 At 4pm on 28 May 2010 it was the final section of the Dublin-Cork interurban route to open.The contractor building the scheme was Portlaoise Joint Venture (PJV), which was acquired by BAM before the project's completion.The scheme drew national attention during the preliminary archaeological investigations in January 2006 when over 500 human skeletons from the seventh century were discovered at the townland of Parknahown just south of Cullahill.