Interesting traffic figures were revealed on Thursday August 9th
at the Oral Hearing into the proposed Waterford Bypass. Under cross
examination, Mr. John Murphy representing the developer's
consultants stated that traffic projections carried out by them with
the aid of a computer model predict that in the year 2005, the
volume of traffic on Rice bridge will be 40,000 vehicles per
day. But the traffic in the year 2000 on Rice bridge was
33,500. So despite providing a bypass and new bridge, the volume of
traffic on Rice bridge in 2005 will have increased by almost 20%.
And the new bridge which could carry 42,000 vehicles per day will
carry only 14,000 vehicles per day in the same year. The
reason for this is the tolling of the new bridge. It is estimated
that a car will be charged £1 each time it crosses the bridge in
either direction and trucks will be charged £3.50. The
implication of this is that the congestion presently choking the
life out of Waterford City is set to continue indefinitely thanks to
tolling and the Public Private Partnership. No doubt this fact
will prove interesting to Waterford Corporation who, in addition to
being the lead developer for the proposed bypass, are carrying out
the Planning, Land Use and Transportation study (PLUTS)
with a view to achieving a reduction in the traffic in the city.
Thursday
August 9th 2001
Campaign
for Sensible Transport (CaST)
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