Atlantic Corridor

Proposed road project in Ireland

The Atlantic corridor^[1] or Atlantic motorway^[2] is a proposed road project in Ireland. The scheme, announced in 2005, was intended to link Waterford in the South-East to Letterkenny in the North-West via motorway or dual carriageway by 2015.^[3] However, in part due to the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, major sections of the roadway were delayed or cancelled.

The Atlantic Corridor, when combined with the inter-urban motorways linking Dublin and the other cities, is intended to ring the island of Ireland and to connect primary population centres.^{[citation needed]}

National primary roads

The constituent national primary routes, included in the 2007 plan, included:

N15 linking Letterkenny and Sligo
N17 linking Sligo and Galway
N18 linking Galway, Ennis and Limerick (including the Limerick Tunnel project)
N20 linking Limerick and Cork
N25 linking Cork and Waterford

Progress

As of 2018, over 100 km (62 mi) of the route was completed motorway or dual carriageway.^{[citation needed]} At that time, the next construction planned was the M20 from Cork to Limerick, which was allocated €850 million in government funds under the National Development Plan 2018-2027 capital scheme. The M20, which was "progressed through planning and design phases" as of 2010,^[4] is proposed to link with the planned Cork northern ring road, also forming part of the Atlantic Corridor route, connecting the planned Cork to Limerick motorway with the partially completed Cork-Waterford N25 dual carriageway.^{[citation needed]}

Completed sections

N4 Colloney to Sligo
N15 Ballyshannon/Bundoran bypass
N4 Sligo inner relief road
N17 Tuam bypass
M17 Galway to Tuam
M18 Limerick to Galway
M20 Limerick to Patrickswell
N20 Blarney to Cork
N25 Waterford City Bypass
N25 Cork to Midleton

Proposed developments

N25 Carrigtwohill to Midleton road - construction rescheduled^{[citation needed]}
M20 Patrickswell to Blarney - planning stage (as of 2020)^[5]

References

^ "Atlantic Corridor". transport21.ie. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008.
^ "No toilet stop provided on 101km 'Atlantic motorway'". irishtimes.com. Irish Times. 5 October 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
^ Brian McDonald. "Atlantic Corridor roads plan starts three years early", Irish Independent, 26 January 2007.
^ "Need for N20 Cork-Limerick road upgrade identified in 1998". irishtimes.com. Irish Times. 30 March 2022. Retrieved 6 June 2022. The N/M20 Cork to Limerick Motorway Scheme, which was to form part of the government's Atlantic Corridor strategy to link Letterkenny to Waterford, was progressed through planning and design phases and the scheme was submitted to An Bord Pleanála in 2010
^ "Preferred route for new Limerick to Cork road revealed". rte.ie. RTÉ News. 30 March 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2022.