12 April 2002: Meath County Council today opened the 11m euros Enfield Relief Road, easing a traffic bottleneck on the N4 between Enfield and Kilcock and saving motorists up to 30 minutes on trips between Dublin and the West at peak times.

The 2.58km road was designed and built by Meath County Council and will remove more than 20,000 vehicles daily from Enfield, including 3,000 heavy goods vehicles. Noel Dempsey TD, Minister for the Environment and Local Government, officially opened the road at 10.30am, in the presence of Cllr Seamus Murray, Cathaoirleach, Meath County Council.

The project has been funded by the Irish Government, under the National Development Plan, 2000-2006, with assistance from the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union.

Peter Malone, Chairman, National Roads Authority said the cost of the scheme will be repaid many times in terms of eliminating one of the most congested traffic bottlenecks in the country.

The Enfield Relief Road will ultimately become an access route to the Kilcock-Enfield-Kinnegad motorway, part of the proposed 1billion motorway between Dublin and Galway. That scheme is currently at design/planning stage and is expected to be completed by 2005.

The two-lane road was designed by West Consult and crosses the Royal Canal and the Dublin-Sligo Railway with a two span bridge. Three major junctions and one minor junction intersect with the existing N4 alignment via roundabouts at the western and eastern ends. The main contractors were John Craddock Ltd, Tarmak Ovearkil and F&F Engineering.

©2002irishcar.com