National Primary Routes 61 and 80

It is difficult to make cross country trips in Ireland that don't involve Dublin in some way, as the road network is radial. Two very useful and complementary routes forming an X would involve a northeast-southwest dual carriageway, and a northwest-southeast route. The northwest-southeast route currently consists of the N61 and the N80.

The northern (N61) part would only be single carriageway and was slated to be improved to the required standard between Boyle at the N4 and Athlone at the M6 until the scheme was suspended in the spending review of 2010. Following the M6 for several kilometres, then dipping down to Tullamore, the N80 single carriageway would start southeast of the town and continue to the southeast of the island, passing Portlaoise and the M7, and Carlow and the M9, before finishing up at Enniscorthy and the future M11.

This new N80 route would have three notable features. The first two would be dual carriageway sections bypassing the large towns of Portlaoise and Carlow, and the third a deviation at the N80/N81 junction. (Other changes proposed for the N81 are discussed elsewhere.) The Portlaoise dual carriageway would begin at Mountmellick, bypass Portlaoise to the east, intersect the M7 at junction 16, and finish west of Stradbally. The Carlow dual carriageway would form a western bypass of the town before terminating at junction 5 of the M9.

The final feature is a deviation that reconfigures the N80 at the point where it intersects the N81 road (Dublin-Tullow via Blessington). The N80 would be rerouted to run directly east from the M9 to pass immediately to the south of Tullow, before following the alignment of the current N81 south and resuming an easterly routing along the N80 as far as Enniscorthy. This deviation is intended to reduce the length of new road to be provided and to enhance Tullow's access to the N80.

Due to the lack of a definite need for any of these schemes in the next decade or two, it is unlikely that a major rebuild of the N80 will take place before 2030. The N61 improvements may happen sooner if the suspended Athlone-Boyle scheme is ever reactivated.

Wiki-pedia pages on these roads