Six route options unveiled for €1bn motorway

SIX route options for a €1 billion 90km superhighway between Cork and Limerick have been unveiled.

Brochures outlining the routes are being posted to 40,000 homes in the affected areas this week.

And they will go on public display in four venues in the coming weeks as part of a consultation process to select the preferred route.

That route should be selected and go on public display by October before detailed designs get underway.

The final route will be designed to motorway standard with a design speed of 120 kilometres per hour.

“The purpose of the display is to obtain the views of the public on the indicative route corridor options and to review any significant issues or items of concern arising,” said a project spokesman.

“All comments received will be carefully considered in furthering the planning and development of the scheme.”

Subject to funding and statutory approval, work could start on the first phase of the project in late 2010 or early 2011.

It has not been decided yet whether the road will be tolled and it is also unlikely that the entire road will be built in one phase.

The massive M20 motorway is part of the Atlantic Corridor Road upgrade, which will link Letterkenny to Waterford via Sligo, Tuam, Ennis, Limerick, Mallow and Cork, and which is planned under Transport 21.

The upgrading of the Atlantic Corridor Route is intended to improve access to and between the large towns and cities it passes close to, and their hinterlands.

Significant improvement works have already been carried out on a number of sections of the Atlantic Corridor and the M20 is an integral part of the overall route.

Cork County Council and Limerick County Council, in conjunction with the National Roads Authority, have appointed consultants to progress the design works on the M20.

Arup Consulting Engineers have been appointed to the Cork-Mallow section with White Young Green appointed to the Mallow-Limerick section.

A dedicated design office was established for the scheme at Mallow Business Park, Mallow, earlier this year.

But concerns are already mounting that the M20 could see houses knocked and farms dissected.

Farmers and householders are bracing themselves to see if their own patch of land will be affected.

“There is desperate fear around here about the routes,” said Gerald Quain, a farmer in Cregane, near Charleville.

“My own land is already cut in two by the current road and this road could go straight through it again dividing it further.”

The planned road will run from a junction on the planned northern ring road around Cork city, near Killeens, north through a vast swathe of land to a point east of Adare at Patrickswell.

Affected areas will include Banogue, Croagh, Athlacca, Garryfine and Rockhill.