Concern for Cork's North Ring Road following exclusion from Department of Transport map

THE non-inclusion of the long-awaited Cork North Ring Road project on an interactive map launched in recent days by Public Expenditure Minister Pascal Donohue has prompted concern from politicians on Cork’s north side about the future of the project. 

This concern will have been added to by the admission in a Department of Transport response to a query from The Echo indicating that while the project would be kept ‘under review’, there would be no funding allocation for the project during 2024. 

The project has been described as vital to ease traffic congestion and future economic development in the city.

The Department said, in its response, that the project was ‘part of the National Development Plan’ and ‘at an early stage of the development life cycle’.

“The Government has earmarked €5.1bn for capital spending on new national roads projects from 2021 to 2030 as part of the NDP, with the greater portion of this funding becoming available in the second half of the decade,” the Department said in a statement.

“It was not possible to provide an allocation to this project in 2024.

“However, as with all national roads projects in the NDP, the delivery programme for the Cork Northern Transport Project will be kept under review in future years and considered in terms of the overall funding envelope available to TII.” 

The Project Ireland 2040 interactive map has been described as a tool to allow people to check on progress on various projects that form part of the overall Ireland 2040 plan. 

The omission of the Cork North Ring Road from the map was what prompted The Echo to investigate further the status of the project.

The Cork North Transportation Project – or the Cork North Ring Road project - envisages a 20km road connecting the N40 near Ballincollig with the N20 and onto the N8 north of Glanmire. 

It would take a significant proportion of heavy goods traffic out of Cork city entirely and ease traffic congestion on the north side of the city considerably. 

According to an estimate produced by Transport Infrastructure Ireland in 2022, failure to progress the project would result in 18 road deaths.

A query to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform about the status of the project yielded the following response.

“The NDP 2021-30 refers to the Cork City Northern Transport Project (formerly called the Cork North Ring Road) which is a complementary project to the N/M20 Cork to Limerick project and is part of the Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy.

“To my knowledge, this road has never been listed on either the tracker or map published on gov.ie/2040 – this may because it’s at an early stage of development,” a spokesman for the Department said. 

“The project is still listed as being at “an early planning stage” on the TII website.” 

The spokesman for the Department also said that the data on the tracker and map had been supplied by different departments, with the detail regarding the Cork Northern Transport Project being provided by the Department of Transport. 

Fine Gael councillor in Cork City North West, Damien Boylan, noted that route selection for this hasn’t been done, but said that route selection for the Northern Distributor Road, which was the smaller of two roads, had been done or was to be done at an early stage.

“That’s good, that's the road that’s going to go up through Nash’s Boreen and hopefully that’s going to help towns like Kerry Pike, Clogheen and Blarney lose some of the gridlock they have.

“The bigger road, if that’s not going to be delivered at some stage, the quality of life in this neck of the woods is going to be terrible.” 

Mr. Boylan said an allocation of €100,000 to the project in 2023 had been a case of an allocation to ‘keep the lights on’. 

“If something’s listed on the tracker, there’s an intention to deliver it, whether it’s delivered or not is another thing, the lack of it is concerning, absolutely.” 

According to Cork North Central Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould, the omission of the Northern Transport Project was a ‘delaying tactic’.

“The Northside and Cork need this road now not in ten or fifteen years and that’s the timescale we are looking at with these comments,” he said.

Among the projects included in the tracker are the Macroom – Baile Mhúirne N22 bypass, which is complete apart from finishing works, the N28 Cork to Ringaskiddy upgrade which is scheduled for completion in 2028 and the M20 Cork to Limerick upgrade with a completion date described as ‘subject to appraisal’.

The Mallow Relief Road is also included and has a completion date of 2027, according to the interactive map.