Talks bid to revive motorway

CORK county engineer Noel O’Keeffe is to lead a delegation to Dublin in an attempt to get the €800 million Cork-Limerick motorway back on track.

The county council had spent nearly €20m designing the 80km motorway before the National Roads Authority recently decided it did not have the money to proceed.

A special meeting of the council’s Northern Committee will take place shortly in Mallow to discuss the situation. It is envisaged a delegation of councillors, led by Mr O’Keeffe, will meet NRA officials and Transport Minister Leo Varadkar next month. Councillors will be pressing to reverse the decision, but may have to compromise by agreeing, to at best, the motorway being built on a piecemeal basis.