Business and community interests in cities and towns on the motorway network should prepare now for new economic opportunities when the roads system is completed in 2010, according to the National Roads Authority (NRA).
Businessman and NRA chairman Peter Malone told a Chambers Ireland conference on local economic development that business leaders who failed to have a vision for the future and capitalise on the new road infrastructure risked being left behind.
After years of construction, the major routes connecting Dublin with Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford would be finished by 2010, Mr Malone said.
This follows the completion last summer of the Border route, which connects Dublin with Newry.
"By 2010 we will have the interurban routes finished and that's definite," Mr Malone said.
"When the network is finished, people will say 'oh my God, we didn't realise it was going to be like this'. People mustn't wait for the [construction] to finish to start thinking ahead and start planning what is going to happen. They must do it now."
Mr Malone said that forward-thinking communities would reap huge benefits when, for example, the travelling time between Dublin and Cork fell to 2¼ hours.
"The country's road network will be vastly different from today," he said. "Those who do not capitalise on this resource will be left at an economic disadvantage."
