E1.3bn to be spent on roads this year

Mary Dundon, Political Reporter

The money will be spent on 19 schemes involving 215 km of roadway. And the projects will include the Kinsale Road interchange, Mitchelstown relief road and bypasses of Charlestown, Monaghan, Castleblaney and Gorey.

Swedish-style 2+1 roads that will include a special lane for safer driving will also be introduced on 12 routes. Among the projects that will benefit from this new scheme will be:

Adare, Tuam and Tubbercurry bypasses.

Killarney to county boundaries road.

Rathduff to Blarney road.

Farranfore to Killarney road.

But two of the biggest projects earmarked for development this year the controversial M3 motorway through Meath and the Waterford city bypass will be delayed because of legal challenges over archaeological discoveries.

The 19 new road schemes represent a geographical spread between the southern and eastern regions as well as the Border, midlands and western regions, according to the National Roads Authority.

The decision to implement a multi-annual funding arrangement entailing a commitment to continued major investment in national roads over the next five years, will enable the NRA to bring greater scheduling and planning to projects, said Mr Malone. Among the other major road projects set to be completed in 2005 are: M50 South East motorway; the N2 Carrickmacross bypass; N4 Sligo relief road; Dublin Port Tunnel and Loughrea bypass.

NRA head of corporate affairs Michael Egan said: "The new road projects due to be built this year will improve the quality of people's lives and enhance economic performance through shorter journey times and safer driving conditions."

Also, NRA projects are opening to traffic significantly ahead of scheduled completion dates as a result of initiatives undertaken. These include the use of the "design build" form of contract which it developed some time ago, which has lead to greater certainty about the final costs of projects and their completion dates.

Mr Egan said 2004 was also a very highly productive year for the NRA, with 10 major road schemes completed. These included: the N8 Cashel bypass; the N11 Ashford/Rathnew bypass; the N22 Ballincollig bypass and the M1 between Dublin and Dundalk, incorporating the Dundalk bypass.

Other Special 2+1 road schemes include: N4 North of Curlews to Carrick-on-Shannon 20km; N4 Mullingar bypass west (stage 1) 2.5km; N4 Mullingar bypass to county boundaries (stage 2) 10km; N24 Piltown-Fiddown 8km; N3 Kells to south of Virginia, greenfield site 15m; N52 Tullamore to Kilbeggan, greenfield site 8km and the Drogheda bypass.