It comes long-awaited.
A preferred route has been selected for the N/M20, the new transport project linking Cork to Limerick.
Details of the plans were posted on the project's website on Wednesday, with Tánaiste Leo Varadkar stating the N/M20 will reduce journey times, improve road safety and take cars out of town centres between the cities.
He also said the project is "good for business, jobs and balanced regional development".
https://twitter.com/LeoVaradkar/status/1509144208740859913
The project team said the preferred road-based option will link Limerick and Cork, through Croom, Charleville, Buttevant and Mallow.
"When complete, the project will deliver 80km of new and improved dual-carriageway, including reusing between 30% and 40% of the existing N20 road," a video on the project's website states.
"It will address significant existing challenges such as congestion in Charleville, Buttevant and Mallow; 625 existing access points without a hard shoulder; the notorious Ballybeg bends south of Buttevant."
The project team also said the N/M20 will deliver Ireland's longest, 80 kilometres long walking and cycling route.
On top of this, it said the integrated approach to plans would see enhanced local and express bus services, while the introduction of new "no change" hourly intercity rail services has been recommended to the All-Island Strategic Rail Review.
Both of these moves would see transport times between Cork and Limerick cut.
"This mix of transport solutions will combine then at interchanges at key locations with mobility hubs similar to those in Europe's leading integrated transport networks," the project team added.
It also said that one of the reasons for this
long-awaited intercity solution is safety, stating that 62 people have died in the past 25 years on the N20.
This is a rate four times the national average.
For more information about the plans, visit the N/M20 Cork to Limerick project's website
here.
Clip via Limerick City and County Council
