carriageway standard, will be the last link in the new highway between Dublin and the North. Much of the route between the Border and Belfast is already dual carriageway.

Construction will be managed by a team representing Louth County Council, the NRA and the Northern Ireland Roads Agency.

Work on the scheme is due to start early next year and will take about two years to complete.

The dual carriageway will run 4.6 km north of the Border and 9.4 km south of the Border. It will encompass a link between Dundalk and Newry Co Down.

Mr Peter Malone, of the NRA, said access was the key to a strong and expanding tourism sector and increased North-South business opportunities.

Mr Malone said that when completed, the Republic's motorway programme will save an estimated 50 lives a year on 900 km of motorway/high-quality dual carriageway.

In addition, 180 minutes journey time will be cut from the five intercity routes between Dublin and Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Belfast.

"Tourism and industry alike will reap the benefits from improved access to these key destinations," he added.

According to Mr Malone, the success story of the 72 km M1 motorway from Dublin to Dundalk is only the beginning of the NRA's ambitious plan under the National Development Plan, 2000-2006, to bring a standard of road, comparable to the best in Europe, running from Dublin to the regional cities.

The NRA is particularly pleased with progress on its current road schemes - five of which have opened or are about to open. The five schemes bypass traffic blackspots - including the Ashford and Rathnew bypass in Co Wicklow which opened yesterday; the Cashel bypass in Co Tipperary which opens in October and the Monasterevin, Co Kildare, bypass which opens in November.

The Carrickmacross bypass in Co Monaghan is scheduled to open in March/April of 2005 but may now open early in January.

The Kildare town bypass opened last December - six months ahead of its deadline.