Limerick Southern Ring Road Phase 2

Detailed map (return to detailed project page)

Map:

This map shows the Limerick area, with the Southern Ring Road Phase 2 in red. Existing dual carriageway national primary roads are green on dark green, national primary roads in green, national secondary roads in white and green dashed, regional roads in brown, other roads in yellow. Dark grey lines are railway, teal for rivers. Light grey is the extent of conurbation in the Limerick area (roughly half is inside the Limerick City Council area).

Dots represent roundabouts (yep, Limerick has a few). The big diamond is a diamond interchange. The diamond with two dots either side is a dumbell interchange. The two sets of triangles represent "switchbacks", breaks in the median of dual carriageway allowing U-turns/right hand turns.

The red outline circles are the interchanges along the SRR phase 2.

Details on some routes pictured:

The routes shown crossing the ring road are in fact the only routes that cross it. There are no other roads out of the south side of the city. Heading west on the south bank of the Shannon, routes available out of the city are the N69, R526 and the N20 (i.e. all other roads routes bottleneck onto those routes). When SRR phase 2 is built, the interchange with the N20 will be restricted (no movement from N20 to north of the ring road). Traffic heading into the city centre from this direction (i.e. Kerry, Cork, Adare, Patrickswell, Charleville, Croom) will have to use the N69 or R526, or loop around and approach the city from the north or east.

The N69 is two lane road passing through Limerick Docklands. The centre of the road has floating traffic islands along much of its length in order to allow right turns to access businesses/local roads. The route is prone to flooding in bad weather.

The R526 (formerly the N20), providing two lanes for general traffic, passes through built up suburbs and older housing as it proceeds out of the city. It has recently been upgraded to have a bus lane for some of its length (previously an urban hard shoulder), cycles lanes, new lighting, pedestrian crossings, etc. It is a priority route for ambulance services, as the main regional hospital is located on the road. One of the larger shopping centres in Limerick, the Crescent Shopping Centre, is also located on the route.

The N20 currently passes north from the at grade roundabout with SRR phase 1, along a two lane link road to the Childers Road. Traffic proceeding to the city centre must either proceed east on the R509 and then the R511 (Roxborough Road, winds north crossing the railway lines on humped bridges), or proceed west to the junction with R526 and proceed via O'Connell Avenue (two lane boulevard through established housing) or R858 Rosbrien Road (two lane narrow road up a hill and past Limerick Barracks).

The R509 Childers Road is mostly two lane, with a multi-lane section between the R527 and R445. It is one of the main connecting routes in the city.

The R512 is the "Old Cork Road", and proceeds pretty much directly south. It is a narrow winding two lane country road with no hard shoulders.

The R511 also proceeds south, near parallel to the R512, but terminates further south, meeting the east-west R516.

The N24 is the main road east/southeast to Tipperary and Waterford.

The R445 is the former N7 through Limerick. It proceeds towards the city and then passes through King's Island to cross the River Shannon at Thomond Bridge. The route section continuing through the north of the city is titled the "Northern Relief Road" and has been upgraded to well aligned two lane road, with plenty of turning lanes at the main set of traffic lights on the route (with the R464), near Thomond Park (home of Munster Rugby). The route reaches Caherdavin Cross from the north and proceeds as a high-quality multi-lane road to the Coonagh Roundabout (meeting the N18).

The R527 is the former N24.

Project details:

The project will constitute 9.75 km of dual two lane carriageway on the mainline, and 2.3 km of dual single lane carriageway on a link road.

Four grade separated interchanges, immersed twin bore tube tunnel under the River Shannon, 11 bridges.