Communities along the "emerging preferred route" of a new super-highway through Co Laois that will carry Corkand Limerick-bound traffic from Dublin pledged this week to oppose the project "to the bitter end".
Although the project by the National Roads Authority (NRA) is only at the planning stage, the Action Group Against corridor 3 is cranking up political opposition to the development.
The group has had a small victory already. Laois County Council deferred until next month a decision "to note" that the consultants had chosen corridor 3 as its preferred option.
"Not that it will make a lot of difference in the end because it appears to us local councils have very little power if they are opposed to any National Roads Authority Project," said the local Fine Gael TD, Mr Charles Flanagan.
He said the consultants, Ove Arup, had proposed five corridors for the route, which will take Limerick and Cork traffic off the existing N7 and N8 roads.
"Basically, Co Laois is shaped like a square, and south of Portlaoise the existing roads fork, one heading directly west for Limerick and the Cork road south," he said.
"The so-called corridor 3 option will head south-west a few miles west of Portlaoise and cut its way between the existing roads through some of the most beautiful parts of Laois and its best land.
"The first thing is that Laois does not need a third big road. Two are enough, and I would have thought that the upgrading of those would be sufficient," Mr Flanagan said.
"Now we have been told that the new motorway will be tolled, and this will mean that a lot of the commercial traffic will avoid it, so all three roads are likely to be very busy."
The "preferred option", he said, would run through the parishes of Aghadoe, Clough and Ballacolla, cutting the community in Ballacolla in two.
"The problem is we have no power to stop it, and I suspect that the proposal is preferred because it avoids most of the towns where there is more organised opposition," Mr Flanagan said.
Opposition to the proposed route is growing daily, according to Ms Joan Finlay, who lives at Ballycuddy House, Ballacolla, with her husband, John, a farmer.
"We discovered there are 150 houses along the route, and we have canvassed them all and prepared a 30-page report for the National Roads Authority on why this route should not be chosen," she said.
"We are objecting to the way this whole thing was done, especially the lack of consultation which began with the insertion of tiny notices in the local press."
"They just about covered their legal obligation by doing so but they have left us bitter, angry and frustrated and we are going to fight this to the bitter end," she said.
She was unhappy with the maps made available for inspection at information meetings and with the consultants' reports to the council.
She said the route that the NRA wants to build on runs through some of the most historic parts of the county and very close to Aghadoe Abbey, one of the most sacred parts of Ireland.
"It will also destroy some of the best farmland in Ireland and cut its way through areas of beautiful countryside. It is not the right choice for Co Laois," she said.
"If the people driving on this road were to be made aware that by saving 10 minutes on their journey they were destroying local communities and a beautiful part of the world, I do not think they would go for it.
"The process has a very long way to go yet, and we will be opposing the choice of corridor 3 all the way," she said.