This Wednesday’s opening of the M18 Gort to Tuam motorway has been welcomed by Councillor Tom McNamara, Mayor of Clare.
Mayor McNamara said the motorway is “a vitally important infrastructure project that will bring a range of significant benefits for the regional economy and for communities along the route that are currently experiencing traffic congestion. It also will create immediate benefits, especially for drivers of commercial and heavy vehicles.”
“There are clear benefits for Shannon Airport which will be easily accessible to customers along the western seaboard while the improved connectivity will make the West of Ireland a more competitive location for foreign direct investment,” he said.
Shannon Group and Shannon Airport have stated that the opening of the M18 Gort to Tuam motorway is “an unprecedented opportunity to advance the case of a western economic corridor”.
Shannon Airport managing director Andrew Murphy said that this final link in a seamless motorway/dual carriageway chain from Tuam to Galway, Ennis, Shannon, and onto Limerick redoubles the potential of the region to be marketed for inward investment and tourism.
Mr Murphy said that all stakeholders along this Atlantic corridor must come together now and look at how they can collectively promote the region for the benefit of all.
“This is much more than the opening of a segment of a motorway; it is huge stimulus for advancing the economy of this region. Up until now, the absence of continuous motorway right up to Tuam was an impediment in creating the collective that we now have at our disposal,” he said.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.