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A NEW M20 motorway linking Cork and Limerick has been officially given the go-ahead by the government this morning.
In connecting Cork, Limerick, (and onto Galway) in one stretch of high-speed motorway, the road will become the first major transport conduit in Ireland not to terminate in Dublin.
It will supersede the current N20 national road linking the two cities.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed the news this morning in a speech to the Cork Chamber of Commerce at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
There was some confusion regarding the future of the motorway as Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe didn’t include it as one of a number of capital projects outlined in his Budget speech last Tuesday. Such confusion has now been disspelled.
“Capital investment can change geography and be a real means of releasing the full economic and social potential of Cork, Limerick and Munster,” Varadkar said in his speech this morning, as reported by the Limerick Leader.
The M20 is a huge project with a massive price range. It is however worth it.
Local Fine Gael representative for Limerick Senator Kieran O’Donnell meanwhile hailed the announcement as “great news” for his native county.
The plan will see €20 million committed to the scheme, which will now go through a phase of planning and design, before construction commences, with a two-to-three year timeframe mooted.
The confirmation of the new 80-kilometre roadway was greeted with delight by Conor Healy, CEO of the Cork Chamber.
“Today’s commitment to the much-awaited M20 finally going ahead is a significant vote of confidence in the growth potential of all of Munster, and we commend (the government in the foresight of investing in a motorway link between our second and third cities,” he said.
The socio-economic report commissioned by Cork and Limerick Chambers earlier this year confirmed that the M20 has the potential to support up to 5,400 new direct jobs in the region, which would benefit the Exchequer by up to €128m per annum.
I have no doubt that the M20 will be of huge benefit to our country overall, and in light of its importance we hope to see the M20 top of the list of new infrastructure projects to be delivered in government’s forthcoming 10-year investment plan.
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I don’t think that motorway can be built for €20m..
@tom McCormack: 100%…they couldnt resurface Patrick Street for that…where is he getting 20m from?
@tom McCormack: In the UK the rule of thumb is £30 million per mile, so even with 2 lanes each way instead of 3, I’d say it’ll come up a little short…
@tom McCormack: 20 million? Isn’t it 10 million a km in materials? 200 million surely
It’ll cost well over a billion. I’d imagine this is for the (very) initial phase of planning.
@tom McCormack: Obviously 20 mill is never enough to pay for 80km of motorway. It’s for planning and design of road. 20 mill won’t even cover compulsory purchase orders that will be required
@tom McCormack: “The plan will see €20 million committed to the scheme, which will now go through a phase of planning and design”. Basically they’ve put €20 million aside for the design and EIA. So you can expect it to be in construction around 2030-40,
@tom McCormack: The 20 mil is only for planning and design phase so basically another 20 years will go before anything is done.
@The Dons: By the time it’s built, cars will be in the museum and we’ll be flying around in our hoverboards.
@tom McCormack: €20m for planning and design u clown
@Ado Smith: €20 million won’t pay for a 6 lane bridge or tunnel over or under the shannon.
@tom McCormack: There’s obviously a lot of you can’t read!!
@tom McCormack: 20m is for early planning. Nothing to do with construction
@tom McCormack: 20m for the planning and design stage.Not that difficult to figure out.
@William Grogan: The story has been updated since the original comment. Off to the Fine Gael rally with you.
@Aidan O Reilly: parts of it where planned in 07. The north ring road was in route selection phase. Your FG buddies don’t want to build it. They would rather build white elephants like pairc ui caoimhe.
@John Brendan Mullen: And your point being?
@tom McCormack: That 20million has nothing to do with the construction of said motorway. The 20million is for the Consultants and planners to squander.
@tom McCormack: This is Ireland, 20 milion wouldn’t pay for the lights on the motorway, never mind building an 80km motorway.
@prop joe: : It would take a Dub to say something like that. Ye have enough stadiums & good road connections. It’s about time the rest of the country is looked after. Pairc ui Chaoimh was long overdue as is the M20 & the long awaited Events Centre, it’s not all about the capital you clown
Long overdue and a huge boost for Munster but will believe it when it’s finally done.
@Rochelle: Hopefully the planning and design can be completed in a couple of years so that the actual motorway might be built by, say, 2027, to coincide with the Dublin Metro opening that year as promised by Shane Ross yesterday.
Counties Cork and Limerick has a combined population 750,000. To put it into perspective that’s 55% of population of County Dublin (1.345 million). If the government are serious about creating a viable alternative to the Dublin economic giant and to move development away from the East Coast of Ireland, then linking up the second and third largest cities in Ireland. Do it now.
@BlueSkyThinking: It correct to develop the M20 and create a more sustainable economic zone in the South West. However this bigotry of trying to take growth “away from Dublin” is simply ignorant parochial bigotry. Dublin has every right to develop and to continue developing in every way. Dublin has very little govt investment per capita and has never been properly developed. It has been held back for decades by success rural based TD’s with no agenda only stop Dublin growing. Negative parochial politics.
Dublin has every right to develop.
That said.
Great news if the M20 goes ahead.
@Michael Fehily: if you made investment decisions like this on a per capita basis, sure you’d never even build a road in Mayo, Connemara, Donegal west Kerry etc. stupid comment.
@Pepper Brooks: per capita is exactly the way economists analyse ROI’s…
The thrust of my comment is that Dublin has every right to develop. The parochial bigots. ( Like you clearly) would take more from Dublin and continue to over invest in lightly populated regions of this little country just because you want more.
Is Dublin’s property tax haul not enough for you? Or maybe you’re too “stupid” to survive on your own two feet
@Michael Fehily: Dublin is bursting at the seems, house prices are rocketing, traffic crazy, homeless issues, practically full employment. A strong south/mid west would improve quality of life in Dublin. Dublin will still get majority of investment but it’s better for the country and Dubs to balance things more.
@eric nelligan: Eric I totally agree with building up economic strength in regional areas. Particularly the south west as the Cork/Limerick region has the capacity to grow and develop on its own strength. All I’m saying is regional growth doesn’t have to be at the expense of Dublin.
@Michael Fehily: I have no words… it’s Government policy to develop a counter balance to the Dublin and eastern seaboard region. Top economists recommend this. Dublin already has issues with housing supply, office supply, water and electricity shortages. These will only get worse. Limerick in particular has an abundance of all of the above. Ffs
@Michael Fehily: You dont seem to realise that we have a totally skewed & biased system in this country that favours Dublin. Everything is about Dublin. It’s our capital and I’m fine with it getting more investment per head of population than other areas. But it’s bursting at the seams and badly needs to be counterbalanced by a strong Atlantic hub of C-L-G.
No other country in Europe has allowed a city to balloon so much that it utterly dominates the entire country at tge expense of smaller cities. House prices are ridculous, the M50 is a car park because it cant cope with greater Dublin population. Dublin would actually benefit greatly by investment into regional cities, more jobs means more people not moving to Dublin, alleviating the housing crisis, house prices & traffic.
@Michael Fehily: Cork contributes to one third of Ireland’s total industrial out put no one is taking anything away from Dublin ,,
If anyone has bothered to read the article it’s clear that the €20 million is for the planning and design stage!
@Alan Whitney: the comments is where the real story lies,
What is this? A motorway for ants?!
@Bobby Poonster: I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.
Cork and Limerick should have been linked years ago. Will be a long overdue boost to Munster.
Great news. The cost will be about €1bn but will be worth it. New investment is attracted to motorways like bees to honey. Will also lead to economies of scale, you could have a office located in Limerick serving the Galway, Limerick and Cork region and easy access to all three cities.
@Fred Jetson:
Fantastic news for the region!
Old Chinese saying “building new road bring plenty sweet and sour business, mainly sweet”
About time too !
Did he announce it or his propaganda department.
@David Huston: You can be sure the spin dept told him to hold it back for today instead of announcing it in the budget
@eastsmer: Many large projects have been fully designed and put through planning and have never happened.
Expect the build to start at the earliest 2035..
He forgot to add it’s a scale model of the motorway being built for the €20m.
@Padraig: ‘what is this a motorway for ants?!’
Just get it done guys..please please please no more faffing about..
Motorway to Sligo and the North West next please
@Enda Reynolds: Sorry Enda, myself and Leo have decided the KK to Tullamore upgrade is going ahead first.
@Dave Sherman: you must need quick access to the Bridge House Dave :)
@Enda Reynolds: Forget about that…
Cancel what I said.
Great news,
Well overdue,now if we can just link all Irish cities to each other by motorway would be great,waterford-cork,limerick-waterford
@dick dastardly: In some ways I agree with you, but there are a couple of problems. The road between Cork and Mallow carries enough local traffic that it will need a dual-carriageway upgrade anyway. The terrain between Mitchelstown and Kilfinane or Ballylanders would make the M8 link a lot more expensive per km than the direct route. However, as you say, it could be part of a system that links all the Munster cities.
I take it that it will be built after the event centre is completed…….
@Michael Byrne: The byway things are going limerick will build an EC as Cork slumbers on into issue after issue county v city etc
About time
The first major transport conduit not to terminate in Dublin is the M18 Limerick-Galway motorway, which was completed only two weeks ago.
A motorway or dual carriage is needed for Cork to Rosslare
Proposal for an M20 route via Mitchelstown connecting limerick and Cork at half the cost of a route via Charleville, facilitating the future connection of Cork to Waterford and limerick to Waterford via an extension of this motorway from Mitchelstown to Waterford.
This proposed route would be cost effective as it would involve the construction of 55km of motorway from Ballysimon Limerick to the M6 at Mitchelstown as opposed to over 100km for an entirely new route. It would deliver traffic to the south ring road, cork post and its industrial hinterland. Any route coming via Mallow would also need to connect to this area. The construction of said connection through the suburban area of north cork city would attract very significant cost and distruption. Ideally the Dunkettle roundabout would be upgraded to a flyover system like the Derrydonnell roundabout in Galway.
An entirely new motorway of approximately 90km could, when funds allows, be construction from Mitchelstown to Waterford. The distance from Limerick(Ballysimon) to Waterford (Grannagh castle) on this proposed route would be approximately 145km versus 120km on the current shortest route. The distance frm Cork(Dunkettle) to Waterford (Grannagh castle) on this proposed route would be approximately 136km versus 116 km on the current shortest route. This merged route would result in a ten minute longer journey time in comparision with building 2 entirely new motorways along the shortest possible route. However the cost saving and the likely earlier construction of proposed motorways more than makes up for this slighly increased journey time.
The construction of this proposed 145km of motorway can connect limerick/cork, limerick/waterford, and cork/waterford. It would take 336km of motorway contruction to connect said route via the shortest possible routes, an approximate saving of 2 Billion euro (at a costing of 10m euro per km, the construction cost of the Tuam Gort M17/M18 route) . There would be additional savings and reducted disruption by utilising currently constructed infrastructure at Ballysimon(limerick) and the M8 entering cork.
This new infrastruture would complete the Atlantic corridor(south of Galway) and provide a direct motorway connection between Waterford (and potentially rosslare) and the west. The proposed new Motorway network could hopefully be construction much sooner as much less capital would be needed. The limerick/mitchelstown motorway would save at least 500m euro over the construction of an entirely new Cork/limerick motorway. This saved 500m together 400m euro more would complete the whole network.
Please ensure that someone is looking at the Bigger picture and is considering this idea.
@John Burke: best comment of the day on here
Did he mention anything about the events centre?
A 2-3 year time frame is mooted? So you can probably add on a couple of more years to that, that means it will be 2020, yes 2020 at the earliest, before two of Ireland’s major cities will be connected. Emm well….done?
@Dave Murray: 2020 is optimistic. Assuming the planning and design will be completed by 2020 you can add 7-10 years to complete the road itself (also assuming the €200m funding for the actual road) your looking at 2027 at the earliest for the road to open.
Good news announced today but still a long road (pardon the pun) ahead.
@Ted Logan: 2027 is a bit optimistic..more like 2035…
High speed???? Bet it will also be tolled too
@Adrian: I’d put good money on there being a tolled bridge over the Blackwater, both because this is likely to be the largest expense in building the project and because traffic heading from North Cork/East Limerick to Cork City would use it to avoid the existing M8 toll if it isn’t tolled.
@Chris Mansfield: There’s already a tolled bridge over the Blackwater at Fermoy costs you as a motor tax payer €1.90 each way…..
I wonder how many times this will be announced and reanounced before a hole is even dug ?
20 million for a motorway??? Surely a misprint?
@Pepper Brooks: I’m guessing 20million for planning and design phase
On a slightly negative note, if this is done before the northern part of the N40 is built, it will create traffic chaos on the northside of Cork and on the rural roads around Blarney and Carrignavar.
Overall project will cost 850 million 20 million will appoint design team and carry out initial survey of route. Kicking the problem down the road until after the next election.
@dick dastardly: They should build an M24 Limerick to Mitchelstown, which links to the M8, then build onwards to Waterford. That would link 3 the cities for the around the same amount of motorway.
Sounds pretty cheap :-|
so.. some line painting and new signs on the existing road
Never ending political spin to fool the masses. If Leo didn’t cull the planning years ago it might be nearly shovel ready today.
Is this a motorway for ants??
@Diarmuid: try reading the article before commenting.The €20 million committed to the scheme is for planning and design”.
@Diarmuid: Lol good one man! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahhahahahahahaha
Just because I’m really really really ridiculously good looking…
Long overdue. So will it actually happen? Time will tell
Ha ha ha Kenny and Coveney told us that too about The Events Centre they actually turned the sod in a photo shoot prior to an election.
The last one said the event Center would be built also. I smell….sniff sniff, cows no wait bulls no wait an election that’s the smell. Funny how it smells like bullsheedo
The communication department got some spelling mistakes on Leo’s tweets
14 k a day
Why does planning and designing a motorway cost €20M. Its not as if it is the first ever.
@thejamer: the route along the existing N20 was speced out & planned but shelved by Leo in 2011. They had agreed on exit from Buttevant & next step i think. would have been CPO process. Its hard to have faith in its completion any time soon. Its likely we’re being fobbed off – dont think there was ever a direct train Limerick/Cork & think the M20 could be a pipe dream..
High speed?
No mention of the M28, Dunkettle Interchange upgrade or the Macroom bypass, however.
@Conor Sheehan: Think there are funds for Dunkettle included in infrastructure plans
Any chance of a bitta broadband boy
What will the route be?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Well that is the first issue – Buttevant have dithered about whether it will be on the east or the west of the town.
Ideally it should follow closely the current N20 to allow off ramps to Mallow & Charleville.
There will definitely be a toll to pay, imo.
I reckon Leo should stick to Mardi Gras,as he knows f all about the engineering of motorways.
What a wastes of our money .no need for this road .the road to cork from limerick is fine so what if it take a bit of time to get their big deal.money should be spent on nurses wages to keep them here in ireland and on the people that have no home to live in etc.not wasting it on stupid roads .give me a break them clounds in goverment
@Tadhg O’shaughnessy:
‘the road to cork from limerick is fine’
I suspect you are one of those 80kph drivers who speed up in towns when they see street lights.
@Tadhg O’shaughnessy: You’re obviously not familiar with that road if your think it’s fine Tadhg.
Rugby World Cup
Will it be tolled I wonder
Where will this road be meeting the N21/M20 junction at Patrickswell? I presume it will be on the city side and not the Adare side?
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