Madam, - Denis Fahey's appreciation of the Kildare Bypass (Dec 10th) is tempered by the ending of the motorway north of Monasterevin. The planning for the Kildare scheme was undertaken during the 1990s, at a time when available funding for the national roads programme was substantially less than the €1.2 - 1.3 billion annual provision from Government which is now the norm. As a consequence, the scheme was shorter (13 km.) than many of the more ambitious schemes (some up to 60 km.) the authority is now in a position to construct The opening of the Kildare Bypass - almost five months ahead of the scheduled contract completion date - has consigned one of our worst traffic congestion black spots to history. A case of "good goods in small parcels" that will bring much relief to users of the N7 Dublin-Limerick route.
Work on the Monasterevin scheme commenced earlier this year. Again, there is the realistic prospect that the scheduled completion in late 2005 will be substantially improved upon. Under favourable conditions, users of the N7 may be travelling on continuous motorway/dual carriageway from Dublin to south of Portlaoise by Christmas 2004.
The possibility of tolling the Monasterevin Bypass is being examined by the NRA as part of the ongoing review of options to generate additional funds for the national roads programme. These would be reinvested in the programme, allowing further schemes to go to construction and bringing forward the anticipated completion date for the upgrading of entire routes. Any proposal for tolling that may emerge will be published and there will be opportunities to comment or object, as part of the legal decision-making process.
Recent and all future toll roads will be subject to onerous service performance requirements to avoid unacceptable delays to those opting to avail of these roads. The M50 West-Link facility was provided under an agreement concluded in the mid-1980s which was silent on service obligations.
A dramatically different regulatory environment is being imposed by the NRA in the case of new toll roads through a combination of maximum queue lengths and time limits to pass through toll booths. The authority's Drogheda Bypass has 10 toll booths and is typically catering for in excess of 20,000 vehicles daily, while the NTR operation at West-Link has 14 booths dealing with up to 80,000 vehicles daily. The authority is in discussion with NTR with the aim of securing service performance standards more in keeping with current-day expectations and capabilities, including the application of electronic toll collection in a barrier-free environment. - Yours etc.,
MICHAEL EGAN, Head of Corporate Affairs, National Roads Authority, Waterloo Road, Dublin 4.
