Material in M3 also used in houses with subsidence

MATERIAL USED in the construction of the M3 motorway in Co Meath was sourced from two quarries which also supplied material to houses later discovered to have problems with subsidence, an Oireachtas committee was told yesterday.

However, the National Roads Authority insisted there were no implications regarding the motorway.

More than 400 homes in north Co Dublin suffered from movement of foundations and up to 20,000 homes across the country have allegedly been damaged by pyrite, an infill material allegedly used in their construction.

While chief executive of the National Roads Authority (NRA) Fred Barry acknowledged infill material for the M3 had been sourced from two quarries from which alleged pyrite had also been obtained, he dismissed any suggestion of serious damage to the motorway. Mr Barry told Meath TD Shane McEntee (FG) there was no need for an independent audit of the M3 or the section of N3 from the West-Link toll to Clonee.

Speaking at the Oireachtas Committee on Transport yesterday, Mr Barry said infill material for support structures such as cement pillars and steel bars was rigorously monitored and could be traced. The NRA was happy no material from the two quarries identified had been used in connection with either steel or cement.

He said the material from the quarries could have been used on embankments. In this case, pyrite – if it had been present at all – was not boxed in by foundations as it would be in a house. There would be minimal impact if the material “shifted, heaved, or expanded” as it might in foundations.

Mr Barry said there was no recorded incidence of pyrite ever having definitively affected one of the national routes, although he did accept there was one recorded incidence of a motorway “heaving” by a few millimetres. It was not a serious problem he said, and had never been unquestionably attributed to pyrite.

But Mr McEntee said he did not accept there was no need for an independent audit of the presence of pyrite in the motorway and he questioned whether the contractor would be willing or able to rectify the matter if major issues developed in a number of years, as had happened with the houses.

Tommy Broughan TD (Lab) also questioned the NRA on the presence of pyrite saying he had been first to estimate that there may be up to 20,000 affected homes which were not covered by their insurance policies. The cost of remedial action for the houses could be as much as €60 billion, he said.

Mr Barry responded that as the M3 was a public private partnership the matter would be an issue for the contractor who would be operating the motorway and collecting tolls for the next 45 years.

However he undertook to respond to the transport committee with the insurance provided by the contractor.

On motorway service areas, Fine Gael spokesman on transport Fergus O’Dowd asked Mr Barry to confirm he had been told by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey not to spend money on the service area programme.Mr Barry acknowledged the NRA had received a letter from the Minister containing an instruction not to spend money on the programme.