What’s happening?A motorway / dual carriageway network is being planned between the major cities in Ireland. This motorway network will be tolled. Each time you enter the motorway you will receive a ticket. When you leave you will be charged. The amount charged will depend on the distance travelled. You will be able to get on to the motorway at a limited number of places, typically every 6 to 10 miles. The existing road network will remain. Lands are being compulsorily acquired. Most of the payments are based on agricultural value unless the land is already actually zoned for development. Who’s building it?The National Roads Authority (NRA) was set up in 1994 by the government and has been given the job to build these motorways. The only person who can interfere in any way with the NRA is the Minister for the Environment. Otherwise the NRA is completely independent of government but has all the powers of government when it comes to CPOing land and using the courts to force sales etc. What’s a motorway?How does a motorway differ from the roads we are used to? Chalk and cheese! If you want to cross the Dublin road on foot, on a bike or with a car at any point, then you simply wait for a break in the traffic. If you want to cross a motorway then you must go to the nearest |
interchange to do so. This could be 5 miles away. Or maybe more! We simply have not been told. We can only judge from typical motorways that are already in operation. All this is far in the future, yes?Wrong. This is how it used to be. Now there’s a dramatic change. The NRA has a huge war chest of about £5billion to spend and only 5 years to spend it. We’ve never seen anything like it. For example in Kilkenny on the proposed N9/N10, many of you will have seen the helicopters during the past week flying about in a most intimidating and intrusive manner, photographing your houses, farms, properties and businesses. All without your permission! By September a preferred corridor will be announced. Immediately the affected landowners will receive registered letters. The real tragedy will then be on the doorstep. Right now it is just over the horizon. We need this motorway, right?We certainly need better roads. And towns and villages need bypassing. But we do not need an enormous motorway network. Why not? Because the combined capacity of an average motorway together with the capacity of the existing road is about 70,000 vehicles per day. But for example the predicted traffic in the year 2019 according to the NRA is 11,500 vehicles per day to from Waterford to Mullinavat and only 8,500 from Mullinavat to Ballyhale in Co. Kilkenny. This overcapacity is repeated throughout the country. So what? Less cars mean faster times to Dublin, OK?Take an example. The predicted saving in time from Waterford to Dublin on a motorway is 30 minutes. Then you can take hours to travel the rest of your journey around Dublin. Based on today’s figures this 30 minutes will cost about £500 million – about £16 million pounds per minute saved. By |
the time the road is build in 5 years hence, at construction inflation of 15% per annum the cost will have doubled. So it will then be costing more than £30 million pounds per minute saved in travelling. But commuting time around Dublin has increased 30 minutes in the last year alone. And people with cancer can’t get hospital beds because there’s no money for health. Something’s not right here! I’m all right Jack?Sorry! The biggest long-term problems caused by a motorway are the social problems. A physical barrier will divide your community. Just imagine if suddenly your parish was located on either side of a river. Just imagine the changes. Well the motorway is much worse. A boat cannot cross it. You cannot swim across. You are not allowed to walk or run across. The nearest bridge could be 5 miles away. The motorway introduces a river of pollution and noxious material and flooding risks that will only get worse over the centuries. It will last as long as the Rock of Cashel. The noise levels will be unimaginable. The NRA’s approach to screening is a inadequate. In 20 years time many of the shrubs they are planting now will need replacing. They will not reduce the noise. We can’t stop progress!We believe in progress too. But our definition of progress and the NRA’s are different. We believe communities are more important than unnecessary motorways. And yes, we can stop the motorway. In later editions of this newsletter we will be providing you with information on how a motorway was stopped in Germany and how one was actually dug up in North America. In the next newsletter we’ll tell you why this nightmare is happening.¨
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