MotorsInterview:Fred Barry, chief executive of the NRA, outlines why planning for roads can often demand a careful balancing act. David Labanyireports.
Fred Barry pauses before choosing a word to describe the ongoing protests at the Lismullen archaeological site in the middle of the new M3 route, beside the Hill of Tara.
The chief executive of the National Roads Authority (NRA) is conscious an ill-chosen phrase could inflame already heated feelings. In the end, the term he settles on is "undemocratic".
"Virtually everybody who has looked at this site says the same thing: document what is there, excavate it and move on."
Lismullen has been designated a national monument, and Barry says part of the problem is that people misunderstand the term. "When people hear national monument I suspect they think there is a structure. There are thousands of national monuments. In this case there is no structure. There are fence post holes. There is nothing physical that you can preserve, or even put into a museum.
"When we go through the planning and judicial review process and Bord Pleanála gives their adjudication, it is unfortunate that those who are opposed go beyond simply expressing their unhappiness to the point of physically interfering with the work. That is as undemocratic behaviour as you can think of."
He also notes that the majority of people who support the project are not out protesting.
All alternative routes were exhaustively explored before the current route was agreed, he says. "Opponents are saying we should go to the west side of the Hill of Tara. But that route was excluded on archaeological grounds, rather ironically. "One of the main reasons for not going out into the valley to the east was because then you are into demolishing people's houses," he says.
While changing the route of the €750 million project is still possible, to do so now could expose the taxpayer to a potentially massive bill. A briefing note prepared for the new Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, and released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act, reveals the extent of the potential costs: "Any changes to the route now could have serious consequences for the State. Over €200 million of Exchequer money could be lost." Tarawatch, a group fighting for the rerouting of the road, disputes this claim.
Barry believes once the M3 is complete "people will view this in the same way as they now view the Glen o' the Downs, and say; 'what was the fuss all about?'"
Hardly less contentious is upgrading the M50, a project described by the NRA as "performing open-heart surgery on a man as he walks to work".
Widening the route from two to three lanes while it carries over 85,000 vehicles a day is tricky, Barry admits, and "occasionally, we have had particularly bad traffic problems."
Part of the reason traffic problems are so acute is that almost all construction is taking place during the day. Noise restrictions in the planning permission from Bord Pleanála effectively mean almost no work is possible at night. As a result, the upgrade is going to take one year longer than would have been the case had 24-hour, seven-days-a-week working been permitted.
"If we had been able to do everything through the night from the beginning, we would have been able to shave a year off the completion time," he says. The first phase of the M50 improvements is due to be completed in the third quarter of 2008.
THE BALANCE BETWEEN minimising the impact of major projects or proceeding as fast as possible is an issue Barry expects to feature strongly during the planning and consultation on Dublin's Metro lines. Over the next year, one of the technically most challenging projects on his desk is the long-awaited conversion of the M50 to free-flow tolling. Passing the Roads Act 2007 before the summer recess, which provides for strict penalties for those who do not pay tolls, means the project is on target to see the toll barriers bulldozed off the M50 in 12 months.
They will be replaced by a number plate reading system on gantries over the M50. With tens of thousands of vehicles passing this point each day, theoretically the information could also be of use to gardaí.
British authorities are considering using the information from speed and congestion charging cameras for policing, according to a leaked Home Office memo.
While the Irish system is not being designed with that capacity, Barry says it's "a physical possibility". However, such a move would prompt data protection questions and is a "decision for Government", he says.
The new Roads Act extends the same restrictions in terms of access and development near dual carriageways as currently apply to motorways. The NRA believes most of the modern dual carriageways can handle a top speed limit of 120km/h, and will issue a recommendation to the Minister for Transport in September on which dual carriageway routes should be redesignated motorways. Links to national routes is an issue over which the NRA and local authorities often disagree. Barry says it is "natural that councils seek to use these routes to solve local traffic issues, and equally natural for the NRA to try and protect national routes for long-distance traffic".
To reduce the number of "cases hitting the front of the newspapers", Barry says the NRA is increasingly working with local authorities on their development plans.
He says the NRA's role is to act as planning watchdog, but says "we step in where we see something we think is inappropriate". One recent instance where the NRA objected, but lost, concerned the development of an Ikea off the M50. Barry says he is not disappointed with the decision, and adds that Bord Pleanála has to consider many more factors than just protecting infrastructure.
Looking forward, despite the problems of severe cost inflation in the past, Barry says the NRA is "very happy with the competitiveness of bids of major road projects". In fact, he is confident that if the Government decided to increase the amount of funding available by an additional €500 million per annum, it would not spark construction inflation.
"The capacity of the industry has increased. If the Government was to add an extra few hundred million each year, I have no doubt we could take that on effectively over a period of time."