National Primary Route 25

Running along the southern coast of Ireland, the N25 connects Cork with the port of Rosslare, taking in the small city of Waterford along the way. Most of the route is winding single carriageway, hugging the coast with mountains on one side and the sea on the other.

Upgrades have been taking place along this stretch for a long time. The route heading east out of Cork was dualled from the 1970s onwards: Carrigtwohill to Midleton was completed in the 1970s, the Cork Southern Ring Road was opened stages from 1989 through to the end of the 90s, and the tunnel under the River Lee connecting the two was opened in May 1999. Before this, the N25 ran on city streets straight into the heart of Cork.

In the near future, the section from the N8/N25 intersection will be upgraded to high quality dual carriageway through median closures and construction of a new grade separated junction. This will run as far as the east of Midleton. It is also likely that this standard will be extended as far as Youghal (pronounced 'Yawl') eventually. Youghal already got a single carriageway bypass in the 2003, which would be incorporated into the scheme.

Dungarvan is the next town along the highway. It will have the honour, along with Swords, Galway and a handful of other towns, of ultimately having two bypasses - it already has an inner one, and a new large outer bypass will be contructed before 2015.

From here, it's a straight run to Waterford. This small sized regional city of around 49,000 not only has its own dedicated motorway to Dublin - it also got a huge motorway-standard bypass, including a massive 475m cable-stayed bridge. Formerly the whole city only had one bridge taking it over the River Suir, which needless to say was jammed with traffic round the clock. The project, which was completed at the end of 2009, also involved upgrades to the port access road and an interchange allowing access to the M9 (to Dublin) and N24 (to Limerick).

Continuing east, shortly after Waterford is the town of New Ross, which also straddles a river that is crossed, like Waterford, by only one bridge. The Barrow flows though a valley with the town on both sides. The new road will be dual carriageway and will have to cross the valley on pylons. It should be quite a sight when it is completed by 2015.

The final stretch of the N25 is the single carriageway run down to the junction with the N11 at Wexford, where it uses the Wexford bypass to skirt the western edge of the town. Finally it reaches Rosslare town and terminates at the port.

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