Cork drivers 'taking their lives into their hands' getting onto gridlocked national road

Traffic on the N25 in East Cork is described as severe and chaotic, especially around Midleton’s Lakeview roundabout, which causes major bottlenecks on the route to Cork city. Local councillors have called for interim traffic management measures between Carrigtwohill and Midleton and at the Lakeview roundabout. The Midleton–Youghal N25 scheme is expected to be years away, with construction still not scheduled, and the Lakeview roundabout upgrade may take 6 to 8 years. Congestion is expected to worsen as thousands of new houses are built along the N25, increasing traffic entering and leaving Midleton and Carrigtwohill.

"People won't be using an upgrade, a serious upgrade, for potentially 6 to 8 years if we're lucky and that's the reality."

"Traffic was backed up about a mile and a half outside the town. The two lanes going down to Lakeview were backed up. The hard shoulder was backed up with traffic going into Midleton. Then there was people out of frustration not getting into the hard shoulder fast enough, blocking the lanes on the main road itself. It was carnage."

"It's treacherous to come through there. It's bedlam at various days during the week. We're getting tailbacks bumper to bumper. Every artery into Lakewood is clogged by some sort of works."

"You're going to have hugely increased volumes of traffic getting in and out of Midleton and in and out of Carrigtwohill."

Read at Irish Independent