The first sod on an 18km bypass that will remove up to 7,000 vehicles daily from the streets of Charlestown, Co Mayo, has been turned by Minister for Transport Martin Cullen. Work on the €63 million project is to begin immediately and it is expected that the route, which will have a speed limit of 100km/h, will be completed by the end of next year.
Mayo county manager Des Mahon said yesterday the bypass would reduce travel time between Mayo and Roscommon and the eastern part of the county.
It will stretch from the townland of Cloonlara, on the eastern end of the Swinford bypass, to Currinah, on the existing N5 in Co Roscommon between Carracastle and Ballaghaderreen.
At the sod-turning in Carracastle, Mr Cullen said the Charlestown bypass was one of 39 road projects under way in the first year of the Government's Transport 21 plan. Fourteen were in the Border, midlands and western (BMW) region.
Henry Kenny, cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, said the removal of high volumes of traffic would make Charlestown a place to go to rather than go through, and would greatly reduce the risk of accidents.