A new road bypassing Mullingar will cut 20 minutes off peak-time journey, it has been claimed.
Transport Minister Martin Cullen yesterday cut the sod for the N52 Mullingar Eastern Bypass, and he promised it would be finished by July 2006.
The five-kilometre route will cost €20 million. The benefits will be felt by road-users travelling towards Dundalk in the north-east, and Nenagh to the south-west.
There will be four roundabouts, a railway crossing and a canal crossing.
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Mullingar town currently has 9,000 vehicles passing through it daily, and it is hoped to reduce this figure significantly.
"The scheme will protect and grow jobs in the midlands," said Mr Cullen.