The island of Ireland, comprising Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, has an extensive network of tens of thousands of kilometres of public roads, usually surfaced. These roads have been developed and modernised over centuries, from trackways suitable only for walkers and horses, to surfaced roads including modern motorways. Driving is on the left-hand side of the road. The major routes were established before Irish independence and consequently take little cognisance of the border other than a change of identification number and street furniture. Northern Ireland has had motorways since 1962, and has a well-developed network of primary, secondary and local routes. The Republic started work on its motorway network in the early 1980s; and historically, the road network there was once somewhat less well developed. However, the Celtic Tiger economic boom and an influx of European Union structural funding, saw national roads and regional roads in the Republic come up to international standard quite quickly. In the mid-1990s, for example, the Republic went from having only a few short sections of motorway to a network of motorways, dual carriageways and other improvements on most major routes as part of a National Development Plan. Road construction in Northern Ireland now tends to proceed at a slower pace than in the Republic, although a number of important bypasses and upgrades to dual carriageway have recently been completed or are about to begin.
The N7 road is a national primary road in Ireland, connecting Limerick and Dublin. The majority of the route is motorway standard and is designated as the M7 motorway. At the Rosbrien interchange in Limerick the route continues as the N18 dual carriageway to Galway, Shannon and Ennis. The road passes through the midlands of Ireland, and acts as a trunk route out of Dublin for the N8 and N9 national primary routes to Cork and Waterford respectively. It forms part of European route E20.
The N11 road is a national primary road in Ireland, running for 129 km (80 mi) along the east side of Ireland from Dublin to Wexford. It passes close to Bray, Greystones, Wicklow, Arklow, Gorey, and Enniscorthy. Beyond Wexford, the route continues to Rosslare as the N25. The road forms part of European route E01. As of July 2019 the N11/M11 is of dual carriageway or motorway standard from Dublin as far as Oilgate in County Wexford.
Rosslare Europort is a modern seaport located at Rosslare Harbour in County Wexford, Ireland, near the southeasternmost point of the island of Ireland. The port is the primary Irish port serving the European Continent with 36 direct services to the Continent weekly. It handles passenger and freight ferries to and from Cherbourg, Dunkirk, St Malo and Roscoff, in France, Bilbao in Spain and Fishguard and Pembroke Dock in the United Kingdom. Since July 2022, a new freight route between Rosslare and Zeebrugge, Belgium was introduced by Finnlines for a twice weekly ro-ro service between the two ports.
National Development Plan is the title given by the Irish Government to a scheme of organised large-scale expenditure on (mainly) national infrastructure. The first five-year plan ran from 1988 to 1993, the second was a six-year plan from 1994 to 1999 and the third ran as a seven-year plan from 2000 to 2006. A fourth National Development Plan ran from 2007 to 2011. The main elements of the third plan were the development of a national motorway network between the major cities in Ireland. The upgrading of the rail network was a secondary scheme.
The N9 road is a national primary road in Ireland running from Junction 11 on the M7, located near Kilcullen, County Kildare, to Waterford city. The route connects Dublin and Waterford. The section of the route from junction 11 on the M7 at Kilcullen to the intersection with the N24 road outside Waterford is motorway standard since 2010 and is designated as the M9 motorway. In line with Irish practice, all sections previously designated N9 were renumbered at that time. Only a short (550-metre) section of the route is still designated as N9 between the Quarry roundabout junction with the N24 and the N25 Grannagh Roundabout junction. This section is dual carriageway.
A regional road in the Republic of Ireland is a class of road not forming a major route, but nevertheless forming a link in the national route network. There are over 11,600 kilometres of regional roads. Regional roads are numbered with three-digit route numbers, prefixed by "R". The equivalent road category in Northern Ireland are B roads.
The N29 road is a national primary road in Ireland. It connects the Port of Waterford at Belview, County Kilkenny to Waterford City via the N25. The road and port are located on the north bank of the River Suir.
The N30 road is a national primary road in Ireland. It connects the N25 road and M11 motorway, providing a link running east-northeast through County Wexford, between New Ross and Enniscorthy. This provides for a more direct national route between the two towns, as the N25 and N11 both run to Wexford town, eastwards from New Ross and southwards from Enniscorthy respectively.
The N72 road is a national secondary road in Ireland that runs east-west from its junction with the N25 near Dungarvan in County Waterford to the N70 in Killorglin in County Kerry.
The R710 road is a regional road in Ireland. Located in the south of Ireland at Waterford, it forms the Outer Ring Road around the south of the city. As of December 2006 it commences on the Old Kilmeaden Road at Knockhouse Lower, west of Waterford City and ends at a junction with the R683 on the Dunmore Road in the south-east of the city.
The R639 road is one of Ireland's regional roads. Once designated the N8 national primary road, it was reclassified in stages as the R639 following the progressive opening of sections of the M8 motorway, which rendered the single carriageway N8 redundant as a national primary road. By-passed sections of the old N8 were generally reclassified as R639 as soon as a new section of M8 opened, thereby increasing the length of the R639. With the completion of the M8 on 28 May 2010, the R639 now stretches from Durrow, County Laois to Cork, running through counties Laois, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Limerick and Cork.
European route E1 is a series of roads in Europe, part of the United Nations International E-road network, running from Larne, Northern Ireland to Seville, Spain. There is a sea crossing between Rosslare Harbour, in Ireland, and Ferrol, but no ferry service. The road also passes through Portugal – past the city of Porto, through the capital, Lisbon, and then south to the Algarve, passing Faro before reaching the Spanish border west of Huelva.
The Atlantic corridor or Atlantic motorway is a proposed road project in Ireland. The scheme, announced in 2005, was intended to link Waterford in the South-East to Letterkenny in the North-West via motorway or dual carriageway by 2015. However, in part due to the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, major sections of the roadway were delayed or cancelled.
Kilmeaden or Kilmeadan is a village in County Waterford, Ireland. It is 10 km (6 mi) west of the centre of Waterford city on the R680 road. The village is in a civil parish of the same name. Kilmeaden townland is nearby the village, at Old Kilmeaden.
The M8 motorway is an inter-urban motorway in Ireland, which forms part of the motorway from the capital Dublin to Cork city. The 149 km motorway commences in the townland of Aghaboe, County Laois and runs through the counties of Kilkenny, Tipperary and Limerick, terminating at the Dunkettle interchange in Cork City. First called for in the Road Needs Study (1998), it was later incorporated into the National Development Plan (2000–2006) and later still formed part of the Irish Government's Transport 21 plan for infrastructural development. The majority of the M8 (115 km) was built between 2006 and 2010. On 28 May 2010, the motorway was completed and had replaced almost all of the single-carriageway N8 except for a short section of urban road in Cork City.
In Ireland, the highest category of road is a motorway, indicated by the prefix M followed by a one- or two-digit number. The motorway network consists entirely of motorway-grade dual carriageways and is largely focused upon Dublin. There are also several three-lane motorways, while Ireland's busiest road, the M50, incorporates four-lane, five-lane, and six-lane stretches.
This article deals with transport in Waterford city in Ireland. The city is connected by road, rail, bus, air and sea. There are currently proposals for a bus rapid transit system, consisting of bus trams, or streetcars, to be used in future.
The N40 road is a national primary road in Cork City, Ireland. It is partial ring road skirting the southern suburbs of the city, from the N22 west of Ballincollig, via the Jack Lynch Tunnel under the River Lee, to the Dunkettle Interchange where it meets the N25 and N8/M8. The present N40 designation was created on 23 February 2012 via statutory instrument by renaming parts of the N22 and N25. The N40 serves as both a commuter route and a bypass of the city centre for traffic between parts southwest and east. The National Transport Strategy envisages building a "Cork North Ring Road" to complete the circuit in the 2030s.
