Compared with many other national primary roads in Ireland, long sections of the N16 are narrow and twisty which can make travelling on it slow and difficult. In recent years improvements have been made to short sections of it but the geography of many of the areas it passes through (deep valleys and steep hills) places some limits on the improvements that can be made without a wholesale realignment of parts of the route (i.e., finding less difficult terrain nearby to build a new road through).[citation needed]
As of December 2019, upgrades to further sections of the N16 were planned.[1]
