Regional Roads (Republic of Ireland)
Regional roads (bóithre réigiúnacha) are roads of regional importance managed and maintained by county and city councils in the Republic of Ireland. Ranking third in terms of importance after the centrally managed national primary and national secondary roads, they are described in the Department of Transport's Traffic Signs Manual as "the main feeder routes for national primary and national secondary routes".
History
The regional road classification was first introduced as part of the Roads Act, 1993 (Declaration of Regional Roads) in 1994. Since then, the indication of R numbers on directional signs has grown to become near universal.
Numbering
In contrast to the practice in many other countries (compare, for example, the numbering of France's Routes départementales) regional roads retain a consistent number across local-authority boundaries.
All regional roads bear three digit numbers (R100-R999) and are waymarked in black-on-white (or sometimes yellow; see below), with destinations shown in both Irish and English – except in the Gaeltacht, where Irish only is used.
The Department of Transport's Guidelines for the classification and scheduling of roads in Ireland describes the numbering of regional roads as following a broadly anti-clockwise arrangement from Dublin, as follows:
- R101–R149 the Dublin area
- R150–R199 the North East: Cavan, Louth, Meath, Monaghan
- R200–R299 the North West: Donegal, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo
- R300–R388 the West: Galway, Mayo
- R389–R457 the Midlands: Kildare, Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath
- R458–R547 the Mid West: Clare, Limerick, Tipperary (former North Riding)
- R548–R658 the South: Cork, Kerry
- R659–R719 the South East; Kilkenny, Tipperary (former South Riding), Waterford
- R720–R799 the East: Carlow, Wexford, Wicklow
Other regional roads (being, in the main, short intra-urban links) are numbered in the R8xx and R9xx series. Initially, the numbers R801–R845 were reserved for use in the Dublin area, R846–R856 for Cork, R857–R859 Limerick, R860–R862 for Waterford, and R863–R866 for Galway, with subsequent numbering going anti-clockwise around the country. These R8xx and R9xx numbers (particularly in the case of very short links) are not always indicated on directional signage,
The default speed limit on regional roads is 80 km/h (compared to the 100 km/h for national roads). This is consistently reduced to 50 km/h in urban areas and is occasionally raised to 100 km/h on high-standard stretches of road.
There is a great deal of variation in the standard of regional roads, ranging from former national dual-carriageway roads near Dublin to poorly surfaced single-track roads along the Atlantic coast.
Old National Roads
When the route of a national road is changed (typically following the construction of a bypass or parallel motorway route), the old road is "detrunked" and becomes a regional road. Particularly in cases where the regional route continues to serve a long-distance purpose for "non-motorway" traffic, the same R number may be used (sometimes in detached portions) for the whole parallel itinerary. For example, most of the original route of the N7 is now the R445, while the former N9 is the R448. In some instances, such alternate long-distance routes are indicated by displaying the regional route number in a black-on-yellow cartouche.
References