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Ireland, both north and south of the border, has an extensive network of roads. It is true to say that many rural roads, even in Northern Ireland, remain an 'exciting' ride. For an unforgettable example, drive from Charleville to Macroom in County Cork; all the stereotypical components are present, from road 'surface' and potholes, to junctions and vicious bends (often combined for added thrills). With the advent of the Celtic Tiger and European Union funding, most National routes in the Republic continue to be upgraded. In the 1990s the Republic went from having only a few short stretches of motorway in the country, to partly expanding the motorways on most major routes. This is part of a National Development Plan. Road construction in Northern Ireland has proceeded at a slower pace in recent years, although a number of important bypasses and upgrades to dual carriageway have recently been completed or are about to begin.

Signposts in Northern Ireland denote distances in miles, while all signposts placed in the Republic since the 1970s use kilometres (a remnant of old signposts in the Republic still displaying distance in miles are due to be replaced with signs displaying distance in kilometres in the near future). Currently miles per hour speed limits are used north of the border. Those in the Republic use kilometres per hour (km/h) introduced on January 20 2005 (see Road speed limits in the Republic of Ireland). This involved the provision of 58,000 new metric speed limit signs, replacing 35,000 imperial signs and adding 23,000 new signs. The Republic's road signs are bilingual, using both of the state's official languages, Irish and English.

Roads in the Republic of Ireland

The Republic's motorway network is focused on Dublin, and is currently being extended to other major cities as part of the National Development Plan. Dublin has also been the focus of other major projects, such as the East-Link and West-Link tool-bridges, as well as the Dublin port tunnel. Other cities and towns have however had by-pass projects, some of which are still underway or in planning as of 2004. The Jack Lynch Tunnel under the River Lee (Ireland) in Cork was another major project outside Dublin, and a fourth crossing at Limerick of the River Shannon is in planning.

Apart from roads constructed in the last decade, road surface quality on non primary Irish roads is poor by international standards. Many tourists come away with the impression that Ireland has Third World road infra-structure if they have to leave the Primary roads.

The road surface used by local councils typically consists of stone chips laid on a 6 mm or less layer of bitumen. Cracks and potholes develop easily. While these roads have good skid resistance when recently laid, this advantage is nullified since tyre-wear is twice as rapid, and turning movement by large vehicles easily tears up the surface. When freshly laid, loose chippings are a serious hazard to traffic, damaging paintwork and windows if one travels too fast or is unlucky. This type of surface has low quality course road noise characteristics and is prone to more rapid deterioration (the tar melts at the height of even the mild Irish summers).. This method is used as it has lower initial cost, however there is more overall cost due to increased maintenance. This type of surface is almost non existent outside of the British Isles (though it is used sometimes in New Zealand) and is far below the standards of, for example, continental European roads.

Motorways

In the Republic of Ireland, the most important roads are motorways indicated by the prefix "M" followed by one or two digits. The motorway network is focused on Dublin. The first motorway section in the state was the M7 Naas by-pass, which opened in 1983. As of 2005, all motorways in Ireland are part of, or form, National Primary Routes. These routes are numbered in series, using numbers from 1 to 33 (and separately from the series - 50), which apart from on motorways, carry an "N" prefix. At the end of 2004 there were 191.7 km of motorway Ireland and 285.5 km of dual-carriageway. NRA source. This was extended in 2005 to 251 km of motorway and 295 km of dual-carriageway. As of Jan 2006 24 km of new motorway is currently under construction along with 91.4 km of new dual-carriageway. In addition, 17.4 km of dual-carriageway is being reconstructed, specifically 15 km between Naas and Dublin and 2.4 km on the Cork Southern Ring road. * is not used.
Route number inheritance

In the Republic of Ireland, motorways use the route number of the national route they form part (or possibly in the future, all) of, albeit with the M prefix rather than N. In most cases, the motorway has been built as a by-pass of a road previously forming the national route (e.g. M7 by-passing roads previously forming the N7) - the by-passed roads are reclassified as Regional Roads, although updated signposting may not be provided for some time, and adherence to signage colour conventions is lax. Regional roads have black-on-white directional signage, national routes use white-on-green (with the route numbers in amber). Motorways in the Republic of Ireland have white-on-blue signage. Destinations reached by other classes of routes should be listed on a correctly coloured "patch".

The M50, an entirely new national route, is an exception to the normal inheritance process - as it does not replace a road previously carrying an "N" number. The M50 was nevertheless legislated as the "N50" route (despite having no non-motorway sections) to record this National Route number in the statute books. It was thereafter designated M50 due to the route being entirely motorway standard. The route also breaks the sequential numbering scheme, but 50 was deemed an easily recognisable number. It is referred to by the NRA in its "National Route Lengths 31/12/2004" publication as the N50, as the publication does not distinguish motorways from National Primary Routes. Instead it classifies motorways where present as the National Primary Route under an N designation, for example its states there is 14.21 km of the N1 in County Meath while also stating there is 14.21 km of motorway in Meath. The NRA have designated the M1, which indeed is 14.21 km in length in County Meath, as the N1 in the document (the road which was previously part of the N1 through Meath is only approximately 8.5 km long). As of 2005 N34 is the next unused National Primary Route designation.

List of motorways in the Republic of Ireland

Motorways not yet open are in italics. Destinations which will not be directly served by the motorways are in brackets.

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Route: Motorway section: Destinations:
M1 Outskirts of north Dublin City to north of Dundalk. Dublin–Border (Belfast)
M3 (Awaiting construction) Clonee to north of Kells. Dublin–Cavan–(Enniskillen)–Ballyshannon
M4 Lucan to Kinnegad. Dublin–Sligo
M6 Short section of N6 road with motorway restrictions at Kinnegad. (Section of Galway-Ballinasloe scheme will also have motorway restrictions) Dublin–Galway
M7 North East of Naas to west of Portlaoise (in planning to Roscrea). (Under construction Nenagh to Limerick). Dublin–Limerick/(Cork)/(Waterford)
M8 ''(In planning) Spur off M7 between Portlaoise and Roscrea, to join with N8. (17.5 km of M8 under construction from Rathcormac to Fermoy). Dublin–Cork
M9 West of Newbridge to south of Kilcullen (spur off M7). Dublin–Waterford
M11 Bray/Shankill bypass. Dublin–Wexford
M50 Entire route. Dublin ring road

NOTE: The new N2 Finglas to Ashbourne dual carriageway which was officially opened on May 25th 2006 has been built to motorway standards though is officially only recognised as the N2. This road has become Irelands first non-motorway road to command a motorway speed limit of 120 km/h under approved special speed limit bye laws drafted by Meath and Fingal County Councils under the Road Traffic Act 2004.

National Primary Routes

This category of road has the prefix "N" followed by one or two digits. The most important routes are numbered N1-N11 ( radiate anti-clockwise from Dublin), with those in the range N12-N33 being cross-country roads. National Secondary Routes (see next section) are numbered under the same scheme with higher numbers. On road signage, destinations served but not on the route in question are listed in brackets, with the connecting route also listed.

Northern Ireland route sections (which are classified separately according to NI schemes) are in some cases included in a theoretical complete cross-border route – for example the N3 route, which re-enters the Republic. These are listed here in brackets for completeness (and are present on southern road signage).

This list ignores the sections of route reclassified as motorway (see previous section).

N1 Dublin - Dundalk - (A1 to Belfast)
N2 Dublin - Monaghan - (A5 to Omagh - Derry)
N3 Dublin - Cavan - (A509 - Enniskillen - A46) - Ballyshannon
N4 Dublin - Sligo
N5 (N4 from Dublin) - Longford - Westport
N6 (N4 from Dublin) - Kinnegad - Galway
N7 Dublin - Limerick
N8 (N7 from Dublin) - Portlaoise - Cork
N9 (N7 from Dublin) - Kilcullen - Carlow - Waterford
N10 (N9 from Dublin) - Paulstown - Kilkenny - Ballyhale - (N9 to Waterford)
N11 Dublin - Wexford
N12 Monaghan - (A3 to Belfast)
N13 (N15 from Sligo) - Stranorlar - Letterkenny - (A2 to Derry, A6, M22, M2 to Belfast)
N14 Letterkenny - Lifford - (A5 to Strabane)
N15 Sligo - Donegal - Lifford - (B72, A5 to Derry)
N16 Sligo - (A4 to Enniskillen, A4, M1 to Belfast)
N17 Galway - Claremorris - Collooney - (N4 to Sligo)
N18 (N4, N17 from Sligo) - Claregalway - (N6 from Galway) Oranmore - Ennis - Limerick
N19 (N18 from Limerick/Ennis) - Shannon Town - Shannon International Airport
N20 Limerick - Cork
N21 Limerick - Castleisland - Tralee
N22 Cork - Killarney - Farranfore - Tralee
N23 (N21 from Limerick) - Castleisland - Farranfore - (N22 to Killarney)
N24 Limerick - Waterford
N25 Cork - Waterford - Rosslare Europort
N26 (N4, N5 from Dublin) - Swinford - Ballina
N27 Cork city centre - Cork International Airport
N28 Cork - Ringaskiddy
N29 (Spur off N25 east of Waterford to Belview Port)
N30 (N25 from Cork, Waterford near New Ross) - Enniscorthy - (N11 to Dublin)
N31 (Spur off N11 at Dublin to Dún Laoghaire)
N32 (Continuation of M50 to Malahide Road)
N33 (Spur off M1 to Ardee)
(N50) Dublin ring-road. Only exists as the M50, but route set out in legislation as a primary (N) route. *

Other roads

While funding for National Primary roads is administered centrally by the National Roads Authority (NRA), regional and local roads are less well funded (although funding has increased in the 2000s). Local councils are responsible for these roads, as opposed to the NRA.

National Secondary Routes are also indicated with a "N" prefix, though the number is higher (routes N51 and higher are secondary routes). Typically these roads are of a similar standard or higher than regional roads, many having been properly resurfaced in recent years (so a smooth surface despite many narrow winding sections). Some are of lower quality than the better Regional roads, due to the localised funding for such routes.

Examples of National Secondary roads are:

N62 Athlone - Horse and Jockey
N69 Limerick - Tralee (Coast road via Foynes)
N71 Cork - Killarney via West Cork
N72 Killorglin - Killarney - Waterford
N81 Dublin - Tullow
N82 Clondalkin, South Dublin to N81 road (via Citywest).
N85 Ennis - Ennistimon
N86 Tralee - Dingle

Regional Roads are indicated with an "R" prefix and a three-digit number, ranging from R1xx in the north-east to R7xx in the south-east of the country. One of the more important regional roads is the R113 (Belgard) road, which forms a dual carriageway between the N7 and N81 roads. Most regional roads are however regular highways, and most are rather narrow country roads.

Other roads are not generally referred to by number, but are registered with a four-digit "L" number, taking the form Lxxxx. It is rare to see these numbers on signposts or Ordnance Survey maps.

Old system

Some old road signs will still carry the previous classifications, "T" for trunk road, or "L" for link road. Trunk roads were broadly equivliant to the present national roads, and link roads to the present regional roads. However there were some differences. Most notably, the present N5 was not designated as one of the major arteries under the trunk/link system.

Former major trunk routes:

T1 = present N1 road
T2 = present N2 road
T3 = present N4 road
T4 = present N6 road
T5 = present N7 road
T6 = Dublin - Cork (including parts of present N9 road and N8 road)
T7 = Dublin - Waterford (including most of present N11 road)
T35 = present N3 road

Unlike the present system, where each road (whether N- or R-) has a unique number, under the trunk/link system, the L-roads were numbered separately beginning with L1. These L classifications are not related to the current Lxxxx numbers for minor roads.

Roads in Northern Ireland

The main roads in the north, which connect well with those in the south, are classified "M"/"A"/"B" as in Great Britain, though their numbering is separate from the British system.

Motorways

The most important roads are motorways, designated as in the Republic and Great Britain by the letter "M". The motorway network is focused on Belfast.

M1 Belfast - Dungannon
M2 Belfast - Antrim, plus unconnected Ballymena bypass further to the north
M3 The Lagan Bridge in Belfast
M5 A short spur from the M2 at Greencastle in north Belfast to Hazelbank in Whiteabbey
M12 A short spur from the M1 to the centre of Portadown
M22 Antrim - Randalstown
A8(M) Part of the A8 which has been upgraded to a motorway

"A" roads

The next most important roads are designated with the prefix "A" and a one-, two- or three-digit number. These are:

A1 Belfast - Lisburn - Banbridge - Newry - becoming the N1 at the border and continuing to Dundalk and Dublin
A2 Derry - Newry coastal road
A3 Lisburn - Portadown - Armagh - Middletown joining the N12 at the border which extends to Monaghan. Also used for the part of the Monaghan - Cavan road which is in Northern Ireland.
A4 Portadown - Dungannon - Clogher Valley - Enniskillen - Belcoo joining the N16 at the border which extends to Sligo
A5 Derry - Strabane - Omagh - Ballygawley joining the N2 at the border which extends to Monaghan and Dublin
A6 Belfast - Derry
A7 Carryduff - Downpatrick
A8 Belfast - Larne
A11 Belfast Inner Ring Road
A12 Westlink dual-carriageway in Belfast
A20 Belfast - Newtownards - Portaferry
A21 Bangor - Newtownards - Comber - Ballygowan - Saintfield - A24 north of Ballynahinch
A22 Dundonald - Comber - Killyleagh - Downpatrick
A23 Belfast - Ballygowan
A24 Belfast - Carryduff - Ballynahinch - Dundrum where it meets the A2 for Newcastle and Kilkeel
A25 Downpatrick - Castlewellan - Newry - South Armagh - becoming the R182 for Castleblayney at the border
A26 Banbridge - Lurgan - Crumlin - Antrim - Ballymena - Ballymoney - Coleraine
A27 Newry - Tandragee - Portadown
A28 Newry - Markethill - Armagh - Aughnacloy - Augher
A29 Portrush - Coleraine - Maghera - Cookstown - Dungannon - Armagh - Keady - South Armagh where it becomes the R177 for Dundalk
A30 Lisburn - Glenavy
A31 Moneymore - Castledawson
A32 Omagh - Irvinestown - Enniskillen - becoming the N87 towards Ballinamore at the border
A34 Maguiresbridge - Lisnaskea - Newtownbutler to the border at Clones
A35 Irvinestown - Kesh - Pettigo - becoming the R234 towards Donegal town at the border
A36 Ballymena - Larne
A37 (North) Coleraine - Limavady
A37 (South) A short stretch of road around Cullaville - that part of the N53 Castleblayney to Dundalk road which is within Northern Ireland
A40 From Derry City Centre southwest along the River Foyle to the border, where it becomes the R236 towards Raphoe
A42 Maghera - Portglenone - Ballymena - Carnlough
A43 Ballymena - Glenarriff
A44 Ballycastle - Armoy - A26 north of Clough Mills
A46 Enniskillen - Belleek - becoming the N3 towards Ballyshannon at the border
A47 Kesh - Belleek
A48 Newtownards - Donghadee
A49 Lisburn - Ballynahinch
A50 Portadown - Banbridge - Castlewellan - Newcastle
A51 Gilford - Tandragee - Armagh
A52 Belfast - Crumlin
A54 Castledawson - Portglenone - Kilrea - Coleraine
A55 Belfast Outer Ring Road
A57 Belfast International Airport - Templepatrick - Ballyclare - Ballynure
A501 Belfast - A30 just east of Glenavy
A505 Omagh - Cookstown
A509 Enniskillen - Derrylin becoming the N3 to Cavan and Dublin at the border
A514 Derry Ring Road (South)
A515 Derry Ring Road (North)

"B" roads

Less important roads are indicated with the prefix "B" and a one-, two- or three- digit number.

"C" roads

Minor roads can be indicated with the prefix "C" and a one-, two- or three- digit number, though it is very rare to see these marked on signposts or Ordnance Survey maps

Euro Routes

The following Euro Routes include sections in Ireland:

See also

References

External links

Transport in Ireland | Lists of roads | Roads in Ireland | Roads in Northern Ireland | Straßensystem in Irland | Liste des autoroutes irlandaises | Bóithre agus mótarbhealaí in Éirinn

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Roads in Ireland".

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