TII expects to seek planning permission for €2bn M20 Cork-Limerick motorway next year
Transport Infrastructure Ireland
expects to apply for planning permission next year for the near €2 billion upgrade of the
Cork
-
Limerick
N20 to full motorway, with the aim of completing and opening the new 80km stretch of dual carriageway in 2035.
TII briefed more than 100 public representatives from Cork and Limerick on the project on Monday and M20 project co-ordinator Jari Howard outlined the proposed timeframe for the upgrade, which will cut travel times between Cork and Limerick by 30 minutes.
Mr Howard explained that the business case for the upgrade to motorway status will go to the Department of Transport for both departmental and external review and, subject to approval, TII will apply for planning permission for the work in 2026.
'We will get our planning application in in 2026 so planning will take a good year, so it will be 2027 before we get planning – the actual construction work will be split up into three or four contracts, so the work will be done in stages.
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'We plan to begin enabling works in 2028, things like service diversions, and then construction takes seven years, so that gives us a completion date of 2035, but we will have the bypasses of Mallow, Buttevant and Charleville done first – so they could be done by 2031 or 2032.
Jari Howard, M20 project co-ordinator, said the new motorway will be much safer as it will significantly reduce the number of access points, currently at more than 600, and help save a predicted 70 lives over the next 30 years.
'We will start to see real benefits in terms of journey-time savings and the bypasses of Buttevant and Charleville in particular will be very beneficial in terms of taking the trucks out of both towns well before the final tie-ins happen and the route is completed.'
Mr Howard also confirmed that the M20 project team has had face-to-face or online meetings with approximately 1,000 landowners whose properties will potentially be impacted by the project, outlining to them the development designs and the mitigation measures.
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Pledges to clarify when route for Cork-Limerick upgrade will be selected
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A small number of landowners face losing up to 50 acres for construction of the motorway, and some large dairy farms will be cut in two by the route, but where that happens TII will build under and overpasses to ensure both parts of the farms remain connected, he said.
According to Mr Howard, travel times between the two cities will be reduced by 30 minutes, while travel times from the existing dual carriageway near Blarney in the south to the existing motorway at Attyflin at the northern end will be cut to just 40 minutes.
Mr Howard said that among the other benefits, apart from the reduction in travel times, is the fact that the new road will be much safer as it will significantly reduce the number of access points, currently at more than 600, and help save a predicted 70 lives over the next 30 years.
The new 80km motorway will comprise two carriageways and a hard shoulder either side of a central median, and because it will be a motorway, there will be slip road junctions rather than roundabouts, with a speed limit of 120km/h, compared to 100km/h on dual carriageways.
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Ireland's deadliest road: 'It's like she's frozen now forever at 29'
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The new motorway will be tolled, but unlike the tolls on the M8 at Watergrasshill and Portlaoise, where road users pay a flat fee irrespective of how far they travel, the tolls will be distance-based and barrier-free, where users pay after their journey on the basis of how far they travel.
The route for the new M20 will use between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of the existing N20, including from Cork to Blarney and on to Mourneabbey, before following a new line east of Mallow, New Twopothouse and Buttevant, where it will rejoin the existing road.
The new M20 will then cut west of Ballyhea and Charleville in North Cork, and follow a new line as it enters Limerick, west of Banogue, before coming back to join the existing route on the Croom Bypass to connect with the existing M20 motorway at Attyflin near Patrickswell.
The new motorway, which will involve the construction of six new road bridges, eight new river bridges, two new railway bridges and 45km of associated national, regional and local roads, will be futureproofed with a projected capacity of 40,000 vehicles a day, said Mr Howard.
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