NRA asked to bring 'value for money' to road repairs

RESPONSIBILITY for the administration of maintenance and repair works on regional and local roads has been transferred from the Department of Transport to the National Roads Authority (NRA) because of “huge discrepancies” in the cost of such works in different councils, according to the Minister for Transport.

"The reason was to check mainly if we are getting value for money. This arose from the fact that there was a huge discrepancy in the unit costs of repairs, road maintenance and so on from local authority to local authority, and there are different standards," Noel Dempsey told The Irish Timesrecently.

The NRA, with its background in large-scale procurement and implementation of national standards, has the experience and expertise for the role, he said. “I am hoping it will bring more of a strategic focus.”

While the NRA has responsibility for national routes, local authorities are responsible for maintenance and development of local and regional roads in their jurisdictions, for which they are allocated a budget.

Local authorities have been allocated €411 million for the upkeep and maintenance of local and regional roads this year.

Last week the Minister said no extra funding would be made available to local authorities to repair roads damaged by floods or the extreme cold. Mr Dempsey also confirmed that local authorities will retain the power to set speed limits on local and regional roads, saying the function was “too big a job for any one agency”.

He conceded that two tasks on speeding, required of his Department as part of the Government’s Road Safety Strategy, are almost a year overdue. It was to audit the appropriateness of speed limits and draw up guidelines on the setting of speed limits by the end of 2008, in a bid to improve consistency between different council areas.

“I am not happy that either of those two haven’t been done, and I have made that known in the Department. They have been given priority.”

Mr Dempsey said he was told the reason this work had not been done was due to “pressure of work and resources”.

Neither project is likely to be complete in time for the introduction of privatised speed cameras in the middle of this year, although he denied that this could lead to resistance from motorists caught speeding on roads where they think the limit is inappropriate.