[Article] Last part of €2.6bn motorway set to open

Victor

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0503/1224269588775.html

Last part of €2.6bn motorway set to open
TIM O'BRIEN

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.

corktina

well worth €1.80 each way...should encourage a lot more people to drive to cork or dublin

Mushy

Will they have express buses going along the motorway? Public or private.

FlameoftheWest

This is the biggest nail in the coffin of IE. They can forget about anything other than a huge loss of business between Dublin and Cork.

They are finished. Only a private rail operator would have the desire and the ability to make the Dublin to Cork rail route a profitable one. Which it would be if run as business model and not a social employment scheme for CIE dossers.

JHMEG

It will also be interesting to see do Ryanair keep the Dublin-Cork route open, especially if there are express buses doing it by motorway.

Sponge Bob

Are there any licenced express busroutes between cork and dublin or cork and dublin airport a la Gobus ?

Mushy

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

This is the biggest nail in the coffin of IE. They can forget about anything other than a huge loss of business between Dublin and Cork.

They are finished. Only a private rail operator would have the desire and the ability to make the Dublin to Cork rail route a profitable one. Which it would be if run as business model and not a social employment scheme for CIE dossers.

I was on that route last week. They are going to have to significantly increase the number of €10 fares to keep people interested, and advertise it a lot more.

Then comes the other stickler....wi-fi! Don't want to de-rail (sorry) this thread so I'll say no more.

Good to see the road opening up, lets hope for lot less hours stuck in Abbeyleix now!

DWCommuter

corktina wrote: »

well worth €1.80 each way...should encourage a lot more people to drive to cork or dublin

For quality of road, ease of travel and speed, its great value at just under €8 return. Dublin - Cork return or vice versa, door to door can now be done in your car quickly for under €50. Compare that to €70 return on the train and the getting to and from the stations. Its a no brainer really.

Inter city rail travel is on life support.

DWCommuter

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

This is the biggest nail in the coffin of IE. They can forget about anything other than a huge loss of business between Dublin and Cork.

They are finished. Only a private rail operator would have the desire and the ability to make the Dublin to Cork rail route a profitable one. Which it would be if run as business model and not a social employment scheme for CIE dossers.

While many here think that what you have said above is bull****, it is quite the opposite. I stand by my belief that despite the old chestnut of poor Government investment, IE have utterly failed to make this route (and others) competitive. The route will eventually become the ultimate proof that CIE bashing ad naseum was in fact correct and not an annoying little thing you used to hate reading on boards.ie;).

Cookie_Monster

but the M50 to Nass is still only national road isin't it?

dcr22B

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

but the M50 to Nass is still only national road isin't it?

Still 100 km/h, Cork will be easily done in 2 1/2 hours now. I haven't gotten the train to Cork in 15 years and it sure won't change now!

DWCommuter

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

but the M50 to Nass is still only national road isin't it?

Its "NAAS".:D

But you are correct. The N7 from the M50 to "NAAS" is a national primary route. However it is a HQDC with motorway characteristics from Newlands Cross. Its just a bit of lazy journalism that the majority wouldn't realise anyway. The other small mistake is that the N7 from the Red Cow to Newlands was always 3 lanes during the majority of my lifetime.

icdg

Correct. The motorway actually only goes from Naas (in Kildare) to Dunkettle. In fact, the only one of the inter-urban motorways which actually joins the M50 is the M1.

Many moons ago, there was provision in the South Dublin development plan for a motorway from Naas to Clondalkin completing the M7. This went out the window when the N7 upgrade scheme needed to be done in a hurry to facilitate the Ryder Cup.

DWCommuter

icdg wrote: »

Correct. The motorway actually only goes from Naas (in Kildare) to Dunkettle. In fact, the only one of the inter-urban motorways which actually joins the M50 is the M1.

And that section of the M1 was there before the M50.

Sponge Bob

But but but no express buses are licenced yet so that is moot....unlike Dublin Galway

Cookie_Monster

DWCommuter wrote: »

Its "NAAS".:D

Indeed

icdg wrote: »

In fact, the only one of the inter-urban motorways which actually joins the M50 is the M1.

M11 does also though maybe "inter urban" would be stretching the description if added to M11

Chris_5339762

What about the M32

JHMEG

A few things I didn't know on this page about the M32

http://pathetic.org.uk/secretive/m32_ireland/

Breezer

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

M11 does also though maybe "inter urban" would be stretching the description if added to M11

Ah now, Bray is a bustling metropolis after all.