At the latter, the N20 route leaves the main road (which continues as the N21 to Tralee), so one must diverge from the motorway to stay on the N20.

At Mallow a relatively high specification road is encountered, with an older bypass of the town (early 1990s) passing up the hill from it as dual carriageway.

The rest of the route to Cork is two lanes wide, with a section of 2+1 road (a pilot installation) south of Mallow.

[citation needed] Under the government's cancelled Transport 21 initiative,[3] the Atlantic Corridor road project aimed to link Letterkenny to Waterford via Limerick and Cork with high quality roadway.

A major part of this proposal involved the potential upgrading of the N20 route between Cork and Limerick.

[2] In June 2024, the National Road Design team recommended that the revised 80km of the N20 be developed as a tolled motorway.