Total cost of motorway links to Dublin €8bn - NRA

THE CONSTRUCTION of motorways linking Dublin with other cities has cost €8 billion, with €5.3 billion coming from the exchequer, according to research by the National Roads Authority.

With routes linking the capital with Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford due for completion by the end of the year, NRA chief executive Fred Barry called for a multi-year plan to upgrade the remaining two-thirds of the national road network, mostly single carriageway routes.

“An awful lot of the remaining roads are in very poor shape” and local communities are calling for resolutions to local traffic and road safety problems.

“Without a plan we will have a continuing free-for-all where everyone insists their problem is the worst in the country and should have priority and a section here or there gets approval.”

With uncertainty over the level of State funding available in the short term, Mr Barry said adding tolls to existing roads to raise money for route upgrades was a possibility, but stressed this was a decision for government.

There are currently six tolls on the five interurban motorways.

“Whether the Government prefers to raise the money through tolls or taxes – even money from Europe started as taxes – is up to them. But ultimately the user ends up paying.”

With the motorways almost complete the NRA has details on the final cost of the projects and has produced estimates of expected benefits.

Of the €8 billion overall cost, €1.46 billion , or 18.5 per cent of the total, was spent acquiring more than 7,800 hectares required for the 1,000km of motorway.

EU structural and cohesion funding provided €800 million while private sector investment, through tolls or public private partnerships, contributed €1.3 billion.

A further €120 million was spent on archaeological work, accounting for 1.5 per cent of the total.

Construction costs totalled €5.4 billion, or 69 per cent. Planning and design fees came to €240 million while VAT payments accounted for €620 million.

Mr Barry said between 2005 and 2007 land prices “got completely out of kilter” but despite this the average cost per kilometre for the motorways was €8 million, which he said was “at the low end” of road-building costs in western Europe.

The NRA estimates the direct economic benefits of the motorway network at €24 billion, based on net present value, which is an estimate of all benefits now and into the future minus the cost.

In this calculation the biggest impact was in time savings coupled with fewer fatal and serious injury collisions.

This year the NRA was allocated €44 million to maintain national routes, a figure Mr Barry believes is less than half that required.