In 1983, the first sections of Irish motorway were opened: a short section of M7 bypassing Naas and the first stretch of M1 (part of which has now been redesignated M50). The M1 was later extended in 1985 to Dublin Airport.
In 1983, the first sections of Irish motorway were opened: a short section of [[M7 motorway (Ireland)|M7]] bypassing [[Naas]] and the first stretch of M1 (part of which has now been redesignated M50). The [[M1 motorway (Republic of Ireland)|M1]] was later extended in 1985 to [[Dublin Airport]]. <ref>[http://www.leinsterleader.ie/news/Naas-bypass-comes-of-age.4383146.jp] Naas Bypass News Article</ref>
===1990-1999===
===1990-1999===
Revision as of 16:33, 21 May 2009
Planned National Roads Network for 2015.
In Ireland, the highest category of road is a motorway (mótarbhealach, plural: mótarbhealaí), indicated by the prefix M followed by one or two digits. The motorway network is predominantly made up of two-lane dual carriageways and is focussed primarily on Dublin. As of May 2009, there is approximately 435 km of motorway in the Republic.
The motorway network in Ireland is currently under-going a huge expansion programme, which through new road construction and redesignation of existing stretches will lead to over 1000 km of motorway by 2015. At present, there is over 350 km of new motorway under construction, due to be delivered before 2010. Motorway service areas[1] and widening schemes[2] are also proposed for the network.
Features
Regulations
Motorways in Ireland have a set of restrictions[3] which prohibit certain traffic from using the road. The following classes of traffic are disallowed on Irish motorways:
Learner drivers
Slow vehicles(less than 50 km/h)
Inappropiate carriages
Pedestrians
Pedal-cycles
Vehicles under 50cc
Animals
Rules for driving on motorways include:
No stopping at any time
No reversing
No hitchhiking
Only vehicles that can travel faster than 80 km/h may use the outside lane
You may not drive on the hard-shoulder
The general motorway speed limit is 120 km/h
Specification
For more on motorway specification in general, view this motorway article.
Motorways in Ireland are generally constructed to high-quality dual-carriageway standard - with sightlines, curves and elevation designed for 160 km/h speeds. Until recently, all motorways were built with wide medians in the centre, which typically have a wire or steel barrier. The more recent schemes have narrow medians, only 3 metres in width, with a concrete barrier in the middle. These narrow-median schemes also have reduced carriageway width - a typical narrow-median motorway cross section has two 3.5 metre running lanes, a 2.5 metre hard shoulder and a 1.5 metre central reserve in each direction where as a typical wide median motorway has 3.75 metre running lanes and a 3 metre hard shoulder. Ireland has only a small amount of D3M (motorway with three lanes in each direction). The M50 is the most notable example, having been upgraded in parts from a two-lane motorway, to a three or four lane motorway in each direction.
Motorways can only be accessed using grade-separated junctions. These typically take the form of roundabout interchanges for higher-capacity junctions, or dumbbell interchanges - which are a variant on the diamond-style interchange. - for lower-trafficked interchanges. A number of other types of junction are also used on the Republic's motorway network. The M4/M6 and M7/M9 junctions use a variant of the trumpet-style interchange while the M50/N7 and M50/N4 interchanges use partial cloverleaf junctions.
Safety
Motorways in Ireland include several safety featurs not found on other classes of road. The most notable include the presence of a continous hard-shoulder, use of crash barriers, superior lighting and provision of emergency phones at regular intervals. Some motorway schemes include deflectors to provide protection at interchanges.
Signage
Motorway signage in Ireland is blue, and is similar in design to UK signage. Route numbers use the motorway font, and text uses an Irish variant of the transport medium typeface.
Route Number Inheritance
In the Repulic of Ireland (with exception of the M50), all motorways form part of a national route.
In most cases, motorways have been built as a by-pass of a road previously forming the national road (e.g. M7 by-passing roads previously forming the N7). The by-passed roads are then reclassified as regional roads. Under Irish legislation, motorways are sections of roads with special regulations and they are signposted with the M prefix to indicate that they are under motorway regulations.
Present Network
The following table shows a list of motorways currently open in the Republic of Ireland.
In 1983, the first sections of Irish motorway were opened: a short section of M7 bypassing Naas and the first stretch of M1 (part of which has now been redesignated M50). The M1 was later extended in 1985 to Dublin Airport. [4]
1990-1999
Between 1990 to 1999, Ireland's motorway network really began to get up to speed. First of the projects completed in this period was the western section of M50, linking the N7, N4 and N3 together in 1990. This was quickly followed up with the M11 Bray/Shankhill bypass in 1991. After this there followed a lull in construction after what had been a busy few years in motorway construction by then Irish road building standards. 1993 saw an extension to the M7, continuing from the Naas Bypass and providing a bypass to the town of Newbridge, as well as the M9 Kilcullen spur. In addition to this was another small section of M1, this time much futher north however than the existing M1 at the time, and was a short bypass of Dunleer in County Louth. The year after, the M4 made its first appearance on Irish road maps as the Leixlip to Kilcock motorway was completed in 1994. In 1995 there were no new motorways opened and in 1996 only the northern section of the M50 was opened, linking the existing motorway to the N2 and M1. The Portlaoise bypass opened as M7 in 1997 and like the M1 Dunleer bypass, seemed very isolated compared to the rest of the network which was concentrated around Dublin. 1998 featured the opening of another short piece of M1, this time to the south of Balbriggan, modern day junctions 5 and 6. In 1999 however, there were no new sections of motorway opened.
2000-2009
The year 2000 also had no new motorway openings but in 2001 yet another section of M1 was opened, extending the Dunleer bypass northwards to the south of Dundalk (junction 16). Continuing the quiet period, 2002 also saw no new motorway in Ireland, but 2003 was a big year. Finally the various sections of M1 were joined together, creating continuous motorway from Dublin to just south of Drogheda. A key part of this section was the Drogheda bypass which was tolled. Also in 2003, the M7 was extended westwards from Newbridge to also bypass Kildare (upto modern day junction 13). A year later and this had been extended further so that both sections of M7 were joined. This provided continuous motorway from Naas to Portlaoise.
By 2005, projects were beginning to be completed faster and in this year the M4 was extended from Kilcock to Kinnegad, this section of motorway having a toll applied to it, one of the first PPP schemes to be trialed in Ireland. The M1 Dundalk bypass was also finished, meaning that there was now virtually a full motorway link from Dublin to the border. Finally in 2005, the M50 was extended to link up to the M11, providing a full western bypass of the capital. In 2006, a new motorway number made it onto Irish maps. The M8 Fermoy to Watergrasshill motorway was opened, another section that was tolled. Also a section of what would become M6 was completed, going westwards from the M4 at Kinnegad to Tyrellspass, the road was opened as N6 and was the first section of road to be completed that would be affected by the Roads Act 2007 and motorway redesignation. In 2007 the same road was extended by some 10km to the N52 north of Tullamore, still opened as N6 as the first tranche of motorway redesignations had only just been submitted.
2008 was the biggest year for Irish motorways to date, with a massive section of M8 opened, making it the longest motorway in the country. Stretching from Urlingford to just east of Mitchelstown, the motorway opened in various sections, the first being the Cashel bypass, followed by the Cashel to Mitchelstown section, both of which were open before the redesignation came into effect in September. The Urlingford to Cashel section opened later on in the year and so became motorway straight away. Also opened in 2008 was the M9 Carlow bypass which was also open to traffic before the redesignation came into being. Finally, the M6 was extended to the Athlone bypass and whilst most of these were indeed open before the 24th September when the statutory instrument was put into effect, Ireland was transformed with blue lines on the maps.
2009 looks likely to be another huge milestone in the Irish motorway network, with many projects currently under construction due to be finished by the end of the year. Also in the pipeline is the second tranche of redesignations, which if all goes to plan, should help to extend the network yet further. It is likely that sections of the M3, M6, M7, M8 and M9 could be opened this year.
Motorway Redesignation (Tranche 1)
This section of the N8 5 km north of Cork is a motorway redesignation candidate.
The Roads Act 2007 was passed into law in mid-2007. This Act makes provision for the redesignation of suitable dual carriageways to motorway status. The National Roads Authority made formal applications under Section 8 of the Act to the Minister for Transport on 16 October 2007 regarding dual carriageways which the authority believed to be suitable for redesignation as motorways.
On 29 January 2008, the Department of Transport published notice of the Minister's intention to make the orders being sought and invited submissions or observations to be made to the Minister regarding the NRA's applications.
The consultation procession lasted until 28 March 2008. On 17 July 2008 the statutory instrument redesignating the roads as motorways was signed, and any open parts of these roads have officially become motorways as of 24 September 2008[5] . The Carlow bypass and Kilbeggan-Athlone roads opened with motorway signage but with temporary 100 km/h general speed limits between their opening and their official re-designation as motorways.
As of 2009, all sections of these motorways are under construction or completed. The completion of these schemes will add more than 300 km of motorway to the current network.
Atlantic Corridor
Under the government's Transport 21 iniative, Letterkenny will be linked to Waterford with new high quality roads - collectively known as the "Atlantic Corridor". While it is anticipated much of this scheme will be constructed as either 2+2 dual carriageway or higher quality single-carriageway - a significant portion of it is expected to be constructed as motorway.
The M20 scheme linking Cork with Limerick, will provide a complete connection between the two cities. It will be approximately 95 km in length. It is being progressed as a PPP. [10]
The M18 scheme linking Shannon with Galway will provide a high quality link between Galway and Limerick. It will be approximately 70 km in length when complete. A significant proportion of this route is already complete (and is expected to be redesignated imminently), with a 22 km section between Gort and Crusheen already under construction.
The M17 scheme will link Athenry with Tuam. It will connect to the M6 and M18.
Other Motorways
Other motorway schemes are also being progressed at the moment. The controversial M3 motorway is being built as a connection between Dublin and Kells. Another motorway project, the Dublin-Outer-Orbital-Route, will also be progressed in the relatively near future.[11]
Motorway Service Areas
The NRA has proposed to build a series of service areas[12] across the new motorway network to address the current critical lack of safe rest areas.
The following sites have been proposed:
M1 - Balbriggan
M1 - Dundalk
M4 - Enflield
M6 - Athlone
M7 - Mountrath
M7 - Nenagh
M8 - Cashel
M8 - Kilworth
M9 - Kilcullen
M9 - Carlow
M11 - Gorey
Originally, service areas were to be located at 12 locations, but a recent An Bord Pleanála decision ruled that a service area to be located at Rathmorrissey at an M6 junction be removed from an adjacent scheme.
It is anticipated that service areas will be provided on both the M3 motorway and the proposed M20 motorway.[13]
Motorway Redesignation (Tranche 2)
On 30 September 2008, the NRA announced its second tranche of proposed motorway redesignations. The closing date for submissions was 14 November 2008. It is expected that the statutory instrument (subject to acceptance of the proposals) will be passed at some time during the summer.
M1
M4
M6
M7
M8
M9
M11
M50
