PICTURES: Drawings of new roundabouts and roads for Portlaoise to ease congestion

Portlaoise is earmarked for four new major road investments to ease congestion, including two roundabouts and two new roads, with detailed drawings shown to Laois councillors this week.

Two new roundabouts will be added tothe busy R445 Dublin road, while plans are advancing to build two new roads connecting traffic to that road.

The Laois County Council CEO is Michael Rainey.

"These are four arterial measures for Portlaoise. We will do everything we can to advance these. We have to make them function from a traffic perspective," he said at the February council meeting.

New drawings show the designs for the Dublin Road roundabouts. 

The council say the one at Colliers Lane is aimed to solve "ongoing traffic congestion", and make it safer for cyclists, pedestrians and vulnerable road users. 

That new roundabout will link to hundreds of homes and two secondary schools serving nearly 2,000 pupils. Work is soon starting. 

"A new four arm raised roundabout will be constructed in the coming months, to replace the existing roundabout. The existing roundabout is at capacity, and the junction is the source of ongoing traffic congestion and poor provision for cyclists, pedestrians and vulnerable road users," the February chief executives report states.

The roundabout's fourth exit will be into the new Downey's service station.

Another Portlaoise roundabout is to be built at the entrance to the new Rath Rua housing estate.

"New three arm raised roundabout to be constructed to replace the Tjunction entrance to the Rath Rua (Glenveagh) housing estate. The Roundabout is being constructed in accordance with planning conditions prescribed for the Rath Rua Housing Development. 

"The new roundabout will reduce traffic congestion, improve Cycle and pedestrian facilities and improve access to lands for development of housing," the council states.

The two roundabouts are among four "key traffic management measures" planned in Portlaoise say the council this month.

Two new roads are coming to the town in the coming years.

The Beladd Road Urban Distributor Road will link the Dublin road to the Stradbally road at the Aghnaharna roundabout, hoped to ease traffic to the schools.

"The Beladd Urban Distributor Road, from the R445 Dublin Road to the N80 Stradbally Road, has been advertised for a design Team to bring the proposed development to a Part VIII process.

"Tender returns due at the end of February. A Preliminary Appraisal Report was issued in December 2025 to the Department of Transport, seeking funding for the scheme," an update says.

The fourth objective is also a brand new road.

This will link the Borris Road to the Dublin Road. It is nearing the planning approval stage with a design not made public yet. 

"Part VIII proposal under preparation, for an Urban Distributor Road, linking the Borris Road to the Dublin Road, the objective for which has been a longstanding commitment of successive Portlaoise Local Area Plans," the council said.

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Meanwhile Laois Director of Services for Roads, Simon Walton said that the long awaited Portlaoise Northern Orbital Route (PNOR), is "an extremely important infrastructural peice to support the ongoing development of Portlaoise".

Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald is concerned that funding will not be given for the new roads.

"I welcome them but I don't know if we will get funding. The Beladd road is essential, and the Borris road to the Dublin road. If we can get roads with paths and cycle lanes, that's when kids can cycle to school, where they have the facilities. The PNOR is huge," she said.