[Article] NTR proposal to upgrade M50

Victor

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-904721,00.html

Road toll firm wants rates cap for M50 work
The Sunday Times - Ireland
November 23, 2003
Stephen O’Brien

NATIONAL Toll Roads (NTR) has asked for a cap on its €3m rates bill and an end to the state’s share of toll revenues in return for upgrading the M50 motorway.
The country’s only private toll-booth operator is offering a €500m revamp of the Dublin route in return for the concessions.

The upgrade would add an extra lane in either direction from the M1 near Dublin airport to the N81 intersection near Tallaght. Traffic lights would be removed and flyovers and access roads to busy intersections such as the Red Cow roundabout would be added. The company declined to comment on the details of its proposal yesterday.

The NTR has already asked for a 15- to 20-year extension to its contract to operate the Westlink toll bridge in return for the upgrade. The company’s 30-year lease on the Westlink is due to expire in 2020.

The bridge was opened in the 1980s when less than 5,000 vehicles a day crossed it. Traffic on the bridge now tops 80,000 vehicles a day, and is expected to generate €43m in revenue for NTR next year. The state’s share of the toll charge was €7.6m last year.

Seamus Brennan, the transport minister, and the National Roads Authority (NRA), are considering the proposals. NTR’s offer would be attractive to Brennan because it would mean the busiest motorway in Ireland being upgraded at no direct cost to his department.

The roads authority is understood to be wary of NTR’s proposal as the state could strike a better deal by allowing other contractors to bid for the tolling lease on the Westlink bridge.

The NRA has proposed its own cheaper upgrade of the Dublin outer-ring motorway, which was priced at €316m in 2001.

The decision on whether to accept the private toll booth operator’s offer will require the approval of both the NRA and the minister.

The transport minister has also asked the NRA to take a “whole road” approach to the completion of the M8 (Portlaoise to Cork), and the M5 (Kinnegad to Galway). This means the NRA should consider inviting tenders for the remaining sections of each road as a single contract, instead of splitting each motorway into four or five separate projects.


IT is not only motorists who are paying a toll on the country’s roads. A new study has found that workers who collect the levies are stressed out by angry drivers and noisy traffic.
A survey of 42 toll workers on Dublin’s M50 found that three-quarters claimed they were pressurised by noise levels and 93% felt unsafe. Four out of five blamed their stress on verbal abuse by motorists.

The findings are part of new research at University College Dublin into stress risks in the workplace.

Genghis

Originally posted by Victor
Traffic lights would be removed and flyovers and access roads to busy intersections such as the Red Cow roundabout would be added

.... leaving the toll booths themselves as the final remaining bottleneck?

Actually, I think this is a good proposal, so long as NTR:

1. Also adopt measures to ensure that the tolling does not unreasonable slow traffic (and never STOP) traffic, such as electronic tolling - including penalty mechanisms where the gates open if traffic is stopped.
2. That they cede the right to set tolls to the Government
3. That they let other consortia bid for the future lease too

Am I wrong, or is the last 5 miles of the existing M50 (going east from the N81) wider than the rest of the M50 anyway - and would this be the reason that NTR are not proposing to upgrade this part of the motorway (i.e. it only needs re-painting).

Mailman

15-20 year extension is unacceptable at any price.
A road intended to ease traffic congestion in urban areas shouldn't be tolled.

Victor

Originally posted by Genghis
Am I wrong, or is the last 5 miles of the existing M50 (going east from the N81) wider than the rest of the M50 anyway - and would this be the reason that NTR are not proposing to upgrade this part of the motorway (i.e. it only needs re-painting).

It doesn't have and is unlikely to have the same traffic demand as the rest. I haven't used that section of the road, but as it is winding andthere are cuttings, yes certainly the site will be wider, I don't knwo about the lanes.

Originally posted by Mailman
15-20 year extension is unacceptable at any price.

Certainly not without a tender.

Originally posted by Mailman
A road intended to ease traffic congestion in urban areas shouldn't be tolled.

The problem is when it is turned into a route to large suburban shopping centres, as it has. Tolling discourages excessive use. Build a road and it will be filled.

Victor

This is looking serioursly dodgy, Brennan appeears to want to agree to a €500m+ deal without going to tender.

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/2117694?view=Eircomnet

EUR500m Red Cow revamp favoured ahead of 'stilts'
From:ireland.com
Tuesday, 9th December, 2003

Plans to put the Luas line "on stilts" at Dublin's Red Cow roundabout are likely to be scrapped in favour of a new €500 million deal between the private company, National Toll Roads (NTR), and the National Roads Authority (NRA), the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, announced yesterday.

The deal involves the rebuilding of the Red Cow interchange without the roundabout, and the addition of another motorway lane on the M50, between Tallaght and the Dublin Airport junction.

The Minister said he was "strongly of the view" that the deal should go ahead, having seen computer predictions and a scale model depiction of the impact of the changes on the Luas line.

However, he said that the Red Cow interchange should be done first - "in year one of the project" - before the other aspects of the deal were implemented.

The Minister said he has "asked NTR to put it all in writing", and if that is good enough "then we have a deal". The Minister said the project was to be driven with some urgency and NTR had told him work could begin within 18 months if they had a decision from him in the next four weeks.

Involved is a complete redesign of the M50 junction with the N7 - the junction which joins the State's busiest and second-busiest roads. The M50 at the Red Cow is now carrying up to 100,000 vehicles a day, while the N7 is carrying about 70,000. Congestion in the area is chronic.

Under the proposed scheme, there would be "freeflow" of traffic using "clover leaf" spirals and new slip roads - "the spaghetti junction" option - according to the Minister.

"It is the best solution. If they can bring it forward and say to me it will take 50 or 70 per cent of traffic out of crossing the Luas line, then I will go for it."

Mr Brennan added: "The NRA says it is very doable".

It is understood NTR, which recently completed the second west link bridge at a cost of about €23 million, is seeking a longer concession on its west link toll franchise in return for building the new junction and M50 improvements.

The NRA initially envisaged rebuilding all the junctions along the M40 and adding a third lane between the airport and Sandyford in south county Dublin.

The Minister also revealed that he has not come to a final decision on the clearance height of the Dublin Port Tunnel. The first report from Atkins consultants suggested that the tunnel clearance height might be amended to take lorries above the 4.65 metre standard at a cost of just €20 million, without significantly delaying the project.

Mailman

Does it really cost €500Million Euro or is that just the price that NRA are telling the minister it costs.

Asking that question first because it leads on to the second question which is are the NRA serving the public interest.
Are the NRA independent of construction industry? I've heard that the NRA QUANGO is run by construction industry for the benefit of the construction industry. Is this true?

Are the NRA even remotely interested in value for money. NRA seem to be more interested in getting projects under way than in getting value for money which is why they have championed public\private partnerships because it gives the guarantee of the funds to get the projects underway where as if they wait on government there is no guarantee that funds won't be withdrawn halfway through the project - Public\Private partnerships are a civil servant's solution to a problem - the result isn't ideal but the task the civil servant has been tasked with is "completed".

silverside

1) As victor says surely something like this has to go to tender- Is this an actual EU law?

2) If it does go ahead how likely is it that some big European construction company will go to court to get the chance to bid.

Victor

Originally posted by Mailman
Asking that question first because it leads on to the second question which is are the NRA serving the public interest. Are the NRA independent of construction industry? I've heard that the NRA QUANGO is run by construction industry for the benefit of the construction industry. Is this true?

There are concerns of the make up of the NRA - the board is made up of council, engineer and construction types, who happen to be the types who get all the contracts. The problem with not having independent experience.