And so it is farewell then to Enfield, Co Meath. From March next the opening of a new relief road will take the national traffic away from the village, ending the slow-moving, five-mile tailbacks on either side of the town.
Another traffic bottleneck between Dublin and the regions will be eliminated, to join in our memories names like Shankill, Co Dublin; Kinnegad, Co Westmeath;Blackpool, Co Cork; Patrickswell in Limerick; Ardee, Co Louth; Mountcharles in Donegal; and Nenagh - so good they by-passed it twice - in Co Tipperary.
The National Roads Authority's programme of improvements and bypasses on the existing network is the most visible element of the roads programme.
Improvements and bypasses are now in place on most of the State's "N" routes.
Schemes scheduled to reach completion this year include the Celbridge interchange in Co Kildare, the Boyle to Carrick-on-Shannon route in Cos Roscommon and Leitrim, and of course the Enfield relief road, all of which are on the N4 Dublin to Sligo route; the Limerick Parkway, effectively a bypass of Limerick City; phase one of the the Grannagh to Waterford Route on the N9; Bunduff to Downes River in Co Leitrim on the N15; Pilltown to Fiddown in Co Kilkenny on the N24; and the Camaross scheme on the N25 in Co Wexford.
Less visible are the completely new roads to the cities of Galway, Waterford, Limerick and Cork as well as the Border, but the significant development of 2001 was that the route selection for all these motorways is now complete.
Encouraged by Government with supplementary estimates over the past few years the National Roads Authority has increased its output by about 82 per cent over the last two years. In the year just passing it will have spent almost €952 million (£750 million).
The "ramping up", as the outgoing chairman of the NRA Mr Liam Connellan calls it, is illustrated by yet more figures. In 1994 the NRA spent €190 million (£150 million) in total. The State is now entering a period in which about €1.27 billion a year (£1 billion) will be spent on roads.
Among the flagship projects are the Dublin Port Tunnel, construction of which got under way in 2001, and which will cost about €444 million (£350 million); the South Eastern Motorway which also got under way, at last, in 2001 and will cost about €507 million (£400 million); the new Dublin to Galway M6, which will cost about €952 million (£750 million); and the Dublin to Waterford route, which will cost at least €635 million (£500 million).
Continuing works include the Cloghran to Lissenhall stretch of the M1 in Co Dublin; the Lissenhall to Ballbriggan stretch of the same road; the Drogheda bypass; the Kildare bypass; the Aughrim to Cappataggle route in Co Galway; the Limerick Southern Ring road; the Watergrasshill bypass in Co Cork; the Glen of the Downs road in Co Wicklow; the Knock to Claremorris road in Co Mayo; the Hurler's Cross to Newmarket-on-Fergus bypass in Co Clare; and the Youghal bypass in Co Cork.
