Roads in Ireland

Both the road system in Ireland and the Northern Ireland is very comprehensive. Historically, Northern Ireland's roads have a better quality, even if the renewal of the routes in the Republic of Ireland, the differences can be smaller. Some roads on the island have a relatively poor road surfaces, potholes and secluded intersections and curves.

Were a result of the support of the European Union and most of the Irish national roads will be reconstructed. Even before 1990 there were in the Republic of Ireland only a single highway - now Ireland's largest cities are connected to the motorway network.

While in Northern Ireland, all distances are indicated on street signs in miles, all distances and speed limits on kilometer data are converted in the Republic since 2005.

Overview

The motorways in Ireland are mainly concentrated on the area around Dublin. Even the largest construction projects such as the East -Link and West -Link bridge or the Dublin Port Tunnel are mostly limited to the capital. The exceptions are the Jack Lynch Tunnel under the River River Lee in Cork, and the planned fourth bridge over the River Shannon in Limerick. However, almost all major cities were in Ireland bypasses, which significantly reduced the downtown traffic.

Highways

The main roads in Ireland are the few highways ( motorways English, Irish mótarbhealaí ). They are identified by the letter M followed by a maximum of two -digit number, such as M1 or M50. In addition to the highways around Dublin there are still some highway -like cuts that are seamlessly integrated into the national roads, so the number of national road these highways is usually still attached.

The following freeways, there are (as of January 2011) in Ireland. Places in parentheses are not directly connected to the road, they give only the direction. Information concerning the principal places refer only to the real highway sections, not on the national roads.

The M50 motorway

The M50 motorway ( mótarbhealach M50, M50 ) is a 40 km long, C -shaped ring road that spans Dublin's west side. The road starts in the north - east with a connection to the M1 motorway, which runs north to Belfast ( Northern Ireland). Between the two concrete bridges (385 m long) at the ' West -Link ' was until mid-2008, a toll station. Meanwhile this by a fully automatic electronic free-flow toll system ( e -flow) has been replaced, creating a significant source storage could be eliminated. Here are for a car 3,00 Euro (as of 01 /2011) to be paid.

The southern end is located at the connection to the N11/M11 towards Wexford. The discovery of a medieval ruin near Carrickmines Castle delayed after a court order completion.

Each national road which runs from Dublin, has a driveway to the M50, which usually takes the form of a roundabout (over or under the roadway ). Furthermore, important suburbs are still connected (eg Ballymun, Tallaght, Dundrum or Sandyford ) with own driveways by the M50. The complete range of M50 has a very high volume of traffic, so it can just get to congestion at the entrance and exit ramps. In the original build state had the main driveways therefore electronically controlled traffic lights, the mile-long lines of cars produced just at rush hour, such as the ' Red Cow Roundabout ' to the National Road N7 - jokingly called 'Mad Cow Roundabout '.

The M50 motorway was originally a mostly four-lane highway. Between 2006 and 2010, however, the route from the M1 to Sandyford (total length 31 km) has been expanded to six lanes. In addition, the majority of roundabouts has been removed, which allowed removal of the traffic lights.

The road begins as National Road N32 on the Malahide Road in Dublin. It becomes the M50 at the third driveway which is also the third ascent of the M1 motorway. The following approaches and departures are available on the M50 ( north to south ):

There is no eighth driveway - this was originally reserved for an extension of the M7 motorway between Lucan and Clondalkin. However, it is unlikely that this distance is realized. Since 30 June 2005, the M50 around Dublin is built, so that you can completely around Dublin in the west.

Ostumgehung

There are also plans to take an eastern bypass of Dublin in attack. This proposal is controversial, however, because this would require a tunnel from under the beach Ringsend Sandymount to (or even by ) Booterstown Marsh bird sanctuary to be built. The Dublin Port Tunnel is the northern part of the eastern bypass. It was opened on 20 December 2006 and is free of charge for buses and trucks. The estimated 450 million euros with original project cost ultimately to 750 million euros. The 4.5km-long tunnel to truck stay out of the downtown area, vehicles with more than 4.65 meters in height but do not fit into the tunnel and have to drive on the East Wall Road. The eastern bypass is to unite with the M50 again at Sandyford - the necessary site for the interchange was already taken into account in the planning of the western M50 and the route of the western M50 to N11 at Booterstown was kept in the zoning plan.

National roads

The national roads (national primary roads, príomhbhóithre náisiúnta ) have the N prefix, followed by a maximum of two -digit number, such as N1 or N67. The main national roads have names N1 to N11 (anti-clockwise from Dublin numbered). Other major national roads have currently (as of 2005), the numbers N12 to N33.

Highways

Highways (national secondary roads bóithre, náisiúnta the dara degrees) have numbers beyond N50. An exception is only the ring road around Dublin that bears next to the name M50 also the name N50.

Highways

Roads (regional roads, bóithre réigiúnacha ) begin with the letter R. The numbering is from R1 ( in the northeast ) to R7xx ( in the southeast of Ireland ). The range of these roads ranges from two-lane roadways with median strip to almost single-lane roads. All other " roads " are usually not marked with a number; officially these roads are registered with the letter L and the four digits. Some old streets still have the old names, with a T (trunk road, mórbhóthar ) or L (link road, bóthar ceangail ) begin.