The now-defunct Transport21 road building plan was a well conceived plan for the creation of a network of trunk roads for the island, but it had several flaws and omissions. Some areas of the country would remain isolated from the trunk road network - the nearest motorway could still be more than 100 km away. Additionally, although moving between large towns and cities would be facilitated, roads in between and perpendicular to these routes would still be very poor, making cross-country journeys awkward and difficult.

Below are listed some ideas for these additions to the network. They include some strategic motorway building, which will be very modest compared with recent efforts. Most of the remainder will consist of a lot of good quality dual carriageways criss-crossing the midlands, and extending into peripheral areas. There will be over 600 km of these.

In addition, a large number of schemes need redesignation to motorway to fill in gaps in the strategic route networks: the Interurbans and the Atlantic Corridor. Also some redesignations are necessary in order to maximise the value of expensively-provided infrastructure. Phase I involves roads which are ready to go, meaning they are already suitable for blue signs or only require minor alterations. Phase II roads will require reconstruction first or are dependent on the standard chosen for the scheme as it moves towards construction. Some further discussion on this is here.

It is roughly envisaged, assuming the original schemes from the Transport21 plan are completed by 2025, that the below list could reasonably be implemented in the period 2020-2040, assuming modest to good economic growth.

Your comments are welcome for each scheme. Please feel free to comment on as many as possible!