KERRY residents are hopeful that work will up a gear now that the Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan, has announced a major acceleration of the roads programme.
Minister Brennan has pledged a guaranteed investment of ¤8 billion in projects nationwide.
The government plans to open vital economic corridors, with motorways to the north, south and west of the country by the end of 2007.
Announcing the expansion of the construction and planning programme for national roads, Minister Brennan said the rapid progress that can now be made on rolling out the roads programme resulted from a number of recent developments.
These included the securing of a historic agreement on a multi-annual funding arrangement for infrastructure projects that guarantees investment of more than ¤8bn over the period 2004-2008.
Among the 17 major projects under construction is the Ballycarty/Tralee single carriageway, a 3km route, is among the national road schemes to be completed this year.
Meanwhile, of the national road schemes to start this year, the N22 Gortatlea/Farranfore single carriageway 5km road is also set to start.
Describing the funding for the national primary routes as very sizeable Kerry South TD Jackie Healy-Rae said: I am delighted that there are many roads on it that we have been trying to get big funding for a long time.
A total of ¤26,114,600 was allocated to Kerry County Council, covering maintenance allocation, national secondary and national primary roads funding.
Major national road schemes in planning are the Farranfore/Killarney route and the Tralee by-pass/Tralee B gellagh route.
