Route selection for Cork-Limerick motorway to kickstart stalled planning

The existing Cork to Limerick Road at Ballyhea in North Cork.

The selection of route options for the M20 Cork to Limerick motorway and the Northern Relief Road in Mallow will allow more planning applications for housing and commercial properties to be processed.

A number of months ago, a hold was put on dealing with all planning permissions along a wide corridor of the proposed M20 and along a designated corridor for the Mallow bypass.

The route options for the M20 will be published this Thursday.

The move has been welcomed by a number of councillors who said the hold-up on processing planning applications had stifled growth in the North Cork region.

A meeting of the county council's Northern Division heard that at present there are nine route options being discussed for the Mallow relief road.

These will connect the N72/N73 in the east to the M20, somewhere close to Mallow General Hospital.

Padraig Barrett, the council's director of roads, said he hoped that these routes “would be distilled down” by next summer, which would free up even more areas for assessment of planning applications.

Fianna Fáil councillor Gearoid Murphy said it was previously proposed that work would start on the relief road either in late 2023 or early 2024.

However, Mr Barrett said he hoped the preferred route would be selected next year and they would be able to bring it to Bord Pleanála in 2023, with construction occurring thereafter, dependent on approval and funding being in place.

He said it could face legal challenges like any road project. 

“I still think it will be ready to go to construction by 2025,” he added.

“It's so badly needed for the future development of Mallow,” Fianna Fáil councillor Pat Hayes said.

Meanwhile, Mr Barrett told Fianna Fáil councillor Bernard Moynihan that a contractor should be appointed before Christmas to carry out the construction of the Kanturk Relief Road and work should commence in January.

Mr Moynihan and Fine Gael councillor John Paul O'Shea also welcomed news from Mr Barrett that the council hoped to lodge plans with Bord Pleanála before Christmas for a major safety upgrade of Ballymacquirke Cross, a junction near Kanturk which has witnessed a number of serious accidents in recent years.

Mr Barrett said he expected a decision from Bord Pleanála in the autumn or winter of next year and construction to get underway in 2022. The council will have to get Compulsory Purchase Orders to acquire land for the project.

Meanwhile, councillors are to seek a deputation with the Minister for Transport to get funding to widen a dangerous stretch of the N73 (Mallow – Mitchelstown road) between Waterdyke and Clogher, close to the village of Shanballymore.

HGV drivers recently staged a protest at that section of the road because it's extremely narrow and dangerous.

Fianna Fáil councillor Deirdre O'Brien said the national secondary road was critical to the agri-industry and the national economy as a whole. 

She pointed out that the council had designed a shovel-ready project and it was time a deputation was sent to the minister to get it approved.

“If it isn't funded there will be more protests,” Independent councillor Frank Roche said.

Mr Barrett said TII (Transport Infrastructure Ireland) would soon announce funding it has for road projects next year.

“My fingers are crossed that we'll get the go-ahead for it,” he added.