A section of the M7 in Co Kildare remains closed today and into the early hours of tomorrow.

As part of upgrade works, a new bridge is being installed and the motorway is closed in both directions between Naas North and Naas South.

Motorists are being diverted on to new slip roads, and a temporary speed limit of 25kph is in place.

Road works

Niall Morrissey, Kildare County Council's Director of Services for Roads, explains what to expect on the road today.

“We are putting in the over-bridge there at Osberstown, which is the new interchange for the Sallins bypass,” he said.

“The public probably remembers we demolished the over-bridge there two weekends ago, which went quite smoothly.

“It is a similar traffic management plan this weekend with the public diverted up the off-ramps round the works and back down the on-ramps which have been newly put in place there about two-and-a-half, three weeks ago.”

Diversion

He said the diversion last for “less than a kilometre.”

“OK, you go from around 60kph down to 25kph – but we actually don’t envision anyone being stopped or held up because a lot of the works will go on at night and we are hoping to be back fully opened again on Sunday morning,” he said.

“We could see from our own drone footage two weekends ago that there were no hold-ups.

“People travelled through the same manoeuvre quite freely on what was an extremely busy weekend.”

The road will re-open by 9am tomorrow.