The N11 dual carriageway heading south out of Dublin has always been a key route into and out of the city serving the string of seaside towns stretching along the coast to Wexford at the bottom. (More information on this is on the general M11 page.) Progress is being made on converting southern parts of this to motorway and filling in gaps. In 2009, two disconnected dual carriageway sections were redesignated motorway: Jct 14-17 (Ashford-Rathnew) and 20-24 (Arklow-Gorey). The gap in between was completed in 2015. The part of the road between Bray (Jct 6) and Delgany (Jct 10), however, is very difficult to upgrade for many reasons: the lack of space, difficult geography, the density of development alongside the road, and environmental reasons. Dualling the Glen of the Downs was controversial enough back in the day. The old N11, where present, is labelled R772; some parts of this are missing, meaning there is no parallel road for non-motorway traffic. These parts need to be provided.

This is one of two ideas that avoids most of these issues. The other one is here. (There is a separate page on widening the part northwest of Bray to 6 lanes.)

At Fassaroe, the point where the M11 currently ends southwest of Bray would be widened to 6 lanes and parallel frontage roads built on both sides. This would be tricky and destructive of forest cover. It is not clear whether the road's bends could be straightened out, surely a key improvement. Traffic levels and poor safety nonetheless make the rebuilding of this part essential.

Between Jct 7-9, the existing road through Kilmacanoge as far as the top of the Glen of the Downs was widened despite plenty of adjacent buildings. These were only partially segregated from the mainline, making it pretty much impossible to improve this part. Instead, it would be easier to build a deviation slightly to the east through fields.

The Glen of the Downs itself requires a non-motorway parallel road (i.e. R772) to be provided in order for reclassification to go ahead, but this cannot be created alongside the dual carriagway as this would destroy too much forest cover and the original building of this road triggered protests that lasted for years. Instead, the parallel road would be built up the hill to the south where trees would not need to be removed. It would join up with village roads west of Delgany.

In 2008, a new junction 11 at Kilpeddar was built. To upgrade the dual carriageway at this point, the mess of slip roads and country lanes at Jct 10 should be rationalised for safety reasons. To the south, new side roads would be needed to the east of the existing road, and some impromptu accesses from the village of Kilpeddar should be closed. It seems that currently the bus passes through the village northbound, but uses the dual carriageway southbound; this would need to be moved to the village as the access the bus currently uses would be closed. Finally, a missing part of the R772 needs to be provided between the village and Newtownmountkennedy.

See the maps at the bottom of the page for details. Yellow roads are single-carriageway; red marks closures; and blue is the motorway.

Please give your opinion on this road proposal. Rate it out of 10, and whether you think the standard (road width) is appropriate.

Wikipedia page on this road