Cork Limerick motorway

THE preferred route for the €1bn N/M20 Limerick to Cork road project has been announced by planners. Public representatives from Limerick and Cork were bri.

“The importance of this project has long been acknowledged as critical for the delivery of proper connectivity between the second and third cities in the country and along the Atlantic Economic Corridor. It will have a significant impact on economic development and on public transport efficiency and reliability. “Today’s announcement is an important step forward in progressing a range of transportation solutions connecting Limerick and Cork as identified in the Government’s National Development Plan 2021-2030, that will incorporate public transport and active travel infrastructure for walking and cycling from its inception, as well as to the upgrading of national road infrastructure which will deliver needed safety improvements for all users. Between 30% and 40% of the existing N20 road will be reused to develop the new dual carriageway.

The project team tasked with upgrading transport links between Cork and Limerick has published its preferred route.

However, the channel will eventually be narrowed to 100 metres wide by the time the final route is decided and designed. But for people who may have to sell their house, that is a huge life-changing thing so there is no doubt that is going to be our priority for this phase going forward." "Everybody agrees the road needs improvement, but here in my locality it's going to have a massive impact on our quality of life, the exceptional quality of life generations of my family have enjoyed up to now. There are 700 individual properties currently lying in the path of the new route. I found the project team very difficult to deal with and I believe they didn't listen to me. "We've dealt with this project for the past 11 years, and now we have another 11 ahead of us. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. It's been nothing but bother and disruption for all those years," he said. "It's over capacity. Identification of the land required and detailed environmental evaluation will have to be completed. "I think the economic benefit to the region and to the country as a whole is a massive opportunity," Mr Howard said. It is lifechanging in a completely negative way the impact it will have," he said.

The N/M20 road could take several years to complete and costs have been estimated at over €1 billion.

The project plans claim the new road has the potential to reduce bus journey times between the two cities to 1 hour 6 minutes - cutting the travel time by 30 minutes. Current journey times between Cork and Limerick range from 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 50 minutes, depending on the operator. The N/M20 road promises to improve bus times between the two cities by up to 30 minutes as well as a direct hourly train service, with no changeover at Limerick Junction, and an 80km Greenway.