M3 motorway (Republic of Ireland)

The M3 motorway near Dunsaughlin, Meath

The M3 road is a motorway in the Republic of Ireland, forming a stretch of the N3 primary route that runs between Dublin, Cavan and the border with Fermanagh. The A509 and A46 roads in Northern Ireland form part of an overall route connecting to Enniskillen, and north-west to the border again where the N3 reappears to serve Ballyshannon in County Donegal.

The motorway is 32 miles long, from Mulhuddart in County Dublin to Kells in County Meath. It was completed in 2010.

The M3 begins near the end of the dual carriageway outside Clonee and terminates south-west of Kells just before the N52. It was built as part of wider scheme to upgrade the route, including the N52 Kells northern bypass. Since completion, the M3 now bypasses Dunshaughlin, Navan, and Kells along with Cavan which was bypassed much earlier.

Controversy

Protestors gathered at the Hill of Tara

The motorway was contested because the route passes near the Hill of Tara and through the archaeologically rich Tara-Skryne valley or Gabhra. The planned route corridor was approved by An Bord Pleanála (Ireland's planning appeals board) in August 2003.

Creating the motorway

In 2008, the Department of Transport announced the second round of proposed motorway reclassifications. In 2008, a short section of the existing dual-carriageway N3 bypassing Clonee was reclassified as motorway: it was the first section of M3 to come into being.

The project was most expensive single contract road project ever undertaken in Ireland at the time, coming in at approximately €650 million. To pay for it, the M2 is tolled at two locations (one point north of Navan and another point between Dunshaughlin and Clonee) for 45 years running from 2007.

The motorway is the longest single road project ever to be constructed in Ireland including nearly 62 miles of new or upgraded road including 30 miles of new M3, 6 miles of new N3, 12 miles of new link roads and interchanges, and approximately 9 miles of local road improvements, footpaths, cycle lanes and new bridges.

Junctions

The route begins as a dual carriageway at junction 6 of the M50, becoming a motorway after junction 4. It then becomes a dual carriageway after the motorway which terminates at Kells.

County	km	mi	Junction	Destinations	Notes
County Dublin
			1	– Dublin Airport, Dublin Port, Dún Laoghaire, Wexford	Continues as R147 towards Dublin city centre
				Castleknock, Blanchardstown Village	Connolly Hospital Northbound entrance and southbound exit only.
			2	– Blanchardstown Village, Ballycoolin	Northbound exit and southbound entrance only.
			3	– Blanchardstown Centre, Mulhuddart	Blanchardstown Village (southbound).
				Ballycoolin, Tyrellstown, Mulhuddart	Hollystown Left-in/left-out junction. Southbound entrance and exit only.
			4	– Clonee, Damastown, Dunboyne	Junction is split across county boundary. Continues as M3 motorway.
County Meath
			5	– Dunboyne, Ratoath (R155)	Trim (R154), Park and Ride
			M3 Southern Toll
			6	‒ Dunshaughlin, Trim	Kilcock (R154)
			7	‒ Skryne, Johnstown, Navan (northbound) Skryne, Kilmessan (southbound)
			8	‒ Navan (South)
			9	‒ Delvin, Navan (North)	Athboy, Navan Hospital
			M3 Northern Toll
			10	‒ Kells (South)
				‒ Mullingar, Delvin, Dundalk  ‒ Kells	Motorway terminates at roundabout. Junction number not signposted. Continues as N3 dual carriageway.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about M3 motorway (Republic of Ireland))

• The M3 on SABRE
• NRA project page for M3 motorway
• Zoney Irish Roads
• BBC News article
• Washington Post article
• Roads Act 1993 (Classification of National Roads) Order 2006 – Department of Transport