The N20 road is a

national primary road 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 ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, connecting the cities of

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

and

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2 ...

. Buttevant,

Croom Croom () is a village in County Limerick, Ireland. It is located just off the N20 (which has bypassed the town since 2001) on the River Maigue. It is 8 km southeast of Adare on the N20. History Cromadh (now Croom) was a village in t ...

, Charleville, Mallow and

Blarney Blarney () is a suburban town within the administrative area of Cork City in Ireland. It is located approximately north-west of the city centre. It is the site of Blarney Castle, home of the legendary Blarney Stone. Blarney is part of the Dáil ...

are major towns along the route. A short section of the route (from

to Patrickswell) is motorway standard and is designated as the M20 Motorway.

Route

M20 Rosbrien Interchange (Limerick) to Patrickswell

The route starts at junction 1 at the Rosbrien interchange (south of Limerick city) where it connects to the M7 and the N18 which together form the Limerick Southern Ring Road. The route continues from this interchange as

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

. This route was redesignated as motorway in August 2009. The route bypasses Dooradoyle and Raheen, through which the old N20 route used to run until the early 2000s. Interchanges and link roads connect to these locations. Two further interchanges are located on the motorway, at either end of Patrickswell. At the latter, the N20 route leaves the main road (which continues as the N21 to

Tralee Tralee ( ; ga, Trá Lí, ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the Lee River') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in Count ...

), so one must diverge from the motorway to stay on the N20. The former route of the N20 before the M20 opened is now classified as the R526.

N20 Patrickswell to Cork City

A wide two lane road brings traffic along the Croom bypass (prior to the opening of this bypass at a cost of €20 million on 12 July 2001, the route went through the town). Past this new section of road, narrow two-lane road commences, ending at Charleville. The route passes through the town, running along Main Street. The road between Charleville and Buttevant is of similar design. At Mallow a relatively high specification road is encountered, with an older bypass of the town (early 1990s) passing up the hill from it as

dual carriageway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

. A viaduct brings the road across the

Blackwater River A blackwater river is a type of river with a slow-moving channel flowing through forested swamps or wetlands. As vegetation decays, tannins leach into the water, making a transparent, acidic water that is darkly stained, resembling black tea ...

and Valley. The rest of the route to Cork is of high quality wide two lane, with a section of

2+1 road 2+1 road is a specific category of three-lane road, consisting of two lanes in one direction and one lane in the other, alternating every few kilometres, and usually separated with a steel cable barrier. The second lane allows faster-moving ...

(a pilot installation) south of Mallow. The route becomes dual carriageway on the approach to Cork. Junctions on this dual carriageway section are not numbered. New relief roads in Cork bring the route into the city centre while avoiding the winding streets through which the route ran until around 2000. The route terminates at the city center with two lanes going in each direction. The N20 also gives access to the Blackpool Shopping Center.

M20 motorway

Under the government's cancelled Transport 21 initiative, the Atlantic Corridor road project aimed to link Letterkenny to

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

via

and

with high quality roadway. A major part of this proposal involved the potential upgrading of the N20 route between Cork and Limerick. It was proposed to upgrade or replace the entire N20 with a new M20 motorway, approximately in length, with up to eight newly constructed junctions or re-configured junctions. It was to be constructed in two stages: a southern section and a northern section. It was hoped that this project would be progressed as a PPP scheme. The first segment of M20 motorway came into existence on 28 August 2009 following the approval by the Minister for Transport to redesignate a of existing N20 dual-carriageway between Rossbrien and Attyflin as motorway. On 10 November 2011, owing to funding issues caused by the Irish financial crisis, the government announced that the planned completion of the M20 motorway was to be "shelved". By 2013, the National Roads Authority carried out an upgrade of signage along the N20, fueling speculation that it would be some time before plans for the proposed M20 were revisited. In October 2017, then

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the of ...

Leo Varadkar Leo Eric Varadkar ( ; born 18 January 1979) is an Irish politician who has served as Taoiseach since December 2022, and previously from 2017 to 2020. He served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to D ...

stated that the motorway project would be a "priority". By late 2021, it was reported that there would not be a decision on a preferred route until at least early 2022. The preferred M20 route was published in March 2022, with the projected €1.5 billion project dated to "2030 or beyond".

Junctions

References

External links

Roads Act 1993 (Classification of National Roads) Order 2006
–

Department of Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

Mallow to Croom schemeM20 Cork to Limerick Motorway Scheme Public Consultation Brochure
{{Roads in Ireland 20 Roads in County Limerick Roads in County Cork