National Primary Route 20

The N20 connects Ireland's second largest city with its third largest - Cork to Limerick. It suffers the unfortunate distinction of being, along with the N18 and the N9, the national primary route serving a city that is in most need of urgent attention.

The road starts on the quaysides of the River Lee in Cork City, following city streets out of the city. An urban bypass of the suburb of Blackpool opened in April 2001, linking to the dual carriageway that runs as far as Blarney with its much-kissed stone. From here, a 2+1 road, a rare sight in Ireland, takes the motorist as far as Mallow, which is not, incidentally, located in a marsh.

The upgrade of this section of the route will mainly consist of widening the existing road, since it is already up to a high standard. In fact, traffic is still sparse along here even today, though this could be said to be due to the poor standard of the route further north which discourages journeys by road.

Sadly the existing route goes steeply downhill in quality after this. Mile after mile follows of poor quality, winding road which could only be described as a country lane. This goes on for nearly 40 kilometres, passing through a bona fide chicane at Buttevant, the scattered town of Charleville, and countless small villages with bizarre names like Lackanalooha, Imphrick, Shinanagh, Knockaunavoddig and Newtwopothouse. The motorway replacement will be like stepping directly from the 19th to the 21st centuries.

Finally, the Croom bypass is reached. In 2001 a grade-separated single carriageway road (rare in Ireland) opened which will form the basis of an upgrade in the future. From here, it's a short hop to the N21/M20 junction and the motorway up to Limerick. This section opened as dual carriageway in July 2001 and was redesignated motorway in August 2009. It is Y-shaped with the M20 coming south from Limerick, then splitting with the N21 continuing southwest and the N20 veering south. At the point where the M20 reaches the M7 Limerick Southern Ring Road, the route only heads east, but by 2010 the ring will be extended west and the junction rebuilt as a freeflow.

The entire route from the M20/N21 junction south to Cork will be replaced with a proposed M20 motorway. This will be built as a PPP and is expected to open in 2015.

Wikipedia page on this road

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