M20 - Cork to Limerick [preferred route chosen; in design - phase 3]

Cookiemunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123486492#Comment_123486492

Medium/short distance journeys make up the vast majority of current N20 traffic. Commuting into either Cork or Limerick with relatively low traffic levels in the middle. I can't see this changing much when the M20 opens.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123486492#Comment_123486492

Isn't the idea of a motorway to remove un-neccesary traffic from small towns and villages? Tolls largely go against the grain on this idea. You only have to look at Fermoy to see the huge congestion levels by comparison to other towns bypassed by a motorway. If the govt want to stop short distance journeys using the motorway they should invest in viable public transport and active travel in the area.

hans aus dtschl

Yep to both of the above, but it's like the minimum charge we give people on the drugs payment scheme: if there's no charge then the good infrastructure gets basically abused. The shorter journeys on the M20 probably aren't its biggest threat I'd speculate that it's probably commuters to the cities from the market towns on the route.

riddlinrussell

Fermoys issues are probably more of a problem with point tolling, for some it's worth the risk of getting snarled in traffic to avoid that one point on the network, and still have the time advantage of the rest of the network.

If the whole motorway network were tolled on a more even spread with distance tolling (could even 'hike' the price for short hops on bypass sections to discourage using the route as a distributor) you'd probably see a minor increase in traffic on the 'alternative routes' but with a dramatic time difference between a 'free' journey and a tolled one you'd not get such extremes.

Even better this could give a financial incentive to remediate roads bypassed by motorways, making them more suitable for bikes and public transport closer into towns and increasing the incentive for car drivers to use the motorway for the majority of their journey.

Pale Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123486752#Comment_123486752

You only have to look at a campaign for a relief road for Dunshsughlin. Many drivers turn off M3 to avoid the toll and put up with congestion and delays to save €2.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123486967#Comment_123486967

If you use both of the M3 tolls it's €3.40 for a car and €8.60 for a HGV in each direction

You could avoid this with multiple on-route toll booths between the M50 and Mullingar the entrance and again at every junction so that you get charged by the distance travelled but that would be a significant albeit maybe worthy increase in infrastructure.

You could always go barrier-free using ANPR cameras like it is on the M50 and I wish you the best of luck chasing anybody on British or Ukranian plates for the toll money.

hans aus dtschl

Lots of toll jumpers on the old road through Watergrasshill too (same issue as Fermoy). I think most of these are commuters and tend to drive very fast to compensate for the lost time of not using the motorway. Some of these also just want a better route to the Northside. So it seems obvious to me that speed/traffic management on the legacy route is a possible answer here. We probably should be doing it by default everywhere there's a motorway.

Also some people just don't value their time: the €2 toll is unacceptable to them but the lost time, the wear on their car etc is "priced in".

Anyway I was mostly just making the point that "revenue generation" from motorway tolls isn't ideal in my perspective. I know it's a form of roads-usage-based general taxation etc and that's fine but I think I'd rather something like a vignette if revenue generation was the primary aim. Hit people for their per-km road usage, regardless of the road type. And keep the specific tolls for encouraging wanted behaviour. Maybe I'm just being too idealistic.

hans aus dtschl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123487094#Comment_123487094

Are foreign plates still a significant issue for our tolling system?

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123487311#Comment_123487311

Not if you have a toll booth with barriers it isn't. I think the figure on the M50 is about €3m…

KrisW1001

Adding toll booths to the mainline is not necessary. Once you join, you have no way off the motorway except at an exit. You only need to catch cars on the way in and on the way out to know how far they have travelled.

ANPR software can deal with most kinds of foreign plates. The issue on M50 wasn't a technical one, but a legal one (you can pre-pay with a foreign registration after all). The problem eFlow has is that knowing the registration number of a car that didn't pay isn't much good when there's no way to legally charge that owner in their home country.

Bazzer007

https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/on-the-road/1812611/planning-update-issued-on-1-2bn-limerick-to-cork-motorway.html

Cookiemunster

Someone needs to tell the Leader that saying that there will be an update in June, is not actually an update.

Anyways, Limerick councillors are due to be updated on the project as 12:30 on 16th June, so the public can expect to be updated that afternoon.

Limerick74

https://www.limerickleader.ie/video/motoring-news/1818272/fears-that-m20-could-spark-traffic-gridlock-in-limerick-town.html

Limerick Leader today

KrisW1001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123515276#Comment_123515276

What a load of bollocks. Vehicles that can't use a motorway are basically farm tractors (i.e. ,with a 40 km/h limiter). These don't travel far anyway, and certainly don't drive down town streets.

Croom isn't going to be "flooded" with anything. A far more likely reason for this sudden concern is that someone had land that they were hoping was going to be zoned for houses, but is now under a proposed motorway…

hans aus dtschl

Let's be fair, there might be a handfull of tractors. More likely to be "flooded" with cyclists and sulkys if they were getting anything though.

Pete_Cavan

Not agreeing with yer man but I do think the proposed junctions for Croom are a mess. Would be much better to have a full junction further north and then link to the new road around the town. That would mean the town has a motorway bypass plus a distributor road and the main street and existing bridge would handle a lot less traffic.

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123516088#Comment_123516088

The tractor regulations should be changed so that more tractors cannot drive on motorways. Tractors will drive on the street if they wish to go to a location on the other side of town.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123518031#Comment_123518031

A local distributor road linking to the motorway junction is the long term solution.

Cookiemunster

The latest update will be available on the project website at 2pm on Mon 16th June.

https://www.limerick.ie/n-m20-cork-to-limerick-project-update

mydiscworld

By the details in that link they are having another public consultation. Are we not even at the final route design stage yet? I thought it was about to go ABP?

Cookiemunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123534349#Comment_123534349

It was said that it would go to ABP in 2025 when this update was due last December, but things have slipped. This will be the proposed final route, but it must go through a final public consultation before going before Cabinet to get the go ahead to apply to ABP probably sometime in 2026.

Tockman

Is it usual to have a public consultation on final design?

Cookiemunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123534520#Comment_123534520

Not at this stage. Really it's the preliminary final design. The public will get a chance to comment on the design and minor changes can still be made before it moves into the planning stage.

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123534627#Comment_123534627

More talking…

marno21

Big day today deserves some media coverage

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-41651816.html

rounders

I know the update isn't supposed to be released until 2pm but has the interactive map already been updated? I don't remember it being this detail the last time I looked. Shows lane position etc

Limerick74

That level of detail was published in the last update in June 2024.

marno21

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-41652281.html

Hopes for work to start in 2028 (ambitious imo). Seven year build which means it'll likely be phased ala the M21 and M28.

Talk of bypassing towns first means I'd imagine Charleville North-Mallow South will take priority, perhaps first to start, with Mallow-Cork and O'Rourkes Cross-Patrickswell following on (potentially).

Hibernicis

"up to four separate contracts" appears excessive.

Hibernicis

https://corklimerick.ie/june-2025-update/

Update now available on the N/M20 Limerick-Cork Website, with links to the presentations, design details and maps.

Hibernicis

Public Display events hosted by the project team will take place from 12pm to 8pm as follows:

• Charleville Park Hotel, Charleville, P56 V268 on Tuesday 17th June 2025
• Woodlands House Hotel, Adare, V94 F1P9 on Wednesday 18th June 2025
• Mallow GAA Sports Complex, Mallow, P51 XV58 on Thursday 19th June 2025

The project team continues to welcome feedback from property owners, communities, businesses and other stakeholders, through the public display events, in person meetings and a public webinar at 7pm on 24th June 2025 (see link below).

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZTFlNmRjOGQtYjQ4NC00YjlkLWEwOGQtM2Y0YzNlMDk5ZGJl%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22ddbbb100-c617-4f90-844e-3fa90e7f7cd7%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%226d2d50b7-4bbc-40ff-a87f-c4fc97b2149d%22%7d

Details of the three Public Displays which take place this week and the Webinar which takes place on Tuesday of next week.

The above taken from this page :

https://corklimerick.ie/n-m20-cork-to-limerick-project-update-16-06-2025/