Thoughts on the M4

Dear Sir,

The M4 ends in Mullingar at the moment and badly needs to be extended to Longford. It would also be worthwhile to consider extending it further west to the Croghan area of Co Roscommon to further assist the northern half of the West of Ireland. This would mean combining the present N4 and N5 to that point which is about 160km from Dublin.

The combined volume of traffic from Longford to Boyle and from Longford to Frenchpark would justify a motorway.

In the Croghan area the two roads would diverge with the N4 continuing on good quality single carriageway 8km or so to the present N4 east of

Boyle and the N5 continuing WSW also on good quality single carriageway on or near the present R370 route to Churchstreet just west of Frenchpark. The quality of the road from Churchstreet westwards is a very good single carriageway road. The distances of the new route would be about equal to the present N4 and N5.

The present sections of the N4 (Longford to Boyle) and N5(Longford to Frenchpark) would be fine for local traffic and the proposed motorway might cost the same as serious improvement of those two routes.

There could be junctions adjacent to Roosky and Carrick on Shannon and the Roosky junction could also serve Strokestown. The motorway route might cross the Shannon just south of Lough Forbes and continue north westwards just west of Lough Boderg and then continue north of Hill Street to Croghan.

Development of the Northwest would be greatly assisted by such a motorway which would give the region an advantage which the rest of the country has already had. It would give economical, fast, safe access between Dublin and the Northwest.

Regards,

Charles Henry, Ardtarmon, Ballinfull, Co Sligo