The N30 road is a national primary road in Ireland. It connects the N25 road and M11 motorway, providing a link running east-northeast through County Wexford, between New Ross and Enniscorthy. This provides for a more direct national route between the two towns, as the N25 and N11 both run to Wexford town, eastwards from New Ross and southwards from Enniscorthy respectively.
Route
The route connects to the N25 Wexford Road at Kent's Cross Roundabout, southeast of New Ross in County Wexford, and follows north along the New Ross Relief Road, through a traffic light controlled crossroads in the Irishtown, before cornering west to a junction with the R700 on Craywell Road in Mount Elliott. It then heads north for approximately 550 metres before it corners eastwards for a distance of about 250 metres in Mountgarret, passing the junction with the R700 at the southern approach to Mountgarret Bridge which leads to Kilkenny, and it then heads east for approximately 800 metres, passes a junction with the R729 which leads to Borris, and then heads east-northeast towards Clonroche. The road later passes through Clonroche, continuing east for about two kilometres, and then passes by three junctions; one with the R735, which heads southwest to Gusserane via Adamstown and Newbawn; and two with the R730, one which heads southeast to Wexford and the other which heads northwest to Kiltealy. The road then continues northeast towards Enniscorthy, bypassing the town to the north. The single carriageway section of the bypass begins at a roundabout in Templescoby. The road then passes through a roundabout in Milehouse, where it meets the R702, and ends at the Clavass Roundabout, where it meets the R772, just south of the Scarawalsh Roundabout, where the southeastern terminus of the N80 national secondary road is. The dual carriageway section of the bypass then extends in a southeastern direction from the Scarawalsh Roundabout, effectively as a southeastern extension of the N80 road, crossing the River Slaney and connecting to junction 25 of the M11 motorway in Ballydawmore.
History
In the old Trunk Road and Link Road classification system or Main Road classification system, which was introduced in 1925, the route that is now the N30 formed a part of the T7 trunk road, the main Dublin–Waterford route. Wexford County Council started using the Trunk Road designations, internally at least, by June 1925.[1][2][3]
Route marker
When the national roads system was introduced in 1977, the N30 route was originally designated as the N79 national secondary road, and the N9 national primary road became the main Dublin–Waterford road. The former sections of the T7 trunk road running from Dublin to Enniscorthy and from Waterford to New Ross became part of the N11 Dublin–Wexford road, and the N25Cork–Rosslare Harbour road.[4]
Silver Oak on the N30
The route had its first major improvement in 1986, when a new road that was constructed from Ballyanne to Scarke opened. The road was constructed on the embankment of the former Macmine Junction to New Ross branch railway line, which had closed in 1963. The railway had then subsequently been dismantled, and most of the land had been sold to adjacent landowners by CIÉ, but some of the land on the route was sold to Wexford County Council in late 1960s for the purpose of future road realignment.[5][6][7][8]
In 1991, a new traffic management plan was implemented in Enniscorthy after the completion of the Seamus Rafter Bridge, and all northbound traffic on the N11 began to flow through the new bridge and Abbey Quay. The N79 route's northeastern terminus was moved from the junction of Slaney Place, the northern end of Abbey Quay, and the western side of Enniscorthy Bridge to its current location at the southern end of Abbey Quay. The route no longer ran along Slaney Place.[9]
In 1994 the route's southwestern terminus was moved from the eastern approach to O'Hanrahan Bridge on the Quay in New Ross to Kent's Cross on the N25, the route being changed to follow the New Ross Relief Road (the former R732 regional road),[10] and the route was legally redesignated as the N30 national primary road.[9]
In 2006, the N30 Moneytucker to Jamestown scheme opened, in which 5.3 km of new improved single carriageway road with hard shoulders, better junctions, and overbridges and underbridges, was constructed south of the existing road.[11]
On 18 July 2019, 4 km of dual carriageway road were officially opened as part of the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy PPP Scheme. The 8 km of single carriageway road were opened on 14 August 2019.
N30 east of Clonroche, looking east
On 29 January 2020, a 5 km segment of dual carriageway, roundabouts, and a 1.2 km single carriageway were officially opened as part of the N25 New Ross Bypass PPP Scheme, which also forms part of the N30.[12][13]
This has replaced the westmost 8km of the former N30 road between Corcoran's Cross and its former terminus with the N25, and the road's segments have been redesignated as either wholly or partly as regional roads or local roads after the opening of the scheme. The N30 currently terminates at the N25 east of New Ross and is around 3km shorter than before.
Proposed developments
There are suspended plans for the future N30 Moneytucker to New Ross, a proposed 14.4 km road improvement that is to realign most of the current road and to provide a southern bypass of Clonroche, to be constructed between the eastern end of the New Ross Bypass near Corcoran's Cross Roundabout and the western end of the N30 Moneytucker to Jamestown Scheme.[14]
