€50m Cork flyover opens
But engineers gave assurances last night that the bridge over Cork’s Kinsale Road roundabout will help ease chronic congestion which has grid-locked the city over the last three days.
Up to 100,000 vehicles use the junction every day. The new flyover is expected to take over half of those over the junction cutting east-west journey times by up to 20 minutes.
Engineers are expecting more that 55,000 vehicles to use the flyover every day this weekend.
Gardaí will be on duty and engineers will closely monitor the situation to ensure everything runs smoothly, a project spokesman said.
Lord mayor Michael Ahern and county mayor John O’Shea will drive over the flyover at around 10.30am. But three eastbound lanes and two westbound lanes will open to general traffic at around midday.
The move will allow engineers to implement new traffic plans on the roundabout underneath, which will be resurfaced and re-lined. Lane restrictions will be in place, but gardaí are predicting no major delays.
It is hoped the entire project will be finished in early in October — six months ahead of schedule.
Ascon Construction Ltd’s project manager Adrian Cunningham said the recent good weather had helped speed up the delivery of the scheme.
“We would like to express our gratitude to the motoring public for their cooperation during the works,” Mr Cunningham said.
Assistant city manager, Dan Buggy, said the flyover was a major improvement in the city’s roads infrastructure.
Cork County Council has widened lanes and upgraded traffic lights to cater for an increase in traffic at these roundabouts.
County engineer Edmond Flynn said subject to funding, it is hoped similar flyovers on these roundabouts built by 2009.
