Motorists in Cork and Kerry will be well aware of the bottleneck in Macroom on the N22.
The town, which is roughly halfway between Cork City and Killarney, regularly sees tailbacks at peak times, causing no small frustration for drivers.
However, work is underway on a €215 million project to build a 22km dual carriageway that will bypass Macroom, running from Coolcower in the east past Ballyvourney in the west.
It is expected that the new road will cut the journey time to under 15 minutes – currently it can take anything from 30 minutes to over an hour to cover the same distance.
Preparatory work began last year, with construction scheduled to begin in 2020. However, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) say that the start “will be brought forward to 2019 if possible”.
With construction expected to take three years, we can expect the new road to be open by 2022 at the earliest, but more likely in 2023.
The project will include:
- An online roundabout east of Macroom at Coolcower as well as five new offline roundabouts
- 18 local road bridges
- Bridges over the rivers Sullane, Laney, Foherish and Bohill, as well as a diversion of the River Owengarve
- 24 farm underpasses/overpasses
Click below for a larger version of the plan:
Lead photo by Kevin Ryan.
Plan courtesy of TII.