Maintaining idle motorway services costing €15,000 a month

The cost of maintaining security cover at three long-delayed motorway service stations is more than €12,000 a month, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has confirmed.

This includes the cost of a guard who is on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week at Gorey, where TII has a service station built but unopened since 2015. It was initially expected the Gorey station would be open by summer 2014.

Operation of the service stations has been held up since May 2015 due to a legal dispute between parties seeking the concession to manage the stations and shops involved.

About €200,000 of taxpayer money has been spent during the last 15 months on security and electricity charges, most of it on the M11 site outside Gorey. The other two sites are at Kilcullen, Co Kildare, on the M9 motorway, and west of Moate on the M6 in Co Westmeath.

TII spokesman Seán O’Neill said the authority had no option but to protect its assets and maintain health and safety standards while awaiting the court decision in the dispute.

Disputed tender

The disputed tender involved the design, build, operation and finance of the Moate and Kilcullen services, and the fit-out and operation of the M11 service station at Ballyellen, Gorey.

The Gorey building was developed by TII. The buildings at Kilcullen and Moate have not yet been developed; TII’s expense at these locations relates to the security of access roads and overhead bridges, connecting the sites to the motorway, which are not yet open.

The three stations were to be the second tranche of motorway services to be opened on the roads network.

The first tranche has been open for a number of years, comprising the stations and retail-food outlets at Enfield on the M4 as well as at Castlebellingham, Co Louth, and Lusk, Co Dublin, on the M1. A third tranche is under review.

TII said work finished on the Gorey station in May 2015 and Topaz was chosen as the successful bidder to operate it and the other two stations at Kilcullen and Moate.

The fit-out of the Gorey building was expected to take six months and to be the first of the three to be operational.

However, the award of the tender was contested in the Commercial Court by the SuperStop 2 consortium, involving Applegreen and Tedcastles Oil Products. The case has been heard and a decision is pending.

Security guard

TII confirmed the cost of providing security at the three sites is €12,394 a month. This includes the cost of a security guard around the clock at Gorey. The authority is also paying electricity charges for the building and car-parking at Gorey, amounting to another €3,400 a month.

While TII's plans for further service stations along the motorway are under review, the private sector has opened a number of service areas adjacent to motorways, notably the Barack Obama plaza at Moneygall, Co Offaly, and Supermac's Galway Plaza at Kiltullagh, just off junction 16 of the M6.

Figures for the cost of such service areas are not divulged by the roads authority for commercial reasons, but Applegreen said it spent €7 million on a service area off the M11 at Ashford, Co Wicklow.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland was established through a merger of the National Roads Authority and the Railway Procurement Agency in 2015. Its primary function is to provide an integrated approach to the future development and operation of the national roads network and light rail infrastructure throughout Ireland.