Proposed Cork-Limerick M20 motorway would pay off for State

The proposed Cork-Limerick M20 motorway would not only recoup the State’s investment but double it if the project was given the green light, the Government’s original research shows.

The project’s environmental impact report finds that even using the most pessimistic growth forecasts, the benefits of the motorway would outweigh its cost by two to one and deliver significant advantages to road users.

The report compiled in 2009 and published the following year considers three traffic growth scenarios up to 2015, all of which would deliver significant positive returns on the project now estimated to cost €800m.