New road parallel to village proposed to alleviate traffic from Limerick to Cork motorway

AN ADDITIONAL road could be built alongside Patrickswell as part of the M20 project in order to keep traffic out of the village.

This was on of four options presented by designers of the Limerick to Cork motorway in response to fears by councillors that the new €1bn link could lead to a surge in vehicles into Patrickswell.

The latest route design of the M20 road - published earlier this summer - sparked concerns among people in Patrickswell, given that access to the road will be restricted near the village.

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It was intended that junction five (on the current M20) at Attyflin would be closed off.

This would have meant drivers heading towards Attyflin, Killeen and their surrounds would have needed to exit the motorway at junction four and drive through the village.

However, at a special council meeting this week, Jari Howard, the co-ordinator of the M20 project, outlined the measures his team are examining in order to tackle this problem.

The most ambitious is the creation of a link road connecting the two kilometres between the junction at Limerick Racecourse and Attyflin, on the western side of the village.

It’s been acknowledged this connector road may potentially travel through historic demesnes and farmland, potentially making acquisition more complicated.

Mr Howard also outlined the three other options.

One involves keeping the existing M20 exit at Attyflin, rather than closing it.

A second would see a second exit at Attyflin junction to replicate what is there already on the opposite side of the road.

These two options could be deployed together, Mr Howard has said.

And a third option involves the addition of an eastbound exit on the left-hand side of the Attyflin junction, giving drivers a way to head back to Limerick city.

At the special meeting, councillors in the City West area largely backed the idea of a parallel road, as outlined in the first option.

But Mr Howard said all four options are currently being assessed - and all of these carry their own drawbacks, which will need to be investigated.