One-fifth of M3 land cases still not closed

Some 20 per cent of land acquisition cases connected with the construction of the M3 motorway have still to be finalised, Meath County Councillors were told during a briefing on the role of the council's National Roads Design Office (NRDO). The NRDO said it had dealt with land acquisition issues in connection with the M3. There were 544 acquisition cases, of which 183 were road bed cases. A total of 80 per cent of cases were closed and 20 per cent of cases remained. Dealing with the status of the remaining 20 per cent, the NRDO's Nicholas Whyatt said that 27 per cent had been agreed but were not signed, 46 per cent were in negotiation, 15 per cent had no claim submitted to date and 12 per cent had been signed and were awaiting title. The National Roads Design Office of Meath County Council has managed road schemes worth €410 million since 1999, councillors were told. The majority of the expenditure has been on the N2 and M3, with the latter motorway project taking up €246 million, and the N2 Finglas-Ashbourne €167 million. The current schemes under the control of the Meath County Council National Roads Design Office are M3, N2 Slane Bypass, N2 Ashbourne-Ardee Road Scheme, N3 Edenburt-Cavan Bypass Scheme, motorway service stations, N2 Finglas-Ashbourne Road Scheme, N52 at Fringestown and N87 Belturbet-Ballyconnell. In a briefing given to the council in the run-up to the fixing of a budget for the council for 2010, councillors heard that the purpose of the NRDO within the council is to support the National Roads Authority (NRA) and participating local authorities to deliver the national roads programme determined by government policy and as reflected in the NRA's programme for construction. The NRDO's main task is to manage all aspects of project planning and design for major national road projects whether undertaken by consultants or designed in-house. The Meath office has 11 technical staff (nine permanent) and four administrative posts (all permanent). In terms of staff turnover, four people in total have worked in the NRDO over the last 10 years. The office provides a mainly part-time base for seven staff in the NRA, including three NRA archaeologists, two network operation inspectors, one senior bridge inspector and one technician. The NRA finances the office accommodation, overheads and staff costs of the Meath office relating to project planning and design of the agreed national roads programme at a cost of €1.1 million. Nicholas Whyatt said that it managed the M3 project from its inception through constraints study, route selection, preliminary design and statutory process. When the scheme had been apoproved by Bord Pleanala, the NRDO role changed and focused on land acquisition, accommodation works, archaeology and the NRA managed the public private partnership tender and award of contract. Mr Whyatt said that the M3 was the largest road scheme in the State and included 49km of motorway, 10km of dual carriageway, a 3.8km N52 bypass of Kells, 15km of single and dual carriageway link roads, 48km of other roads including local roads, two toll plazas, six grade separated junctions, 63 road overbridges and underbridges, two river bridges, one footbridge, 12 retaining walls and 28 major culverts. He said that construction difficulties and challenges included the scale of the project, the sensitivity of archaeological activities, protestors, traffic management, ecology, 500,000 loads of soil, boundary treatment and an interface with the first phase of the Navan-Dublin railway scheme.