Dual carriageways to be upgraded to motorways

EXISTING high-quality dual carriageways across Ireland will soon be upgraded to motorway status with speed limits increasing to 120km/h.

The introduction of the faster speed limits on such roads will see a further reduction of journey times on major inter-urban routes, according to the National Roads Authority.

Under the Roads Bill 2007 which is currently going through the Oireachtas, high-quality dual carriageways will have their present speed limits of 100 km/h increased to 120 km/h as they become reclassified as motorways.

Although the new legislation is primarily designed to facilitate the introduction of barrier-free tolling on the M50 at the Westlink bridge, the bill will also allow for the re-designation of large stretches of existing dual carriageways as motorways.

Road signage on such routes will also be changed by the NRA to the blue and white livery to reflect their new classification.

A spokesman for Transport Minister, Martin Cullen, said yesterday that the new legislation should be passed within the current Dáil session before the general election is called.

The measure is expected to be welcomed by motoring organisations, who have regularly complained about the lower limit on such routes on the basis that they were built to the same standards as motorways.

Among the roads which will have their status upgraded are the Watergrasshill by-pass and the N25 between Glanmire and Carrigtwohill. Other sections of road set to have their speed limits increased are the by-passes of Arklow, Cashel and Nenagh.

The NRA are also due to commence work on a €60m road signage programme next month to end what it admits are some “haphazard” and “ridiculous” directional signs on the national road network.

It follows recent complaints made at a hearing of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport about poor and inconsistent road signage on major routes.

Labour TD, Eamonn Gilmore pointed out that there were no road signs for either Cork or Galway for motorists using the M50 in Dublin. Drivers would need to be aware that they would have to follow the N7 for Limerick and the N4 for Sligo in order to respectively get to Cork and Galway, said Mr Gilmore.

The Irish Hotels Federation also joined in criticism of the general poor quality of road signs claiming it was proving a major hindrance for tourists during its annual conference.

An NRA spokesman pointed out that the NRA would also shortly be adopting a new procedure to avoid any disputes about the spelling of place names. The NRA was recently criticised for replacing signposts for the Tipperary town of Cahir with the less conventional spelling, “Caher”.

The authority defended its position on the basis that the latter version was the spelling used on official ordnance survey maps.

The NRA said its future policy would be to only agree to change the spelling of place names when it was formally signed off by the relevant local authority.