Work has begun on a €34.6 million interchange on the N11 at Kilpedder, Co Wicklow.
The interchange will include an underpass of the N11 and the reorganisation of roads in the area to separate local traffic from the Dublin-Rosslare national corridor.
The interchange will also replace a temporary link between the N11 and a dual-carriageway bypass of Delgany village.
Work on the scheme was to have started more than two years ago but was delayed by the National Roads Authority because of uncertainty about ground conditions.
Speaking at the start of the construction phase yesterday, Wicklow County Council chairman Joe Behan described the interchange as being of "monumental importance" to the wider north Wicklow area, improving access to the villages of Greystones, Kilcoole and Kilpedder as well as to the bypass of Delgany village.
It was the "final link in a chain of projects" and would incorporate a slip-road to Willow Grove and the creation of two-way traffic under the nearby Barry's bridge, replacing the current one-way system.
Speaking after he turned the sod on the scheme yesterday, Minister for the Environment and Wicklow TD Dick Roche said that the interchange would remove the last obstacle to the Industrial Development Authority developing its office park at Charlesland on the outskirts of Greystones.
Mr Roche said that once the interchange was completed in early 2008 a traffic-management scheme would be put in place to compel heavy vehicles to avoid the village of Delgany.
While there was an effective bypass of Delgany, the situation at present meant that many lorries travelling to construction sites in the Charlesland and Greystones area were continuing to negotiate the winding road through Delgany.
"As it stands, there are heritage properties in Delgany which are literally being shaken apart by lorries. That has to stop," Mr Roche said.
The Wicklow county manager, Eddie Sheehy, referred to the provision of new footpaths, a footbridge and a number of cycle routes from the interchange and along the Delgany bypass.
It was also pointed out by Wicklow County Council that construction of the bypass at Gorey on the Wexford border, which will form a link with the Arklow bypass, was scheduled to be completed by November of next year.
