HARD-pressed motor-ists and the residents of a number of Kilkenny towns and villages are to receive an early Christmas present with news that the new dual carriageway from the edge of Waterford city to Kilkenny will open in late December.

The new 31-kilometre stretch will herald a new era with faster destination times and less traffic back logs with up to 30 minutes cut off times from the south of the county to Dublin.

As a result, road safety will be increased from the stretch of road from Dunkitt, Kilmacow to Danesfort, outside Kilkenny city and it will also bring other major advantages.

And the new (second) bridge spanning the River Suir, already known as the ‘Cat Flap’ will be open to traffic at the end of October, bringing an early Halloween celebration for those commuting to Waterford city on a daily basis. The cable-stayed bridge will remove the need for motorists to travel through Waterford city centre and will be the longest of its kind in the country.

It forms the focal point of the completed bypass that will bring huge relief to people from South Kilkenny going and coming from work, school and college.

However, it’s the residents of Mullinavat, Thom-astown, Ballyhale, Knocktopher and Bennettsbridge that will benefit most from the piece of infrastructure that forms part of the Dublin-Waterford highway being built at a cost of f1.46 billion.

They will no longer have to put up with huge trucks and screaming traffic going through their communities. Massive pieces of machinery going along sub-standard roads will become a thing of the past.

It will come too late for a number of families whose loved ones have been killed along the notorious stretch of road, which was, incredibly, a national primary route.

And the two infamous railway bridges - one at Knockwilliam, outside Ballyhale and the other at Lukeswell, Mullinavat which have been a nightmare to go under because of oncoming traffic on the centre of the road will also be made a lot safer with most of the huge trucks that currently use them preferring the dual carriageway.

It seems everyone will be a winner because air quality will improve substantially in the villages from where the traffic has been diverted and there will be a lower incidence of traffic accidents judging by what has happened on other new roads around the country. It also means that the huge tankers and juggernauts that have caused so much structural damage over the years along the route will use the new road.

It will also give companies a bigger incentive to locate in Kilkenny city environs and the south because they will have a clear and unhindered path to Belview port, the main container terminal in the South East and the designated government gateway for business in this region of the country.