The Southern Cross Route motorway, the penultimate leg of Dublin's C-Ring road, was officially opened yesterday - 30 years after it was first planned.
Costing £141 million, the 8.75 km road runs between Balrothery and Ballinteer. Work on the final stretch between Ballinteer and Loughlinstown is to begin in October.
At yesterday's ceremony, the Minister for Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey, said the full benefits of the investment "won't really be met" until the last leg is opened in 2004.
However, he said, the Southern Cross Route was "a major piece of engineering and is a welcome addition to the roads infrastructure". He said there will be "short-term benefits which will be added to in the coming months and years with the completion of projects like the Dundrum bypass".
He said studies showed that motorways and dual carriageways had 65 per cent less accidents than two-lane roads.
Mr Dempsey presided over yesterday's opening along with Ms Betty Coffey, cathaoirleach of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which managed the project; and Ms Cait Keane cathaoirleach of South Dublin County Council, through whose area the motorway runs. The three took part in the unveiling of a commemorative stone, a tree-planting ceremony and a drive along the new road in an open-top 1934 RollsRoyce.
Also in attendance were the Government chief whip, Mr Seamus Brennan TD, Minister of State Mr Tom Kitt, members of the four Dublin local authorities and local clergymen Canon Horace McKinlay, Father Paddy Battelle, Father Peter Haughey and Rev William Deverell who blessed the new motorway.
Ms Coffey said the road was "long overdue" but a welcome development none the less. "A good road network, linked in with a good public transport system, will be the lifeblood of continued commercial development in this area," she said.
Dublin County Council first approved a motorway around the city in 1973. Various options were examined before a scheme was presented for public inquiry in 1991. The scheme received ministerial approval the following year. However, it faced several legal challenges which delayed the start of construction until 1998.
Some 50,000 vehicles are expected to use the new motorway each day.
The development includes 21 bridges and three interchanges - at Balrothery, Scholarstown and Ballinteer. There is a pedestrian cable bridge over the motorway at Knocklyon.
Variable Message Signs have been installed on the route, giving south-bound motorists "real-time" information on traffic movements in Ballinteer. The signs are designed to alert road users to choose alternative routes in the event of delays.
The project was co-financed by the European Commission through the EU Cohesion Fund.
