Welcome for motorway and relief road news

News that the M20 Cork-Limerick motorway and the Mallow Northern Relief Road have been included in the Project Ireland 2040 National Development Plan has received a warm welcome, and there have been many calls to progress the construction as soon as possible. Commenting this week, Deputy Sean Sherlock said it was important to ensure that the new motorway goes via Mallow, and not Mitchelstown. “Mallow, Buttevant and Charleville are crying out for this motorway, as are people commuting to Limerick every day. On the question of the Northern relief Road, the deputy said he was glad to see it in the plan, but we need to see a commitment to make it a priority part of the inter-urban routes mentioned in the plan.”
Dairygold has welcomed the government’s com-mitment to improving the road link between Cork and Limerick, with CEO Jim Woulfe saying: “It is critical that there is no further delay in progressing this project. The town of Mallow is strategically well positioned, but its business growth and sustainability is being significantly inhibited by its current road network.
“As a large employer in the region through our Nutritionals Campus, Agri Operations and Co-Op Superstore in Mallow, we have lobbied the Govern-ment for many years on the critical need for improved infrastructure to enhance the town’s accessibility, connectivity and economic competitiveness.”
Mallow Development Partnership (MDP) and Mallow Chamber have also welcomed the government announce-ment, saying that among the many benefits flowing from the relief road would be an immediate dismant-ling of the current bottle-necks in the town centre and the opening up of opportunities for new investment, particularly in the agri-food sector. “Cork County Council presented a route feasibility report on the Mallow Northern Relief Road in December 2017, and the Mallow pro-ject is now at the planning, design and construction stage. We have been consistently lobbying that the first priority should be the construction of the Mallow Relief Road, given the likely timescale for the M20 which is now given in the plan as 2027, presumably the earliest date for completion. We will, therefore, be writing to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), seeking any information they may have in regard to imple-mentation, time scales etc.”