A NEW MOTORWAY from Gorey to Enniscorthy will open today. 

Construction began on the €400 million M11 in October 2015.

The entire project, which saw a bypass built from Gorey to Enniscorthy, saw 42km of new road being built. 

The motorway incorporates a new 27km road from the end of the Gorey bypass at Clogh to the townland of Scurlocksbush, south of Enniscorthy. 

It includes an 8km single carriageway bypass to the west of Enniscorthy, a 4km dual carriageway section linking the old N11 and N80, as well as improvements to a number of side roads. 

On-the-ground work on the site has been ongoing on the motorway scheme since early 2016. 

Transport Infrastructure has hailed the new motorway as making journeys safer and also as a boost for jobs in the local area. 

A spokesperson for Transport Infrastructure Ireland said that the new motorway design was “four times safer” than the old single-carriage network and would reduce “head-on collision rates”. 

They also promised “higher time saving benefits at peak travel times and at weekends when there is more traffic congestion”. 

“It is predicted that the average journey time savings for motorists between using the existing N11 route and using the new M11 motorway will be approximately 15 minutes in addition to the time savings already being experienced along the new sections of the M11 motorway,” the spokesperson said.

Also on the east side of the country, Transport Infrastructure Ireland is working on the construction of an N25 New Ross Bypass, which will see the longest bridge in Ireland constructed across the River Barrow.