The sod was turned in Co Tipperary this morning on the longest road project ever to be undertaken in the State.
The M8/N8 Cullahill to Cashel Road Project comprises 10.5 kilometres of motorway between Cullahill, Co Laois, and Urlingford, Co Kilkenny, and 29 kilometres of dual carriageway between Urlingford and Cashel, Co Tipperary.
It will also link the proposed Portlaoise to Cullahill motorway to the Cashel bypass.
The project is expected to be completed by Autumn 2009.
The road will bypass the villages of Johnstown, Urlingford, Turnpike, Twomileborris, Littleton, Horse-and-Jockey and Moycarkey. It will remove an estimated 13,000 vehicles daily from these villages.
At the sod turning ceremony in Cullahill today, Minister for Transport Martin Cullen said the road would "hand villages back to the local people of this area and allow them to thrive and expand in a better environment".
He said it would also help cut road deaths. "The N8 has its share, regretfully, of serious and fatal accidents", he said.
"This new road will improve on the current situation by removing most of the traffic from the existing single carriageway road - with its numerous accesses and junctions - to a new, high-quality dual carriageway/motorway standard road, which will have grade-separated junctions at four locations."