Roads to nowhere?

REARVIEW: Recent history shows the Government, perhaps in thrall to its builder chums, has displayed a voracious appetite for construction. This green and pleasant land is now criss-crossed with new motorways and dual carriageways.

In the last year alone, the M3, the M9 and the remedial works on the M50 have been completed. Our state-of-the-art road network is now the envy of many a country and with some justification, many argue that it is among the few legacies of the boom years that we can be proud of. The statistics also show that such roads are the safest routes on which to drive.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Government is planning to build even more. A brief perusal of the National Roads Authority (NRA) website shows a huge number of projects are in the preliminary stages of development, including the M11 in Wexford as well as routes from Cork to Limerick; Monaghan to Tyrone; and Meath to Louth.

But in these penurious times, with our record unemployment, burgeoning emigration and crumbling health service, is it time to call a halt to embarking on fresh building projects that we can ill-afford?

The NRA is keen to stress that it is planning for the future. But their own statistics show that traffic has fallen 7 per cent over the last two years and there is little evidence to suggest that this trend will be reversed any time soon.

What’s the point in having gold-plated ghost roads in 30 years time when there’s nobody left to drive on them?

Surely it would be more sensible to concentrate on upgrading the hundreds of dangerous, unkempt existing secondary roads where the vast majority of fatalities occur rather than building more and more highways that run the real risk of becoming white elephants reminding us for generations to come of our profligacy.