Cork-Limerick motorway project inches closer to starting date

Plans for a motorway linking Cork and Limerick took a step closer on Thursday with the signing of a contract for the route’s design stage.

The project – the first under the government’s €116 billion Ireland 2040 infrastructural plan – has yet to go to tender for construction.

The road linking both cities will be the State’s largest infrastructure project outside Dublin.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who was present at City Hall in Limerick on Thursday for the contract signing, described the project as the "biggest single road contract for the next decade".

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Limerick City and County Council, the lead authority for the project, announced it had appointed Barry Transportation, and its project partners WSP and Sweco, as technical advisers to progress the scheme up to the stage where it will be submitted for planning.

Better connectivity

Project Ireland 2040 aims to provide better connectivity between the two cities by improving the quality of the transport network as well as addressing road safety issues associated with the existing N20 route.

Cork and Limerick are approximately 100km apart, yet at present the economic interaction and inter-relationships between the cities is limited, with poor transport connectivity being a factor, Limerick’s local authority said.

Planning and design for the road will commence this month, with Barry Transportation, WSP and Sweco providing all engineering, environmental, economic and appraisal services required to deliver the project through these planning and design phases.