Roads in The Republic of Ireland
The Republic has an extensive network of public roads connecting all parts of the country. As of 31 December 2007, there was a total of 5,427.58 km of national roads: 2,743.606 km of national primary routes (including motorways) and 2,683.974 km of national secondary routes. In addition to national roads, the Republic also has an extensive network of other public roads: there are 11,630 kilometres of regional roads and 78,972 kilometres of local roads.
The Republic's major road network is focused on Dublin. Motorways were extended from Dublin to other major cities as part of the Transport 21 programme which aimed to have a world-class motorway network in place by the end of 2010. By the end of 2010, Ireland's main cities (Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Belfast) excluding Derry were connected to Dublin with motorways or with near-motorway standard roads. Dublin has been the focus of some other major projects, such as the East-Link and West-Link toll-bridges, as well as the Dublin Port Tunnel. Major by-pass projects are underway at other cities and towns; most of these are under construction as of 2009. The Jack Lynch Tunnel under the River Lee in Cork was a major project outside Dublin, and a fourth crossing at Limerick under the River Shannon (known as the Limerick Tunnel) opened in 2010.
The different classes of roads in Ireland are allocated blocks of numbers so that no number is used more than once.(not all road numbers are currently in use):
- National Primary Roads are numbered from N1 to N50 (motorway sections are signed with M prefix instead of N ).
- National Secondary Roads are numbered from N51 to N99.
- Regional Roads are numbered from R100 to R999.
- Local Primary Roads are numbered from L1000 to L4999.
- Local Secondary Roads are numbered from L5000 to L8999.
- Local Tertiary Roads are numbered from L10001 to L89999 with the first 4 digits representing the Local Primary or Secondary road it is off. Local Tertiary roads which are unrelated to a Local Primary or Secondary road are given numbers from L90000 up.
Read more about this topic: Roads In Ireland
Famous quotes containing the words roads, republic and/or ireland:
“We joined long wagon trains moving south; we met hundreds of wagons going north; the roads east and west were crawling lines of families traveling under canvas, looking for work, for another foothold somewhere on the land.... The country was ruined, the whole world was ruined; nothing like this had ever happened before. There was no hope, but everyone felt the courage of despair.”
—Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968)
“Royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions. A Republic is a government in which that attention is divided between many, who are all doing uninteresting actions. Accordingly, so long as the human heart is strong and the human reason weak, Royalty will be strong because it appeals to diffused feeling, and Republics weak because they appeal to the understanding.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“No people can more exactly interpret the inmost meaning of the present situation in Ireland than the American Negro. The scheme is simple. You knock a man down and then have him arrested for assault. You kill a man and then hang the corpse.”
—W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)