Work on bypassing one of the State's most notorious traffic bottlenecks at Fermoy, Co Cork, began today.
The €220 million project is due for completion in 2007 and will see the north Cork town bypassed by 17.5 kilometres of motorway as part of the N8 Dublin-to-Cork route.
The first sod was turned today by the Minster for Transport, Mr Brennan, who said all 243 kilometres of the Dublin-Cork route would be under construction or completed by 2007. Some 64 kilometres of the motorway has already been opened.
Exchequer funding will contribute €133 million to the cost of the Rathcormack/Fermoy project with private finance making up the remainder.
The bypass will be tolled by the Direct Route consortium - made up of Irish builders John Sisk and Son, Lagan Holdings, Roadbridge Ltd and US firm Kellog Root and Brown, a subsidiary of Halliburton.
The contracts signed today give the consortium the right to operate the tolls for 30 years and confer upon them a commitment to maintain the road.
Mr Peter Malone, chairman of the National Roads Authority, said he was "particularly pleased . . . the NRA had achieved the milestone of introducing €500,000 million of private sector finance into the national roads programme".
