The Save Tara campaign is planning to protest against preparatory tree-felling along the route of the M3 motorway in Co Meath.
It said yesterday work is taking place at several sites on the route, including Rath Lugh, the site of a promontory fort in the Tara-Skryne valley, which is a national monument. Mature trees have been cleared from the bottom of Rath Lugh on the northern slope of the Hill of Skryne, opposite the Hill of Tara.
The Save Tara campaign said it feared that tree-felling work would resume today after the holidays.
A construction machinery depot has been set up south of Dunshaughlin, although a public-private partnership (PPP) contract for the motorway has not yet been signed. The site at Race Track Road is licensed to Siac-Ferrovial Agroman, which trades as the Eurolink consortium. It includes diggers, lorries and earth-moving equipment.
A site safety notice identifies the purpose of the depot as: "Construction work associated with the transfer of material from the M50 project Contract 1 to the M3 Area 10."
A spokesman for the National Roads Authority (NRA) confirmed the Dunshaughlin site had been set up on foot of a transfer agreement for materials from work on the M50.
He said these materials were being stockpiled on the site and would eventually be used for construction of the M3, for which the Eurolink consortium is the "preferred tenderer".
The NRA spokesman said the agency was aware "staging areas are being prepared" along the route of the M3, but this was preparatory work and did not form part of the main contract which was in the process of being finalised with Eurolink. The NRA expects construction will begin in April or May.
