Planning update issued on €1.2bn Limerick to Cork motorway

THE FINAL route of the M20 Limerick to Cork motorway is due to be published by the end of June.

Jari Howard, the project co-ordinator of the €1.2bn scheme, confirmed the news, following a briefing given to councillors last Friday.

He also said, given the scale of the road to link Ireland’s second and third cities, a formal planning application to An Bord Pleanala is unlikely to be made until some point next year.

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The update due in June on the road project will show the final design, said Mr Howard.

“The fence-lines, the underpasses, and all those sorts of things which are very important for landowners,” he said.

Mr Howard, who is based at the Mid-West National Roads Design office within Limerick City and County Council, said the plans will look similar to those which were published in June last year when an update was issued.

This outlined the fact the M20 will be a dual carriageway with a 120km per hour speed limit, shared active travel pathways connecting communities from Blarney to Patrickswell and transport hubs in Bruree and Croom on the Limerick side of the county border.

These hubs will feature park-and-ride facilities.

Banogue and Charleville will be bypassed.

Some 80km of new road will be constructed between Cork city and Patrickswell, with between 30% and 40% of the existing N20 being reused to develop the new road.

Mr Howard said while there will not be many changes to the route outlined last June, “the devil will be in the detail”.

“It’s a key one for landowners to see how much land will be required from them,” he explained.

Following this, the overall plan for the M20 will go to Government for scrutiny.

Ministers will rule on whether council can proceed to seek planning permission for the motorway.

“It might be next year, that’s what I can say,” Mr Howard said, when asked the timeline on a planning application. “It’s an expensive project so it needs to go through the full rigours.

“If the investment rationale is good, the Cabinet will approve it, then we go to planning.

“This is where we are calling on elected representatives and others to outline that this is a priority, and let’s get this along. It’s a big investment,” said Mr Howard.