Gort to Tuam motorway to start in November

Date Published: 28-Jan-2010

Construction work on the long-awaited €500 million new motorway from Gort to Tuam will commence this November.

The National Roads Authority has confirmed that two consortia of builders and financial institutions have been shortlisted from a list of around six consortia who had expressed interest in building the road in a Public Private Partnership (PPP).

BAM Balfour Beatty and Direct Route will now go ‘head to head’ in a competition to win the tender for the development.

BAMBalfour Beatty consists of BAMPPP and Balfour Beatty Capital Ltd and Direct Route consists of AIB plc, Strabag SE, John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Ltd, Roadbridge and Lagan Construction Ltd.

The 57kmstretch of dual carriageway will run from Gort to North of Tuam. It will include a Bypass of the North Galway town and could also help alleviate congestion in one of the county’s worst bottlenecks – Claregalway.

Once it is completed it will link up with a ‘super junction’ outside Athenry criss-crossing with the new Galway to Dublin M6 and linking up with the new N18 motorway linking Gort and Limerick, which is currently under construction.

The NRA has confirmed to Galway West Deputy Frank Fahey that the project will commence in November of this year. It is expected to be fully constructed within two and a half years.

Deputy Fahey told the Connacht Tribune: “This is another major step in the progression of this project. The 57Km piece of dual carriageway, once commenced, should be fully constructed within a two and a two and a half year timeframe and it will mean that a person may travel from the new bypass in Gort to the north side of Tuam.

Continued on page 2 of this week’s Connacht Tribune