Why does it take so long to start a road project?

SeanW

Just reading roadmaster's (I think) good post in the N4 Mullingar to Longford thread that even with the green-lighting of a proposal for that route, it's going to be "the late 2020s" before any construction work actually begins. There's a similar problem IIRC with the proposed Athlone-Ballymahon N55 upgrade, it's going to be years and years before work starts.


My question thusly, is this - how come it takes so long from "green-lighting" a project to actually building the damn thing? Surely the process should be straightforward:
1) Green light the project
2) Do the design.
3) Clear it with An Bord Pleanala,
4) Put it out to tender and start construction.


Why does this take 10 years and (realistically) any way to compress the timeline any?

AugustusMinimus

SeanW wrote: »

Just reading roadmaster's (I think) good post in the N4 Mullingar to Longford thread that even with the green-lighting of a proposal for that route, it's going to be "the late 2020s" before any construction work actually begins. There's a similar problem IIRC with the proposed Athlone-Ballymahon N55 upgrade, it's going to be years and years before work starts.


My question thusly, is this - how come it takes so long from "green-lighting" a project to actually building the damn thing? Surely the process should be straightforward:
1) Green light the project
2) Do the design.
3) Clear it with An Bord Pleanala,
4) Put it out to tender and start construction.


Why does this take 10 years and (realistically) any way to compress the timeline any?

IMO, the current government simply don’t want to spend the cash and are therefore stretching out all projects on purpose.

Projects were shovel ready in much shorter timescales in the early 2000s.

marno21

We are beginning to enter into a period of roadbuilding once again after circa 8 years of dormancy. During the period 2014-2017, the only major starts were the 3 PPPs, which had the bulk of their non construction work done during the boom. The lack of projects advanced through planning and design during that stage is causing issues now because they are so far from construction. Had they been advanced through the relatively cheap stages of planning and design during the barren years they could go to construction now. Enda Kenny did not agree with my stance here.

Major road projects now follow a defined set of guidelines, the TII Project Management Guidelines heer: https://www.tii.ie/tii-library/strategic-planning/project-appraisal-guidelines/Project%20Mangement%20Guidelines%202010 . These were brought in after the major road building splurge of the boom times. There is more paperwork nowadays required by this process than before, and the regional RDOs have reduced staffing levels and projects are getting less funding. This is a major contributor to the delays.

The solution to the lengthy processes is to adequately resource the road design offices and also to adequately fund the projects. It should not take 5 years from project conception to ABP application as it's taking at the minute with the M21 and N6 Galway City bypass projects.

The root of this issue is a Government who are not providing the level of political backing and resultant financial contribution to TII to get these projects advanced at a more preferable pace. The money required to get most projects to the planning permission stage is pittance but it's still not getting allocated. A Fine Gael government with an Independent transport minister who doesn't care one bit about his brief is a recipe for disaster. Until there is a change of Government I don't expect any change in this field.

Chris_5339762

On top of that, I think people are much more trigger happy with the legal appeals process thesedays. I don't remember the level of opposition to the M8, and M7 and M6 and etc etc that we are seeing to just about anything thesedays. Back in the day, they only objected to the Glen of the Downs, and the M3. Nowadays anything is being hit by NIMBYs and BANANAs.

Kermit.de.frog

What's BANANAs?

SeanW

NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard
NOTE = Not Over There Either
BANANA = Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.

Bards

SeanW wrote: »

NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard
NOTE = Not Over There Either
BANANA = Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.

Is that why we are often referred to as a BANANA Republic..... LOL

BelfastVanMan

In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the exportation of a limited-resource product, such as bananas or minerals.