Work on road not to start for three weeks

Construction work on the South Eastern Motorway at Carrickmines in south Co Dublin is not scheduled to get under way for at least another three weeks, by which time a Supreme Court appeal is likely to have been lodged, and may even have been heard.

While work on the removal of part of the Carrickmines Castle's fosse resumed yesterday morning following the dismissal of a conservationist's action in the High Court, work on the building of the road and intersection cannot begin until the fosse had been removed by archaeologists.

Speaking yesterday, the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council director of transportation, Mr Eamon O'Hare, said "work has resumed, but it is archaeological work, it is not building work".

Mr O'Hare described the removal of a section of the fosse as "very delicate work", adding that "the bulldozers won't be in there for a few weeks".

A spokesman for the "Carrickminders" said they were studying the declaration from the High Court that the recent national monument legislation, which gives the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, increased powers, was not unconstitutional.

Spokesman Mr Ruadhan MacEoin said he could not predict the outcome of legal discussions, but he felt a visit to the courts to lodge an appeal was imminent.

Meanwhile, Mr Michael Egan, spokesman for the National Roads Authority, said the authority was still aiming to open the M50 to Leopardstown by November.

The NRA is anxious to ease what is often severe congestion in the Sandyford Industrial estate, which is caused in part by the opening of the Drummartin link road this year.

The Drummartin link road, a single-carriageway road alongside the M50, takes traffic from the current end of the M50 at Ballinteer directly into the industrial estate.

Opening the route to Leopardstown in November would bring M50 traffic within about one mile of White's Cross on the N11.

This would allow traffic from the M50 to access the N11, effectively by-passing the Carrickmines junction.

In the High Court on Tuesday, the court also refused a request by counsel for the conservationist, Mr Dominic Dunne, to delay the resumption of work pending a decision on whether to make a Supreme Court appeal.

The council had claimed that the latest three-week delay was costing € 357,000 a week in additional road-construction costs.

However, conservationists aligned with Mr Dunne insisted that estimates of costs had been shown by the Comptroller and Auditor General's report to be "totally unreliable".

Following the judgement, Mr Dunne said this case, and other legal challenges over Carrickmines, "were never taken" to stop the M50 motorway.

Conservationists were merely seeking changes to the road design to avoid damaging the castle remains.