An emerging preferred route for the N17 Tuam to Claremorris dual carriageway has been identified.
Route C as it is called is the best route economically of the five options which were presented to the public during the public consultation process. It was also preferred by 62 per cent of the public who attended that process.
While it is the best economically, it is equal to the other routes in terms of environment and safety standards and it is also preferred in engineering terms because it contains the lowest amount of peat of all options.
The estimated cost of developing route C is €150 million, councillors in the Claremorris electoral area were informed this week.
The project will go to public consultation again in the next two weeks in Ballindine, giving the public further opportunity to comment.
Lands along the other four routes which have been removed from the planning process are expected to be once again open to planning before September or October Cllr Pat McHugh was informed.
Cllr McHugh said there was a lot of interest by people living along the route options and very large swathes of land had been sterilised.
