It has emerged that no new road schemes will be started by the Irish Republic's official National Roads Authority (NRA) this year.

This is the first time it has happened since 1994, and is being blamed on 'budgetary constraints'.

However, the four interurban motorways from Dublin to Belfast, Cork, Limerick and Waterford will be completed this year, and of course, the motorway from Dublin to Galway was opened just before Christmas, ahead of schedule.

A report in the Sunday Business Post said that the NRA is to suspend a possible 50% of schemes already in the early to mid planning stages, because of a lack of funding.

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The board of the authority will vote on which schemes planning will be suspended on in the next fortnight, and as many as thirty projects may be affected.

The authority expects to complete the tendering for two public/private partnership (PPP) schemes towards the end of 2010, and to sign the contracts on both.

These are the Arklow to Rathnew section of theN11 together with the Newlands Cross upgrade on the outskirts of Dublin, and the Gort to Tuam motorway, on theN17/18 in Galway. Construction is expected to start on these projects early in 2011.

The only new project that got underway in 2009 was the Castleisland bypass in Kerry. There were some major new road and bypass openings, such as the Suir Bridge bypass of the city in Waterford, a new stretch of the M9 from Castledermot to Kilcullen, the motorway from Fermoy to Mitchelstown in Cork, and the Tullamore bypass.

(BMcC/GK)