(Article) Total Cost of Motorway Links to Dublin €8bn - NRA

Amtmann

THE CONSTRUCTION of motorways linking Dublin with other cities has cost €8 billion, with €5.3 billion coming from the exchequer, according to research by the National Roads Authority.

With routes linking the capital with Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford due for completion by the end of the year, NRA chief executive Fred Barry called for a multi-year plan to upgrade the remaining two-thirds of the national road network, mostly single carriageway routes.

“An awful lot of the remaining roads are in very poor shape” and local communities are calling for resolutions to local traffic and road safety problems.

“Without a plan we will have a continuing free-for-all where everyone insists their problem is the worst in the country and should have priority and a section here or there gets approval.”

With uncertainty over the level of State funding available in the short term, Mr Barry said adding tolls to existing roads to raise money for route upgrades was a possibility, but stressed this was a decision for government.

There are currently six tolls on the five interurban motorways.

“Whether the Government prefers to raise the money through tolls or taxes – even money from Europe started as taxes – is up to them. But ultimately the user ends up paying.”

With the motorways almost complete the NRA has details on the final cost of the projects and has produced estimates of expected benefits.

Of the €8 billion overall cost, €1.46 billion , or 18.5 per cent of the total, was spent acquiring more than 7,800 hectares required for the 1,000km of motorway.

EU structural and cohesion funding provided €800 million while private sector investment, through tolls or public private partnerships, contributed €1.3 billion.

A further €120 million was spent on archaeological work, accounting for 1.5 per cent of the total.

Construction costs totalled €5.4 billion, or 69 per cent. Planning and design fees came to €240 million while VAT payments accounted for €620 million.

Mr Barry said between 2005 and 2007 land prices “got completely out of kilter” but despite this the average cost per kilometre for the motorways was €8 million, which he said was “at the low end” of road-building costs in western Europe.

The NRA estimates the direct economic benefits of the motorway network at €24 billion, based on net present value, which is an estimate of all benefits now and into the future minus the cost.

In this calculation the biggest impact was in time savings coupled with fewer fatal and serious injury collisions.

This year the NRA was allocated €44 million to maintain national routes, a figure Mr Barry believes is less than half that required.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0520/1224270711400.html

Atlantic Dawn

A further €120 million was spent on archaeological work,

What the hell of use to anybody did they expect to find that they spent €120 million on :rolleyes:

marmurr1916

An article in the Irish Times states that the Major-Inter Urban routes between Dublin and other centres have cost €8 billion, €5.3 billion from the state (taxpayers) and the rest from the private sector and the EU (€800 million).

The average cost per kilometre was about €8 million, at 'the low end' of road building costs for western Europe.

That doesn't seem too bad.

THE CONSTRUCTION of motorways linking Dublin with other cities has cost €8 billion, with €5.3 billion coming from the exchequer, according to research by the National Roads Authority.

With routes linking the capital with Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford due for completion by the end of the year, NRA chief executive Fred Barry called for a multi-year plan to upgrade the remaining two-thirds of the national road network, mostly single carriageway routes.

“An awful lot of the remaining roads are in very poor shape” and local communities are calling for resolutions to local traffic and road safety problems.

“Without a plan we will have a continuing free-for-all where everyone insists their problem is the worst in the country and should have priority and a section here or there gets approval.”

With uncertainty over the level of State funding available in the short term, Mr Barry said adding tolls to existing roads to raise money for route upgrades was a possibility, but stressed this was a decision for government.

There are currently six tolls on the five interurban motorways.

“Whether the Government prefers to raise the money through tolls or taxes – even money from Europe started as taxes – is up to them. But ultimately the user ends up paying.”

With the motorways almost complete the NRA has details on the final cost of the projects and has produced estimates of expected benefits.

Of the €8 billion overall cost, €1.46 billion , or 18.5 per cent of the total, was spent acquiring more than 7,800 hectares required for the 1,000km of motorway.

EU structural and cohesion funding provided €800 million while private sector investment, through tolls or public private partnerships, contributed €1.3 billion.

A further €120 million was spent on archaeological work, accounting for 1.5 per cent of the total.

Construction costs totalled €5.4 billion, or 69 per cent. Planning and design fees came to €240 million while VAT payments accounted for €620 million.

Mr Barry said between 2005 and 2007 land prices “got completely out of kilter” but despite this the average cost per kilometre for the motorways was €8 million, which he said was “at the low end” of road-building costs in western Europe.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0520/1224270711400.html

The building of these motorways must surely be linked to the fact that road deaths in Ireland are down 42% since 2005.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0520/1224270711390.html

Tech3

There is also a hint of a statement from the NRA saying that the amount of road building in the near future is going to severly ramp down and more funding is required to keep them in the job.

I'm sure the general public could not bear any more toll plazas being installed on the MUI's. Perhaps the M9 should really have one and being fair the M18 also when Gort-Tuam is done only IF it goes to funding the likes of the N17 from Tuam to Claremorris, N21 Adare to Abbeyfeale, N24, N5 etc..

Amtmann

Threads merged (oldest on top).

marmurr1916

Furet wrote: »

Threads merged (oldest on top).

Beat me by about 8 minutes!

MrDerp

Furet wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0520/1224270711400.html

That's 19,274 acres

1,460,000,000 / 19274 = 75,749 euro per acre

What a ****ing disgrace, for predominantly agricultural land. Cui bono?

zootroid

marmurr1916 wrote: »

An article in the Irish Times states that the Major-Inter Urban routes between Dublin and other centres have cost €8 billion, €5.3 billion from the state (taxpayers) and the rest from the private sector and the EU (€800 million).

The average cost per kilometre was about €8 million, at 'the low end' of road building costs for western Europe.

That doesn't seem too bad.



http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0520/1224270711400.html

The building of these motorways must surely be linked to the fact that road deaths in Ireland are down 42% since 2005.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0520/1224270711390.html

Definitely. In the media they put it down to more rigorous enforcement, but I don't buy that for a minute. Road improvements have had a much greater effect

munchkin_utd

same as the matra of speed kills being the only factor in accidents.

INAPPROPRIATE-ly high speed for the conditions and particular road is pure dangerous.

I was involved in a head on collision on a National secondary road** where a lad took a 90° bend too quick (but within the limit so couldnt have been done by the hairdryer squad!) and took us clean out of it at the apex of the curve rather than career straight off the road into a field. (Bad timing by us!)
This bend is now gone thanks to recent road improvement schemes.
Until a couple of years ago this bend was taking a life every other year along with numerous non fatal accidents.
Now its accident free.

But its accident-free-ness is nothing to do with the cops, road safety authorites or anybody like that on an enforcement drive.
And nothing to do with speed. People are now driving much much faster on that section of road.

It because a couple of million was shelled out to get rid of a dangerous section of busy road!!
Just like all over the country in the past few years.

**was actually a section on the Cavan Clones national secondary road but within Northern Ireland so technically a uk "A" road starting and ending in the republic, for whatever difference that makes

Dirigent

MrDerp wrote: »

That's 19,274 acres

1,460,000,000 / 19274 = 75,749 euro per acre

What a ****ing disgrace, for predominantly agricultural land. Cui bono?

Mr Parlon's lasting legacy. He was the one who negotiated the price during his period as IFA leader.

Aard

MrDerp wrote: »

That's 19,274 acres

1,460,000,000 / 19274 = 75,749 euro per acre

What a ****ing disgrace, for predominantly agricultural land. Cui bono?

I'm not up on property/land prices around the country, but that does seem rather expensive. How much would you say such land should cost?

hi5

Aard wrote: »

I'm not up on property/land prices around the country, but that does seem rather expensive. How much would you say such land should cost?

Existing use value plus 25% as per the Kenny report of 1973.(which was never enacted)

But even existing use values were skewed in Ireland due to 'hope values' attached to all land in Ireland because of corrupt planning.

See agricultural prices for 2006 here.
http://www.farmersjournal.ie/2007/0113/farmbusiness/business/property.shtml

MrDerp

hi5 wrote: »

Existing use value plus 25% as per the Kenny report of 1973.(which was never enacted)

But even existing use values were skewed in Ireland due to 'hope values' attached to all land in Ireland because of corrupt planning.

See agricultural prices for 2006 here.
http://www.farmersjournal.ie/2007/0113/farmbusiness/business/property.shtml

There you have it. Covers most if not all of the motorway counties. This is a 2006 report, so peak boom values or thereabouts

We paid at least double the inflated bubble value, on average, per acre. Who sets out the CPO prices, local councils?

Yet it's trumpeted out in Irish newspapers as "Look at the impressive amount we paid for the land used in the motorway network". Part of the sickness we've had in this country where paying more for something was heralded as a sign of success. It's time the media turned the screw on this nonsense. We need a root and branch review and reform of all aspects of public sector procurement.

Road-Hog

hi5 wrote: »

Existing use value plus 25% as per the Kenny report of 1973.(which was never enacted)

But even existing use values were skewed in Ireland due to 'hope values' attached to all land in Ireland because of corrupt planning.

See agricultural prices for 2006 here.
http://www.farmersjournal.ie/2007/0113/farmbusiness/business/property.shtml

I think you are all forgetting about the ancillary costs assoicated with acquiring land, there is the baisic cost per hectare but the landowner also receives a payment for 'injurous affection' kind of like damages based on the impact that the road will have on the holding, most likely too that the valuers, legal and any other expert employed by both parties are also included in the overall figure for land purchase...