NRA buys up land to force new Government into building Ghost Roads

U-turn in spending priority apparently secured by NRA

The NRA is trying to force future governments into building motorways by buying up land – even though it knows there’s no money to build these roads, environmental organisations have revealed.

Planbetter, a joint initiative on behalf of An Taisce, Friends of the Earth, Friends of the Irish Environment and FEASTA, estimate that some 22,000 acres will be bought over the next four years for roads there is no money to build.

The outgoing government agreed with the EU and IMF that no major road scheme will start in 2012 or 2013, a commitment contained in the Four Year Plan issued in late November.

However, while no new schemes will start in 2012 or 2013, the NRA has been allocated plenty of money to fund a land-buying spree, with some €600m allocated for new roads in 2012, and another €260m allocated for new roads in the following year. (See: http://www.transport.ie/pressRelease.aspx?Id=258)

The NRA seems to think it can embarrass future governments into motorway projects by pumping as much money into land purchase as soon as possible.

With every kilometre of motorway removing 25 to 30 acres of land from agriculture, the road building authority gambles that a future government can be browbeaten into building around 800km of motorway after it has bought some 22,000 acres of land.

Not alone has the NRA become so powerful it is now effectively unregulated, it seems that the NRA has just secured a complete reversal of Government policy.

With oil getting dearer, and set to become unaffordable for many, Government decided in late 2009 to invest twice as much in public transport than roads, and announced this 2 to 1 ratio in its Renewed Programme for Government.

Since then, the NRA has secured a complete U-turn. In 2011 two-and-half times more will go roads than on public transport, with approx €1bn to be spent on roads and just €400m in public transport next year.

The latest move in the NRA’s land grab is evident in Wexford where steps to purchase land have just been taken in the case of the New Ross – Enniscorthy motorway/dual carriageway project.

And more than half a dozen other schemes are also being moved towards land purchase – even though on all of these scheme the Government has confirmed there will be no money for construction. These schemes include:

Rosslare – Oilgate,

Blarney – Patrickswell,

Adare – Abbeyfeale

Monaghan – Aughnacloy

Castlebar – Westport

Galway – Rossaveal

Ballina – Bohola

ENDS

Attribution: Spokesperson for PlanBetter. Contact: James Nix 086 8394129

Note: A grab land for ghost motorways is a misuse of taxpayer funds

Traffic has fallen by 7 per cent over the two years to July 2010, something which makes redundant a great many of the NRA’s plans for new motorway.

Already, taxpayers’ are on the hook for €100m after the NRA got its traffic growth projections badly wrong on two toll road projects, the M3 through Tara and the Limerick tunnel.

The NRA proposes motorways even where traffic is less than one-third of the internationally accepted threshold level for motorway of 20,000 to 25,000 vehicles a day. From Rosslare to Oilgate, for example, daily traffic flow is around 6,000 vehicles a day; yet the NRA envisage a greenfield motorway supplementing an existing two-lane road.

Even if larger roads were someday needed – something which is highly unlikely given the growing scarcity of oil – all that’s needed is a ban on development that might interfere. It’s an appalling misuse of taxpayers’ resources to grab land for ghost motorways.

In terms of road safety, the removal of accident blackspots saves far more lives than building new motorways: the research here is clear, and the NRA is well aware of it.

Public transport

The simplest public transport measures are information screens showing customers the time of the next service, proper shelters for passengers and integrated ticketing. But there is no information over how much will be invested in these basic measures in either the Four Year Plan or the most recent budget.

People have flocked to public transport over the last month, and many will want to continue using it. But with policy now seemingly dictated by a road-building authority, we’ve seen a U-turn on public transport investment in favour of buying up land for ghost motorways.

See: www.planbetter.ie