ANOTHER 20 minutes will be cut from the journey time between Galway and Limerick with the opening of the Gort to Crusheen dual carriageway tomorrow.
The €209 million, 22km (13.7 mile) road will run from north of Gort, Co Galway, to the Ennis bypass in Co Clare.
The new road runs west of the existing N18. It bypasses Gort, one of the most significant traffic bottlenecks in the midwest.
The National Roads Authority said the existing N18 in the area was sub-standard.
The scheme forms part of the Atlantic road corridor and the Trans-European road network.
The roads authority said the expected annual average daily traffic on the route would be 8,000 vehicles – about 70 per cent of the 11,000 vehicles on the existing route.
The road will also improve access between Galway and Shannon Airport, offering dual carriageway all the way from Gort to the airport.
It also offers dual carriageway from Gort to Limerick, with connections via the M7 to Dublin.
A further stretch of dual carriageway linking Gort to Tuam in Co Galway will go to construction early next year. This road will link with the M6 Dublin to Galway motorway near Craughwell, south of Athenry.
Construction of the Gort to Crusheen dual carriageway began in October 2008 and contractor SIAC Wills JV completed the road nine months ahead of schedule.
The Gort to Tuam road, which is expected to go to construction next year, is one of a small number of new road projects for which construction will be approved in 2011.
The proposed road is being provided under a public-private partnership scheme, although a roads authority spokesman said there were no plans for tolls on the road.
The Gort to Crusheen project was funded by the exchequer under the National Development Plan and Transport 21 and by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund.
