The N52 road is a national secondary road in Ireland. It links the M7 motorway from just south of Nenagh, County Tipperary to the M1 motorway north of Dundalk in County Louth. The route forms a connection between the north east of Ireland and the mid west traversing the midlands. It interchanges with the M6 at Kilbeggan and at Tyrrellspass, the N4 at Mullingar, the N3 at Kells, and the N2 at Ardee before continuing towards Dundalk. The road is long. Quality of Road The road is mainly single carriageway two-lane throughout. It has some upgraded sections, but generally the standard is poor or very poor. It starts (from the southwest) at a grade separated junction with the M7 motorway and bypasses Nenagh on its western side as single carriageway. Past Nenagh, it is generally a single carriageway road with no hard shoulders all the way to Birr. Many sections of this part of the route are very poor through County Tipperary with sharp bends. The route from Birr to Tullamore was upgraded in recent years and has good alignment, hard shoulders and a good surface as has the section from Tullamore to Kilbeggan which was upgraded in the 1970s. At Tullamore the route forms a bypass of Mucklagh and Tullamore. The road forms an interchange on the M6 motorway south of Kilbeggan and follows it eastwards to the Tyrrellspass exit. (Prior to the opening of the M6 the route went through Kilbeggan town and went past the racecourse via Ballinagore). From the Tyrrellspass junction it heads north to Mullingar as the Tyrrellspass eastern bypass and the eastern bypass of Mullingar (opened May 2007). It briefly joins the N4 dual-carriageway just outside Mullingar before leaving to head 5 kilometres east over what was once a notoriously dangerous road to Cloughan, which has since been upgraded. Past Cloughan the route continues on a very poor road to Delvin and Clonmellon. The poor road quality continues to Kells, where it meats the N3 to Cavan, and Ardee, where it meets the N2 to Derry, before reaching the M1 south of Dundalk. Prior to 2009, the Mullingar to Delvin stretch was an extremely dangerous road, and as of 2016, half of it has been upgraded to wide shouldered road. Eventually the route will be upgraded with the old road used for local access only. Two kilometers of dual-carriageway take it to the R132