The final stage of the M50 motorway is to open to traffic at the end of this month after six years of legal wrangles and protests.
Although the road, known as the South Eastern Motorway, is two years behind its original schedule, the opening date is two months ahead of its revised schedule, which followed the last High Court challenge to the project.
The office of Minister for Transport Martin Cullen yesterday said the Minister would open the road officially on June 30th, two months ahead of the planned August opening. The final stage will link up the N11 dual carriageway with the other Dublin orbital routes, allowing traffic to avoid suburban Dublin entirely. The junction near Carrickmines Castle, the subject of lengthy legal actions, will not be open until October, however.
Congestion on the M50 is not expected to be greatly improved by the new section and is likely to worsen in the coming months when construction on new "spaghetti junction" interchanges and an upgrade to four lanes get under way later this year.
First planned in the 1970s, the Dublin C-Ring, which became known as the M50, has taken a long time to complete.
Plans to begin construction of the South Eastern Motorway stretch in 1999 were abandoned after Jackson Way, which owned land at Carrickmines, took a High Court action against the road plan, bringing it as far as the Supreme Court. It abandoned its court action in 2000.
The road was further delayed by archaeological work, especially around Carrickmines Castle, which then became the focus of protest by heritage activists who said the site would be virtually destroyed unless the interchange and road were redesigned.Protesters took a series of successful legal actions over the failure of State agencies and the Government to adhere to heritage protection legislation in relation to the site, which led to the introduction of new heritage legislation last year.
A High Court challenge to parts of the legislation failed last September, and construction on the full route recommenced.