The N3 corridor through Blanchardstown experiences intense traffic pressure. The shopping mall and town centre has grown into a city-sized development over the last 20 years. Six-laning will be needed (discussed elsewhere), but protecting the route by upgrading it to motorway will too.

With the removal of the roundabout at the old Navan Road immediately west of the N3/M50 junction in 2010, the only real issues with the road left to be cleared up are some frontage accesses west of the Blanchardstown centre, and a left-in-left-out junction (LILO). One house and some industrial land have entrances that open directly onto the road.

The LILO will simply have to be closed. There is sufficient access to the west and east to adjacent junctions.

In this planning document from Fingal County Council, there is tantalising mention of "N3 Upgrade Littlepace to M50" and "Castaheany Interchange Upgrade" (Castaheany Interchange is the one for Clonee, here.) So it sounds like this may be on the cards.

In the below map, purple shows the segment to be widened, blue shows the segment proposed to be upgraded to motorway, and red shows access closures.

Update July 2019: A scheme to widen the N3 along this section to 6 lanes is making its way through planning. Associated with this is its likely rededication as a motorway.

Update August 2024: There has been no update for several years on the N3 widening scheme. It seems to have fallen foul of the Minister for Transport being a Green. No Green would sign off on a road expansion project in an urban area. This will have to wait until there is a change of minister.

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