A 2+2 road is a specific type of dual-carriageway that exists primarily in Ireland, Sweden, Estonia and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, consisting of two lanes in each direction separated by a steel

cable barrier A cable barrier, sometimes referred to as guard cable or wire rope safety barrier (WRSB), is a type of roadside or median safety traffic barrier/guard rail. It consists of steel wire ropes mounted on weak posts. As is the case with any roadside b ...

. These roads do not have

hard shoulder A shoulder, hard shoulder (British) or breakdown lane, is an emergency stopping lane by the verge of a road or motorway, on the right side in countries which drive on the right, and on the left side in countries which drive on the left. Many wide ...

s and therefore cannot be designated as motorways in the future. However, they may be designated as limited-access roads, as such roads do not require the physical standard of motorways to be designated as expressways. The Irish variant has lanes where there are a number of Swedish variants some with lanes. Junctions are generally at-grade roundabouts and minor roads cross under or over the mainline without connecting. They are also known as "type 2 dual-carriageways" by the Irish

National Roads Authority The National Roads Authority (NRA) ( ga, An tÚdarás um Bóithre Náisiúnta) was a state body in Ireland, responsible for the national road network. The NRA was established as part of the Roads Act 1993 and commenced operations on 23 December ...

. These roads look similar to expressways, except that expressways often have interchanges, large medians or concrete barriers between traffic.

History

First Irish 2+2

In Ireland first purpose-built road of this type opened in December 2007 as a new greenfield section of the N4

national primary route A national primary road ( ga, Bóthar príomha náisiúnta) is a road classification in Ireland. National primary roads form the major routes between the major urban centres. There are 2649 km of national primary roads. This category of ro ...

which joins

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

to Sligo.

References

{{Road types Road surface markings

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Roads in Sweden Types of roads

History

First Irish 2+2

See also

References