06.01.10
Posted in News, Tolls, Transport at 12:59 am by Vincent
Group critical of M3 traffic use
The Irish Times - Tuesday, June 1, 2010
A group which opposed the construction of the M3 road has said the taxpayer is facing a bill of €1.3 million per annum because insufficient traffic will use the new motorway. The 61 kilometre M3 officially opens on Friday but Tara Watch spokesman Vincent Salafia said revenue from two tolls on the road scheme will not meet income targets. Tara Watch says the NRA through the taxpayer expects to pay Eurolink a minimum of €1.3 million in the first year due to a predicted 3,250 vehicle a day shortfall.
PRESS RELEASE – TARAWATCH
31 May 2010
NRA Expects to Pay Millions in Shadow Tolls to M3 Toll Company from Opening Day
The National Roads Authority (NRA) expects the M3 motorway to lose money, from the very first day of opening, 4 June. Taxpayers will spend millions in ’shadow tolls’ or direct payments to the Public Private Partner (PPP), Eurolink (SIAC & Ferrovial) due to a confidential ‘˜minimum traffic guarantee’ in the 45 year contract.
According to the NRA’s own figures the M3 will, “on opening”, have traffic volume of “approximately 22,000 vehicles daily”, which is 3,500 vehicles below the NRA’s threshold for shadow tolls of 25,250. Fred Barry, Chief Executive Officer of the NRA, revealed that the threshold for shadow tolling is 25,250 vehicles a day at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport on“ 18 November 2009, saying:
“The level of traffic guarantee set out in the PPP contract for the initial year of operation is a combined total for the two plazas of 25,250 vehicles per day. If the traffic levels are 25,000 and the debt level thresholds are contravened, the concessionaire would receive an additional payment of approximately €100,000. If the traffic levels are 35,000 no additional payment arises.”
This means that the NRA expects to pay Eurolink a minimum of €1.3 mil, in the first year of operation, due to the predicted 3,250 vehicle a day shortfall, adding up to approximately €60 mil over the life of the contract. This could rise significantly if traffic levels do not reach 22,000. TaraWatch is predicting that traffic levels will be 10,000 – 15,000, meaning a total cost of approximately €180-240 mil, over the 45 yr life of the contract, based on a number of factors:
1. Current traffic volumes on the existing N3, which will remain open and free, were between approximately 14,000 and 16,000 last year, according to the NRA traffic counter statistics.
2. HGVs will avoid M3 tolls, by using the existing road, as was indicated by the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) in a statement on Wed, 26 May.
3. The M3 will have low cross-border through traffic, as is ends in Virgina, Co. Cavan.
4. Meath has been the hardest hit county in terms of job losses, due to the recession.
Vincent Salafia of TaraWatch said:
“Our campaign has been completely vindicated. Not only is the European Commission taking legal action against Ireland, which could result in massive fines for illegally demolishing national monuments at the Hill of Tara, but the road is an economic black hole for the taxpayer.
“The Government knew the M3 was economically non-viable, which is why they got special permission from the European Commission for shadow tolling, without informing the public. This is actually triple-taxation, when you add it on top of road tolls and vehicle tax, for a road that completely unnecessary, since it is only 5 miles from the proposed M2. The NRA has conceded that it is not a matter of ‘if’ the M3 will lose money; it is a question of ‘how much?’.
ENDS
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04.13.10
Posted in News, Transport at 10:37 pm by Vincent
Material in M3 also used in houses with subsidence
The Irish Times – Thursday, April 8, 2010
TIM O’BRIEN
MATERIAL USED in the construction of the M3 motorway in Co Meath was sourced from two quarries which also supplied material to houses later discovered to have problems with subsidence, an Oireachtas committee was told yesterday. However, the National Roads Authority insisted there were no implications regarding the motorway. More than 400 homes in north Co Dublin suffered from movement of foundations and up to 20,000 homes across the country have allegedly been damaged by pyrite, an infill material allegedly used in their construction.
While chief executive of the National Roads Authority (NRA) Fred Barry acknowledged infill material for the M3 had been sourced from two quarries from which alleged pyrite had also been obtained, he dismissed any suggestion of serious damage to the motorway. Mr Barry told Meath TD Shane McEntee (FG) there was no need for an independent audit of the M3 or the section of N3 from the West-Link toll to Clonee. Speaking at the Oireachtas Committee on Transport yesterday, Mr Barry said infill material for support structures such as cement pillars and steel bars was rigorously monitored and could be traced. The NRA was happy no material from the two quarries identified had been used in connection with either steel or cement. He said the material from the quarries could have been used on embankments. In this case, pyrite – if it had been present at all – was not boxed in by foundations as it would be in a house. There would be minimal impact if the material “shifted, heaved, or expanded” as it might in foundations.
Mr Barry said there was no recorded incidence of pyrite ever having definitively affected one of the national routes, although he did accept there was one recorded incidence of a motorway “heaving” by a few millimetres. It was not a serious problem he said, and had never been unquestionably attributed to pyrite. But Mr McEntee said he did not accept there was no need for an independent audit of the presence of pyrite in the motorway and he questioned whether the contractor would be willing or able to rectify the matter if major issues developed in a number of years, as had happened with the houses. Tommy Broughan TD (Lab) also questioned the NRA on the presence of pyrite saying he had been first to estimate that there may be up to 20,000 affected homes which were not covered by their insurance policies. The cost of remedial action for the houses could be as much as €60 billion, he said.
Mr Barry responded that as the M3 was a public private partnership the matter would be an issue for the contractor who would be operating the motorway and collecting tolls for the next 45 years. However he undertook to respond to the transport committee with the insurance provided by the contractor. On motorway service areas, Fine Gael spokesman on transport Fergus O’Dowd asked Mr Barry to confirm he had been told by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey not to spend money on the service area programme.Mr Barry acknowledged the NRA had received a letter from the Minister containing an instruction not to spend money on the programme.
WRITE TO lettersed@irishtimes.com
See also:
RTE: Pyrite caused two Meath homes ‘to explode’
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0407/construction.html
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09.16.09
Posted in News, Tolls, Transport at 7:25 pm by Vincent
An aerial view of the M3 near Clonee, Co Meath. Moving north towards Kells, heavy machinery, diggers and cranes continue to work on long stretches on what appear to be the basic outlines of junctions and interchanges. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Contentious M3 is 90% complete, says NRA
The Irish Times – Wednesday, September 16, 2009
THE CONTROVERSIAL M3 motorway in Co Meath, which has been the subject of several years of protests, is now almost 90 per cent complete, the National Roads Authority (NRA) has said. At almost 60km of main motorway and a further 40km of link roads and interchanges, the it is one of the longest motorways under construction in Europe. The M3 is not scheduled to open until July 2010. Work could still finish ahead of this scheduled date, but not before mid-spring next year, the NRA said. Beginning at Clonee, north of the Dublin-Meath border, it runs to Kells where it switches to a motorway-grade dual carriageway for the last 10km to the Cavan border. It will have two toll booths, charging €1.40 for cars. Dunshaughlin, Navan and Kells are bypassed along the route.
Controversially, the route runs just over 2km from the Hill of Tara, and adjacent to the Lismullin national monument and the hill fort of Rath Lugh. Protesters have occupied these latter two sites, blocking the road’s construction at various times in recent years, most memorably in March last year when conservationist Lisa Feeney, known as “Squeak” shut herself inside a chamber at the bottom of a 33-foot tunnel at Rath Lugh for 60 hours. No protesters are currently blocking or picketing any part of the motorway, and Vincent Salafia of Tarawatch said that such action is unlikely to recur. “The frontline part of the campaign is pretty much over. There are people still protesting in the area, but not on the front line of the road. At this stage any protest on the road would be a largely symbolic gesture, but that doesn’t mean the campaign is over.”
Recent changes to the criminal trespass laws had made such protests more difficult, Mr Salafia said, but he said Tarawatch was continuing to campaign against the road and hoped it might still be moved, even after its construction. Moving the road would be a possibility particularly if the Hill of Tara received Unesco World Heritage designation, Mr Salafia said. Tarawatch was also continuing to bring complaints against the NRA to EU bodies in relation to the destruction of ancient archaeology and heritage. Mr Salafia has criticised the cost to the taxpayer of the motorway. He said this will amount to €727.4 million over the life of the toll contract with Eurolink, which ends in 2052. However, NRA spokesman Seán O’Neill said Mr Salafia’s claims were a distortion of the facts. The road would cost about €720 million if Eurolink had not been involved and the cost was borne entirely by the State. “In fact only €250 million is being paid up front; the rest of the cost is being borne by the contractor . . . Distorting the figures doesn’t benefit the public, what benefits the public is the construction of a new, safe, value for money motorway.”
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09.14.09
Posted in News, Tolls, Transport at 7:31 pm by Vincent
Taxpayers face multi-billion euro motorway bill
Irish Independent – Saturday September 12 2009 – By Michael Brennan and Aine Kerr
TAXPAYERS are facing a multi-billion euro bill to fund the State’s new motorway network. The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report showed that the tolled M3 Clonee to Kells motorway, which is due to open next year, will cost taxpayers €727.4m in total over the next 42 years. The upgrade of the M50 ring road in Dublin from a two-lane to three-lane motorway by the ICON consortium will cost €1bn up to 2042. But while the State is paying private contractors for building and maintaining the roads in annual instalments, drivers will also have to pay billions of euro in tolls to use the motorways.
The Comptroller’s report said these public private partnership (PPP) contracts were signed for periods ranging from 30 to 45 years. However, the National Roads Authority (NRA) will share in some of the toll revenue if traffic exceeds certain targets. It earned €500,000 in toll revenue from the Kilcock/Kinnegad section of the Dublin-Galway motorway last year. The Comptroller’s report said the NRA believed it would earn €1.7bn in tolls from the motorways built under PPP contracts. The NRA also estimates it will earn a further €1bn in tolls by 2020 from the West Link toll bridge on the M50. But the report detailed the costs to the State of its buyout of the West Link toll bridge, which is now barrier free.
Responsibility
It now has to pay €50m per year to National Toll Roads (NTR) from August 2008 to March 2020 and assume responsibility for VAT of the order of €140m. The overall cost will be €600m. NTR originally invested £6m in the West Link toll bridge in 1987 — about €14m in today’s money. While there was provision for the reduction of tolls to zero in the agreements, subject to compensation of NTR for lost revenue, there was no provision for outright termination. “The absence of a termination clause hampered the State in its negotiations,” the report said. Meanwhile, the Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley also found that the State was unlikely to require any further carbon credits to meet its carbon emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol by 2012. The drop in the level of economic activity has led to a similar drop in carbon dioxide emissions. Although the State is still contracted to buy 8.3 million Kyoto units, it will be able to carry forward any excess credits to the post-2012 period.
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08.19.09
Posted in Tolls, Transport at 1:18 am by Vincent
Baron Wince, the M3 and the lords of incompetence
Sunday Tribune, 15 August 2009
Opinion – By David Kenny
Tenner for the first person who guesses what ‘Carbon Wine’, ‘Brace In Now!’ and ‘Bare Cow Inn’ have in common. My travelling companions didn’t make the connection. One threatened to connect his fist with my gob if I didn’t shut up, though. On Tuesday we headed to Tullamore for a lads’ night out with a friend who has swapped the Liffey for Offaly (he’s a ‘Liffo’). I spent the journey shouting out stupid anagrams of people’s names to irritate the other passengers. I can be really, really, really annoying when I’m bored. Brian Cowen’s name is stuffed with good anagrams, like the ones above, but I discovered one that describes him perfectly. It’s ‘Baron Wince’. You know the way you wince at your bills these days? That’s down to Baron Wince – Ireland’s Lord of Pain. We headed to the Baron’s local, the Brewery Tap, because I wanted to ask him what he knows about bi-location – being in two places at once. Noel Dempsey got me wondering about this last week as he defended the latest news from Tara. The Baron wasn’t about, so my question had to wait. (We’ll return to it later.)
The news from Tara is that we will have to compensate the operators of the M3 if the number of cars using it falls below a target agreed by the state. So what’s that target? Don’t ask the National Roads Authority. It would only say last week that it was “competitive”. Don’t ask Dempsey either. Newstalk’s Eamon Keane asked him if the public will ever be told. Not if it’s commercially sensitive, he replied, adding “what we WILL know is if the target is NOT reached”. So there you have it. How many cars make the M3 viable? Answer: mind your own business. Even after all the crookedness Fianna Fáil has displayed towards Tara, this latest revelation stopped me in my tracks. What next? Are they planning to sell the rights to Tara’s name, like The Point did to 02? Will we see ‘Welcome to The Hill of Eurolink’ as we approach Tara? It wouldn’t surprise me.
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07.17.09
Posted in European Union, Law Library, Litigation, News, Transport at 4:28 pm by Vincent
EU’s highest court upholds complaints against Ireland
Friday, July 17, 2009 – The Irish Times
JAMIE SMYTH in Brussels
THE GOVERNMENT has broken EU law by failing to conduct environmental impact assessments before allowing work to start on private road projects. The European Union’s highest court has also ruled that the Irish public is being denied its right under EU law to appeal against developments that could have a significant effect on the environment without facing prohibitive legal costs. In a judgment yesterday, the European Court of Justice said the practice whereby Irish courts could choose to waive legal costs for an unsuccessful party appealing on environmental grounds did not conform to European law. The court said it “is merely a discretionary practice on the part of the courts” and could not be regarded as “valid implementation of the obligations arising from” EU directives dating from 1985 and 2003.
The EU directives set out that the procedures established by governments for appealing projects on the basis that they may have a significant effect on the environment should not be “prohibitively expensive”. They form part of a series of EU laws passed over the past three decades aimed at giving the public more rights to participate in the planning project for developments. The ruling from the European Court of Justice could prompt a major reform of Irish law regarding the financing of planning appeals on environmental grounds.
A spokesman for Minister for the Environment John Gormley said he welcomed the clarification given by the court.
“It is a complex judgment that relates to agencies and bodies outside the Department of the Environment,” Mr Gormley said. “We will engage proactively with the Attorney General and other State agencies to see how best we can implement the judgment.”
The Government said the first part of the judgment, related to not conducting environmental impact assessments before work began on private road projects, had been addressed by the Government. It has also pledged to try to address a third complaint upheld by the European Court of Justice against a lack of public participation in the planning consent processes handled by agencies such as the Office of Public Works and the Department of Agriculture. The court found that there were not adequate opportunities for the public to appeal certain types of projects handled by these departments. It found this was contrary to EU law. However, the European Commission, which took the case against Ireland, was not successful in arguing several other points where it felt the Government had not properly transposed EU directives into national law. For this reason the court ruled that the commission and the Government should bear their own costs in the case.
Read judgment below
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04.11.09
Posted in Archaeology, Corruption Watch, Historical Importance of Tara, News, Spiritual Importance of Tara, Transport at 5:58 pm by Vincent
Wood you believe it? Stonehenge find at Tara
Irish Independent – Saturday April 11 2009
SCIENTISTS have unearthed what appears to be a mammoth wooden version of the famous Stonehenge monument at the Hill of Tara. In a revealing new RTE documentary, many theories and insights into the country’s prehistoric past and 150,000 ancient monuments are unveiled and explained. For the first time, people will be able to view a computer-generated recreation of what archaeologists believe was a major wooden structure — a version of Britain’s Stonehenge — at the ancient seat of the Irish high kings in the Hill of Tara in Co Meath. Archaeologist Joe Fenwick revealed a LiDAR (Light Detecting and Ranging) laser beam had been used to scan the ground surface to create a three-dimensional map, which revealed more than 30 monuments around Tara.
Using another technique — described as taking an X-ray through the hillside — archaeologists discovered the huge monument, a ditch stretching six metres wide and three metres deep in the bedrock. The ditch, circling the Mound of the Hostages passage tomb, separated the outside world from the ceremonial centre of Tara. It was believed the ancient architects had also surrounded the ditch with a massive wooden structure on each side — a version of Stonehenge — on a large scale. Its sheer size meant a whole forest would have had to be cleared to build it.
“In scale, it is comparable, for example, to Croke Park’s pitch. The Hill of Tara had enormous ritual significance over the course of 5,000-6,000 years, so it’s not surprising that you get monuments of the scale of the ditch pit circle,” said Mr Fenwick, from the Department of Archaeology, NUI Galway. Cutting-edge technology is helping to provide a new insight into the lives of our ancestors, according to the documentary makers behind ‘Secrets of the Stones’.
Civilisation
It shows Ireland’s first civilisation began 7,000 years ago, they withstood major climatic changes and voyaged throughout Europe, returning with new religions and mementos. An RTE spokesman said the broadcaster, along with the Department of Education, would be sending two free copies of the book accompanying the series to all second-level schools in the country. The first part of the ‘Secrets of the Stones’ will be shown on RTE One at 6.30pm on Easter Monday.
WRITE TO independent.letters@unison.independent.ie
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03.19.09
Posted in Archaeology, Climate Change, News, Tolls, Transport at 11:42 am by Vincent
The Dublin Transportation Office (DTO) has been holding a public consultation on developing a new Strategic Transport Plan for the greater Dublin area, which includes Meath and Tara. The ‘2030 Vision’ consultation closes at midnight on Sunday 22nd of March. Please take ten minutes and fill out the consultation form, and demand a solution to the Tara / M3 problem.
“2030 Vision is the name given to the Strategic Transport Plan being developed by the Dublin Transportation Office for the Greater Dublin Area. It will be at the heart of all transport planning in the region from 2010 until 2030. Everyone has an important role in helping to design it. We wish to consult you in the development of the new transport strategy.” – DTO
Please include the following points in your submission:
- Demand that the DTO turn the Hill of Tara / M3 motorway problem into an opportunity to improve both heritage and transport
- Note that many alternatives are avilaible, such as re-routing the M3 to serve the population of Trim, instead of wrecking the heritage at Tara, where there are no people.
- Point out that the consultation is fatally flawed, and doomed to failure due to Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey’s refusal to subject Transport 21 and the National Development Plan (NDP) to Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), as recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
- Note that options for Strategic Transport Plan have been straight-jacketed by the structures put in place under the NDP, and that a sustainable plan can only be properly achieved if Transport 21 is also reviewed, and put through a similar consultation process and full SEA .
- Note that Transport 21 and the NDP have never been environmentally proofed for climate change, and were drafted under much different economic assumptions, such as 6% growth and low fuel costs.
- Demand that all national spending on Transport 21 under the NDP is frozen, and SEA and cost-benefit analysis of the entire plan and every individual project is carried out to form a new national transport strategy, to fit with the Dublin strategy.
- Demand that the DTO participate in the public consultation currently being held by the Department of the Environment on the proposed UNESCO Hill of Tara World Heritage Site.
- Remind the DTO that UNESCO or the EU may still demand that the M3 is re-routed, after it is completed, and it is better to try and solve the problem now, rather than later, in order to save money.
- Note that the M3 route already goes 3.5 m off course to the east, between Navan and Dunshaughlin. It would serve Trim and save Tara if it went 3.5 km off course to the west. It would also save money because the M3 would not need to cross the N3 in two places, and there would be no need for interchanges.
- Note that Tara is on the World Monuments Fund List of 100 Most Endangered Sites, and that Smithsonian Magazine listed Tara as one of ten must-see sites before they disappear.
- Note that the tolling contract for the M3 is 45 years, which will determine transport policy until 2055 unless action is taken now.
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03.15.09
Posted in Archaeology, Events, Historical Importance of Tara, Internet Activism, News, Spiritual Importance of Tara, Transport at 9:46 pm by Vincent
The Hill of Tara – Round Table – Meeting One
Be a part of the solution, not the problem!
Lectures and panel discussion, hosted by
The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Trinity College Dublin and TaraWatch
Jonathan Swift Theatre – Trinity College Dublin
Tues, 24 March 2009 – 7.30 pm – 9.00 pm.
Admission free – All welcome
This will be Meeting One of the The Hill of Tara Round Table, a problem-solving initiative, aimed at finding a mutually beneficial solution to the Hill of Tara / M3 motorway problem.
There will be a focus on the UNESCO World Heritage Site nomination of the Hill of Tara, as well as the public consultation currently being conducted by the Department of the Environment, Heritage, and Local Government, on Ireland’s List of Tentative UNESCO Sites.
There will also be lectures on the law of the human right to culture and the protection of cultural heritage sites in Ireland, in order to stimulate debate on the value of Tara, and cultural sites.
All stakeholders, such a heritage and environmental groups, community groups, historians and archaeologists, political parties and others interested in the Hill of Tara / M3 issue, are encouraged to participate in what will be a very challenging process – to find a solution for the M3 problem at Tara.
Speakers
- Sean Goggins (NUI Galway, Irish Centre for Human Rights) on human right to culture;
- Meghan Abigail (NUI Galway/University of Texas Law School) on UNESCO and protecting cultural heritage;
- Sue Redican on the UNESCO nomination of the Great Blasket Islands;
- Vincent Salafia, TaraWatch – The UNESCO nomination of the Hill of Tara and other sites.
More information
Phone 3530871323365
Email: info@tarawatch.org
Register for this event on Facebook
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03.11.09
Posted in Transport at 10:10 pm by Vincent
The Financial Times published a story called Ferrovial faces revolt over Cintra move on 11 March 2009. It described how toll company Cintra shareholders are rebelling against plans by construction Ferrovial, its parent comppany, to fully subsume Cintra. One of the group of investors rebelling is the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which is the second largest pension fund for universities in the UK and Northern Ireland. Cintra is the tolling concessionaire for the M3 motorway, and Ferrovial is the construction company building it. Cintra shareholders, including USS, will profit from the M3, while pensions of public servants are being levied, in order to pay for the construction costs of the M3. Many academics in the UK and Northern Ireland, who protested against the M3, will be shocked to hear that it will be contributing to their pensions. Hundreds signed letters of protest to the M3, and they must now force USS to revolt and take an ethical stand on the M3. Such actions have occurred in the past, when People and Plant led a campaign for ethical investment in USS.
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