Cork/Galway Motorways built by 2006

Qadhafi

Brennan accelerates plans for €2.5bn motorways
Saturday October 18th 2003
Treacy Hogan
Environment Correspondent
The Irish Independent
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THE Government has ordered the fast-tracking of full motorways from Cork and Galway to Dublin costing €2.5bn as part of an overhaul of the National Development Plan.

The National Pensions Reserve Fund is to be asked to help fund one of the roads in exchange for getting generous tolls revenue. The Cork to Dublin route is the one likely to attract investment from the Fund.

The Government wants the two motorways to be finished by 2006 - and it also wants to set "more realistic targets" for the rest of the NDP.

Earlier this year, the Government was forced to accept that the NDP target to build five inter-urban highways between Dublin and the cities could take until 2012 - six years later than the original NDP target.

Transport Minister Seamus Brennan said last night he is to ask the National Pensions Reserve Fund to invest in the Cork highway in exchange for getting the toll money.

The Fund has already told the Government it is interested in bankrolling the €300m facelift of the M50 and its notorious interchanges in a deal that would give the Fund payback from the Westlink toll bridges, Mr Brennan said.

He would try and interest it in the inter-city motorway plan which involves tolling large volumes of traffic.

The minister also confirmed that he has instructed the National Roads Authority to prioritise the completion of economic corridors to the west and south as part of the review of the National Development Plan now under way.

The new roads strategy will be published in the coming months, Mr Brennan said.

The bill for completing the two motorways will be €2.5bn - €1.5bn for Cork and €1bn for Galway.

"I've asked the NRA to fast-track them for completion by 2006. We will then have the three basic economic spines in place," he said, adding that there was scope for extra tolling on these roads, and investment by the National Pensions Reserve Fund.

However, he insisted the move would not mean other schemes would be sacrificed and maintained that most of the €1.2bn annual Exchequer cash for national roads would remain intact for other projects earmarked to 2006.

Mr Brennan said the NDP, officially being reviewed at its halfway stage, would be altered in favour of "more realistic targets". "I intend to publish in the coming months an overall outline of a clear strategy for transport in Ireland in the years and decades ahead," he said.

Under the NDP, major transport infrastructure projects were supposed to cost €6bn, but a recent Department of Finance commissioned report put the final cost at more than €15bn.

Mr Brennan stressed last night that the NDP would remain in place but he had told the NRA to set out realistic targets with a special priority for the Dublin-Galway and Dublin-Cork economic corridors.

Meanwhile, the National Roads Authority has called for urgent reform to speed up the delivery of important infrastructure, including national road schemes, writes Martha Kearns.

NRA chairman Peter Malone said that major shortcomings in the procedures and regulations were inhibiting the efficient and cost effective delivery of infrastructure.

And he called for serious consideration to be given to a "one-stop shop" development approval mechanism.

"It is unrealistic to expect that major projects can always be brought in on time and within budget under the current regulatory environment," Mr Malone said at a conference on transportation policy in Tralee, Co Kerry yesterday.

Mr Malone said the NRA had made real progress in recent years with 26 schemes, covering 187km, completed between 2000 and 2002 and a further 19 schemes involving 155km under construction at the start of 2003.

dmeehan

Under the NDP, major transport infrastructure projects were supposed to cost €6bn, but a recent Department of Finance commissioned report put the final cost at more than €15bn.

f-f-f-f-f-farleys rusks!!!!

how can they cost that so wrong, there is quite a big difference between €6bn and €15bn. I think the NRA need to employ completly new staff in their estimates dept.

star gazer

The Government wants the two motorways to be finished by 2006 - and it also wants to set "more realistic targets" for the rest of the NDP.

Now which one is it, more realistic targets or finishing the Cork-Dublin motorway, you can't have both?

Qadhafi

They can build Galway/Cork motorways by 2006 for €2,6bn no sweat if they pull their fingers out sort the planning side of things out.

Its only 2 roads its not like were trying to build a tunnel to france! :horned:

Victor

This very much sounds like Election 2007 preparation.

Originally posted by dmeehan
how can they cost that so wrong, there is quite a big difference between €6bn and €15bn. I think the NRA need to employ completly new staff in their estimates dept.

One is 1999 money, one is 2012 money. Remember when a Kit-Kat cost 30p?

dmeehan

Originally posted by Victor
This very much sounds like Election 2007 preparation. One is 1999 money, one is 2012 money. Remember when a Kit-Kat cost 30p?

well I dont think that inflation is going to hit almost 300% over 13 years!

Victor

Originally posted by dmeehan
well I dont think that inflation is going to hit almost 300% over 13 years!

We are talking about inflation in two particular parts of the economy - land and construction. My sister bought a house for £54,000 in 1988, it is now worth €300,000+ (£236,269). Inflation of 337% in 15 years.

The cost of a km of motorway has increase ten-fold in the last ten years (builders were hungry in 1993).

You then have specification inflation where at the start of the NDP a two lane bypass might have been planned and it is now going to be a dual carriageway. Or where grasss medians had been acceptable, crash barriers are now going to be installed, and junxtions upgraded .....

The whole NDP, while having some vision, didn't realise what effect it itself would cause on prices.

Sarsfield

Now, if a fraction of that budget could be put aside to provide double railway track all the way to Galway, with a reasonable increase in train frequency, then I mightn't have a problem with the road plan.

star gazer

Its only 2 roads its not like were trying to build a tunnel to france! :horned:
Qadhafi

Well the way so many road delays have come about, the cost of building a kilometer of motorway doubling in two years, the questionable planning system we have and the oh so strong leadership we have at the moment.
2016 is more likely.

Floater

Originally posted by Victor
You then have specification inflation where at the start of the NDP a two lane bypass might have been planned and it is now going to be a dual carriageway.

Specification inflation or doing the job properly? Most of the infrastructural problems today arise because only n lanes were built and now we need n+2 or n+4.

Switzerland put a 5c/litre tax on petrol in the 1950s to finance the construction of a federal motorway network which though old is fine by 2003 standards because it was done properly. And public transport has kept ahead of the road system in providing a more attractive solution for most journeys.

About twenty years ago they introduced a windscreen vignette to fund maintenance of the motorway network. It costs CHF 40 and it allows one to use the complete network for a year. No toll booth delays. They could and probably should have a more expensive vignette for trucks!

The only area where the Swiss motorway system is suffering under pressure is the North South truck route that connects Italy with Germany and other parts of Northern Europe - ie international transit traffic. Most of that traffic will be forced on the rails once the new tunnel systems are open.

Or where grasss medians had been acceptable, crash barriers are now going to be installed, and junxtions upgraded .....

Grass medians are surely a luxury compared with crash barriers?They take up at least as much valuable land as would provide an extra lane in each direction on a motorway. Bad VFM! Build a new motorway that has "too many lanes" for demand on opening day. A superior strategy to adding lanes at a later stage - which must be the ultimate in inflation in terms of road creation costs and the cost for road users.


Floater