Finance sought for Gort-Tuam motorway

The National Roads Authority is to begin looking for backing for the Gort to Tuam motorway, it was announced this week.
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar, said on Tuesday the Government has approved a funding mechanism for multi-million euro road projects in Dublin and County Wicklow.
Work is set to start next year on upgrading the Newlands Cross bottleneck on the main Dublin to Cork/Limerick road, while the N11 between Arklow and Rathnew will also be upgraded to four lanes. Funding of more than €100 million will be provided under a Public Private Partnership involving a significant contribution from the European Investment Bank and Bank of Ireland, in the first such arrangement for road projects for a number of years.
Construction is to start next year on both projects and is due to be completed by 2014, at which stage the repayments will commence. Minister Varadkar said financing these projects is very welcome “at a time when PPP projects are so difficult to get off the ground”.
“It’s particularly welcome to be able to remove the last traffic light between Dundalk and Cork, on one of Ireland’s most important and busiest national routes. The construction process will also create employment for hundreds of people,” he said.
The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport confirmed the “NRA will now move on to the difficult task of trying to find financial backing for the Gort to Tuam motorway”.