N52 Road (Ireland) - Quality of Road

Quality of Road

The road is mainly single carriageway two-lane throughout. It has some upgraded sections, but generally the standard is poor or very poor. It starts (from the southwest) at a grade separated junction with the M7 motorway and by-passes Nenagh on its western side as single carriageway. Past Nenagh it is generally a single carriageway with no shoulders all the way to Birr. Many sections of this part of the route are very poor through North Tipperary with sharp bends. The route from Birr to Tullamore was upgraded in recent years and has good alignment, hard shoulders and a good surface as has the section from Tullamore to Kilbeggan which was upgraded in the 1970s. At Tullamore the route forms a bypass of Mucklagh and Tullamore.

The road forms an interchange on the M6 motorway south of Kilbeggan and follows it eastwards to the Tyrrellspass exit. Prior to the opening of the M6 the route went through Kilbeggan town and went past the racecourse via Ballinagore From this junction it heads north to Mullingar as the Tyrrellspass eastern bypass. It then follows the old route for 10 km (6.2 mi) before forming the eastern by-pass of Mullingar (opened May 2007); joins the N4 dual-carriageway briefly before leaving to head east over a very poor road to Delvin, Kells and Ardee before reaching the M1 south of Dundalk. Two kilometers of dual-carriageway take it to the R132 (the old N1) from where it becomes the Dundalk eastern inner relief route, over a new bridge near the harbour and north to the N1.