Dunkettle Interchange announces major traffic diversion through Glanmire in latest update

The planned road closures scheduled from tomorrow for over the weekend. Picture: Dunkettle Interchange.

The Dunkettle Interchange Upgrade Project has issued a significant update and notice of road closure in effect from tomorrow morning over the course of the next two weekends. 

The Ibis slip road from the L-2998 to the M8 southbound, just north of the interchange, closed on the morning of Friday, August 13, and it will remain closed until Monday, August 23, at 5am.

This closure is to allow construction workers to tie in two of the new interchange link roads between Gaelscoil Uí Drisceoil and the nearby railway to the M8 southbound.

Traffic will be diverted locally via the Little Island Interchange and also through Glanmire as shown in the graphic provided by the project leaders when announcing the closure.

The announcement said the closure has been timed for this period as to minimise disruption as much as possible. 

"The works are timed to avoid school term and thus minimise the impact on the Gaelscoil and on local residents. 

"Local signposted diversions will be in place via both Glanmire village and the N25 Little Island Junction," the statement said. 

An aerial view of the Dunkettle Interchange. Picture: Dunkettle Interchange

The road closure was first announced in last month's newsletter which are set to continue throughout the project highlighting any major works on the site.

A Twitter account for the project provides regular updates online here.

There will be several deliveries of bridge beams throughout today as of 9.00AM. These beams will form the remaining core structure supporting the proposed N40/ M8 freeflow link. @CorkChamber @corkcitycouncil @Corkcoco @TIITraffic pic.twitter.com/PzXEeE8ArB

— M28 Cork to Ringaskiddy Project (@M28Project) August 12, 2021

Further information is available for those interested in signing up for the newsletterhere as well as from the Dunkettle Live Ap, available from Apple and Google App stores. 

The latest project development follows confirmation in April that the first main section of the €215m upgrade of the Jack Lynch Tunnel/Dunkettle Interchange will open later this year, providing a direct route for motorists heading from the Tivoli direction onto the M8 Cork-Dublin motorway.

It forms part of an approach to "work from the outside in" in order to take as much traffic away from the roundabout on the northern side of the tunnel as possible, before the serious work begins, which will include building of a number of elevated slip roads to take traffic to local destinations, such as Glanmire, Glounthaune and so on.

When the M8 slip road opens it will divert a lot of Dublin-bound traffic away from the signalised roundabout.