The Atlantic corridor[1] or Atlantic motorway[2] is a proposed road project in Ireland. The scheme, announced in 2005, was intended to link Waterford in the South-East to Letterkenny in the North-West via motorway or dual carriageway by 2015.[3] However, in part due to the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, major sections of the roadway were delayed or cancelled.
The Atlantic Corridor, when combined with the inter-urban motorways linking Dublin and the other cities, is intended to ring the island of Ireland and to connect primary population centres.[citation needed]
The constituent national primary routes, included in the 2007 plan, included:
As of 2018, over 100 km (62 mi) of the route was completed motorway or dual carriageway.[citation needed] At that time, the next construction planned was the M20 from Cork to Limerick, which was allocated €850 million in government funds under the National Development Plan 2018-2027 capital scheme. The M20, which was "progressed through planning and design phases" as of 2010,[4] is proposed to link with the planned Cork northern ring road, also forming part of the Atlantic Corridor route, connecting the planned Cork to Limerick motorway with the partially completed Cork-Waterford N25 dual carriageway.[citation needed]