Inquiry opens into £130m motorway plan for Dublin

Representatives of more than 70 public and private bodies - including the Oireachtas, semi-state companies and local residents' associations - were represented at the opening of the public inquiry into Dublin's proposed South Eastern Motorway yesterday.

The inquiry, part of the statutory planning procedure, will present a report on the £130 million, 12 km motorway to the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey. The proposed road is the final leg in Dublin's C-ring motorway, covering a 12 km stretch from Shankill to Rathfarnham, in south Dublin.

Many of the bodies at yesterday's hearing, in the assembly rooms of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, were represented by legal and planning professionals in a session that took almost one hour to record the names of the interested parties.

Those named included TDs Eamon Gilmore (DL) and Olivia Mitchell (FG) representing constituents; Mr Frank Moylan of consultants Brian Meehan and Associates, representing the ESB; Mr Kevin Smith of the Racing Club of Ireland; Mr Ciaran O'Malley representing Esso Ireland and Mr Louis Healy of solicitors Gore and Grimes representing a number of parties, including Dublin businessman Dr Austin Darragh.

Property development companies represented included Jackson Wyse Properties, Dwyer Nolan Developments, Dunloe Properties (sic), and William Neville and Sons. The Roads Action Group was represented by Mr Peter Sweetman and Mr David Healy, while Mr Alan O'Baille said he would contribute on the ecologically sensitive nature of the Bride's Glen, near Loughlinstown. The Irish Horse Authority and Leopardstown Club were also represented. Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was represented by Mr John Gallagher SC, and consultant engineers M.C. O'Sullivan. More than 30 local residents' associations also sent representatives.

Outlining the developers' evidence, Mr John McDaid, senior roads engineer with Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, said the motorway should be seen in the context of Dublin's transportation needs. Plans for a bypass for Dublin city were first formulated in the 1970s and this proposal is part of an EU-funded effort to standardise the infrastructure of all member-states.

Mr McDaid said the National Roads Authority had identified the road as part of the Operational Programme for Transport (199499). He added that the NRA saw "this current programme as the only way to sustain the economic and social development, not only of Dublin, but of the whole country".

At a county level the provision of a motorway to cater for high volumes of traffic using old county roads "in addition to housing estate roads" was a high priority, he said.

According to Mr McDaid, the biggest challenges "are to integrate the motorway into the existing road network and to minimise the disruption of cutting a 50 metre wide swathe across the undulating foothills of the Dublin mountains".

To achieve this, the county council plans a number of schemes to integrate the motorway into its road network. These include the creation of the "green route" between the motorway and Ballinteer, the realignment of Ballinteer Road, the provision of Wyckham and Dundrum bypasses, and new link roads at Drummartin, near Goatstown, and Wyattville in Loughlinstown. Major work on Leopardstown Road, Brewery Road in Stillorgan and Church Road in Killiney, is already taking place.

The timescale for the roads, according to a bar chart submitted to the inquiry, is for the Balrothery interchange on the Southern Cross Road to be opened by March of the year 2000, with the M50 open to Scholarstown by September of that year. The M50 should be open to Ballinteer by March 2001, to Leopardstown by March 2002, and it should be completed to the Shankill bypass by June of 2003.