M28 - Cork to Ringaskiddy [under construction; 2028 completion]

That's a great video - you can really start to see the project take shape. 12 months from now, you'd hope that they will have made really significant progress!

Some clearance work happened at Bloomfield last week along the path of the M28, and there was a man working in what looked like a cage!

The new roundabout at the entrance to the Container section of the port is now open. It is the termination point for the new single carriage-way 'protected' road being worked on by Sorensen. It removes one contraflow on the road……

…….actually, Dronehawk's video above shows it perfectly - at the start of the video, you can clearly see the roundabout and the cones for contraflow. The cones have been removed and the roundabout is freeflow. The new road tying in with the M28 is not open (for clarity).

Ringaksiddy Urban Realm Scheme officially opens today

From their mailing list

3rd October 2025

Between Carr’s Hill Interchange and Marybourough Hill, earthworks on the westbound verge are scheduled to commence next week. Topsoiling of embankments between Shannonpark and Carr’s Hill will also begin in the coming weeks, marking further visible progress along the route.

Stream diversion works are advancing in multiple locations. At Shannonpark, Culvert construction works continue. These activities are important steps to support the next phase of construction. A watermain diversion north of Shannonpark will begin next week; this work will not affect water supplies. Earthworks continue at Shannonpark, with filling progressing to both the east and west of the area.

In addition, work is progressing with the installation of traffic monitoring cameras along the N28, from Rochestown to Ringaskiddy Village. These works will continue over the coming weeks, with localised traffic management in place, including stop/go arrangements at Shanbally Roundabout.

Material import to the new Shanbally Junction will be completed this week, with lorry movements having travelled along the N28 from the R613 in Ringaskiddy. A plant crossing is also being installed at Cogan’s Lane/Rock Road, with localised traffic management in operation to ensure safety. Looking ahead, a speed limit reduction on the N28 between Rochestown Bridge and Carr’s Hill will be introduced from mid-October.

Rock excavation by means of controlled blasting is ongoing in an area of cutting to the north of the Shannon Park Roundabout. Further details regarding the specific dates, locations and times of the blasts, as well as information on warning signals and protective measures, will be communicated locally in advance of the works. All blasting will be carried out in accordance with statutory requirements and relevant codes of practice, and will be managed to prevent any adverse impacts on the public, property or the environment.

Ringaskiddy Relief Road

Works are continuing on the Ringaskiddy Relief Road.

Installation of the crash barrier is ongoing on the mainline between Ringaskiddy Roundabout and Loughbeg and on Tower Road. Fencing works are also progressing in various areas throughout the scheme.

On Old Post Office Road, the northern wing walls have been installed on the underpass and the structure fully backfilled. This has allowed for the installation of the services and Watermain diversions through the structure. Kerbing, drainage and footpath construction is ongoing. Old Post Office Road will remain closed until December to allow for completion of all the works in this area.

At Barnahely Roundabout, the R613 continues to be reduced to one lane to facilitate construction of the online section of the roundabout and approaches. The works are being carried out in a phased basis to minimise disruption. GNI completed diversion works in the past week and the pavement has now been constructed on the offline section of the roundabout. Traffic will shortly be switched onto this surface, which will allow the online section of the existing carriageway to be realigned.

The L6517 Loughbeg Road continues to be reduced to one lane. Installation of kerbing, drainage and services is well progressed on the realigned carriageway and on the eastern side of the proposed Loughbeg Roundabout. Preparation works have begun for laying the pavement and footpaths, which are due to commence on week commencing 13th October.

Works are continuing on the realigned Ringport Access Road and construction of the new Ringport security building is continuing.

The M28 Project Team wishes to acknowledge and thank all road users for their continued patience and cooperation during these works.

Thank you for that drawing with the arrows! That makes a lot of sense, and will be a great addition to the design of the road there. I found a document last night that explained the traffic implications associated with the new motorway. Off the top of my head, having read the document, traffic in the city part of the road should improve significantly for a number of reasons

• Essentially the entire M28 will be dual carriageway (two lanes in both directions, divider down the middle, hard shoulder), so crashes alone will be dealt with faster, and drivers can overtake. Head on collisions will be basically impossible now, too
• Cars going down Maryborough Hill will now turn left onto the slip to the M28 instead of right (which required cars to cross traffic coming up the hill). The main source of traffic on the hill in the morning is the queuing to get onto the slip road, which technically should be gone now. Cars coming up the hill turning right to the slip road will have an actual turning lane so shouldn’t block traffic as much as before
• At the end of the Maryborough slip, there will be a roundabout, where you can either go to the city centre, Carrigaline on the new motorway, Douglas on the R609 Carrigaline Road, or back onto the old road (exiting Carr’s Hill). So cars on Maryborough Hill won’t have to go back roads to Carrigaline now, and can get to Douglas without having to use the Fingerpost Roundabout
• The Maryborough merge lane to the city centre or to Carrigaline will be a lot longer than what’s there at present, leading hopefully to better merges and less queuing
• The new Bloomfield diverge situation
• The westbound merge from Bloomfield to the N40 to the city centre will be a lot better set up so less crashes there too, hopefully. It’ll be more similar to the N40 J6 eastbound merge now

I’m interested to see how they’ll handle signage. The most logical thing for me is to have a gantry over the Maryborough split for E/W, and then another over the Rochestown split for E/W that is before M28 traffic rejoins it. They probably shouldn’t have any signage suggesting you can merge E/W when Maryborough and Rochestown traffic join, otherwise it defeats the purpose of the road redesign

The Ordnance Survey's Geohive map viewer also has it down as R855, in spite of the R609 on road signs.

Well that’s also just wrong as it never touches the N25. Its outbound junction is the N28. All of those roads are now in the city of Cork, not county, too. And as Leatra said, all road signage (installed just last year) says R609. I wonder if there’s a way to report the error for future amendments

As the post above says, there will be renumbering in association with this scheme so probably no real point in doing a change before then.

Lots of work going on at Shannonpark R'about this evening. They were still working at 6:00pm, plenty of activity——great to see.