The M7 around Portlaoise has fully reopened following an incident involving an overturned truck and thousands of live chickens.
AA Roadwatch say: “The M7 has reopened northbound between J17 Portlaoise Centre and J16 Portlaoise East following an incident early this morning.
“It’s still heavy approaching J17, though these delays should begin to ease.”
The truck overturned around 1.30am overnight and it was full with around 8,000 live chickens.
Gardai were manning points at Togher and the Meelick interchange on the Abbeyleix Road as Northbound traffic was diverted this way past Rathleague.
And motorists trying to travel Southbound towards Cork and Limerick were hampered by motorists joining the roundabout at the Midway too early and then sitting in that lane as they wait to go all the way around the roundabout and into Portlaoise.
At one point, there was a tailback from the toll bridge after the Mountrath exit all the way to Rathleague and into Portlaoise itself.
Speaking earlier, a Garda source told LaoisToday that the scene of the accident ‘is a mess’ but luckily no person was seriously injured when the truck overturned.
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