Dublin and Cork are finally linked by motorway

The massive upgrade of 250 kilometers of motorway and highway between Dublin and Cork is almost complete, linking the capital with the second largest city in the country.

Up until now the road has been divided up into sections classified as motorway standard with dual carriageways and less efficient single carriageways, which have long created bottle necks and stress for road users.

The M8, as much of the stretch will now be called, will therefore replace the N8, which was mainly a single carriageway route. The entire 250 km route has cost around €2.6 billion, or €10.4 million a kilometer.

Construction on the M8 to replace the N8 has been carried out in 9 stages from 1985 to now and the section, from Portlaoise to Cullahill, to be opened in 2010, will complete the route from Dublin’s M50 to Cork’s Dunkettle interchange.

Dublin residents can therefore expect a much shorter journey time when they venture out of the city to any of the locations along the route.

To drive its entire length, for example, will take only two hours and 45 minutes, which is a vast improvement on the over three hours it would have taken previously.

The cost has been staggering though, €2.6 billion is massive price for one motorway, and the country’s entire road expansion program, which was first announced to the Dublin and countrywide news media in 2000 by the National Roads Authority, has cost three times the initial estimates and taken four years longer to complete.

To recoup some of the staggering amount, there will be several toll gates along the new motorway.

There will be one toll gate along the Portlaoise/Cullahill/Castletown section with a charge of 90 cents for a motorbike, €1.80 for a passenger car and €5.70 for heavy goods vehicles. A second toll gate already exists on the Fermoy bypass, with charges of €1 for a motorbike, €1.90 for a passenger car and €6 for a heavy goods vehicle.

Therefore a trip down to Cork and back will cost Dubliners around €7.40 in a passenger car and €23.40 in a heavy goods vehicle.

Despite the cost, the upgrade was a necessary one for the capital, which serves as the country’s travel hub in all transportation forms, roads included.