One of the country’s most eagerly anticipated road projects - Macroom Bypass – is due to fully open on Monday.

The final section of the Macroom bypass between Ballyvourney and Ballymakeera is all but complete and can expect to see its first traffic on Monday morning.

Traffic will now by-pass the villages of Ballyvourney and Ballymakerra shortening the distance between Cork city and Killarney.

The project has been completed ahead of its 2024 schedule.

Cork County Council signed contracts with two Irish firms, Jons Civil Engineering Ltd and John Cradock Ltd, in November 2019 for a total budget of €280 million, in what was the largest single investment by government in the region at the time.

Work started in January 2020 with up to 260 construction staff employed on site at the peak of the project and continuing throughout the Covid pandemic.

In December 2020, seven precast concrete bridge beams, the longest ever for Ireland and the UK at 49.9 metres in length, made their way to Macroom with the assistance of a Garda escort over 4 nights.

With only 200mm height to spare traveling through the Jack Lynch Tunnel, one of the biggest challenges was reversing the 155 tonne beams into position with only inches to spare at the existing stone arch “New Bridge” in Macroom. The new section of road consists of two lanes in each direction separated by a steel median barrier. A total of 48 principal structures were built including three river bridges, three overbridges and four under bridges, walls, culverts and environmental barriers for noise reduction and 132,000 square metres of pavement.